This particular 21-day meditation challenge seems to speak to me, personally. Each day, the centering thought, is one that I find myself reflecting on many times, as the day goes on.
Several days ago, the centering thought was about how we achieve success. About how it is NOT measured by how much money we have, what kind of car we drive or how many toys we have accumulated in our collections. Those things are all wonderful and there is no reason to deny ourselves of the material objects which we can afford and which make us feel happy. Though clearly there is often a major correlation between how financially successful we are and those things, those things aren’t really what make us FEEL successful in our souls (though clearly they make make us LOOK successful to others (especially on Facebook!).
Deepak Chopra believes that success is a result of feeling accomplished. In terms of fitness, this makes PERFECT sense. It is why it feels so amazing to finish a race, to complete a workout, to finally do a pull-up, or a headstand or lift a heavier weight than ever before. (This list could go on forever) My own personal experiences are exactly that. Setting out on a run, or to swim a certain amount of laps and then accomplishing those things makes me feel way more successful than ANYTHING I own!
The gym is just a metaphor for all things in life. When we set a goal and we achieve it, we feel accomplished and successful. If we never set goals, if we don’t step out of our comfort zone, if we don’t fail sometimes, how will we ever feel successful? It is believed, instead, we will try filling that void with material things which may make us happy for a while, but never will make us TRULY feel that feeling of accomplishment that is so important. These material things include all the obvious but also food, drink, drugs, etc, which all provide only fleeting happiness.
Bringing this back to fitness, it is easy for any of us to feel truly successful today. Make a goal and see it through. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and make it happen. The feeling you will get from that accomplishment will far surpass any feeling you can get from anything you can eat or drink or buying a new…( fill in the blank) .
Wishing you many successes, today and every day.