Perfectly Flawed

As women, we struggle with our body image. It is constantly changing as we eat, don’t eat, drink, don’t drink, work out, sit on the couch, stress, live, have children, etc... It bloats, contracts, builds muscle, breaks it down, reproportions, settles, shrinks, expands, sags, rebuilds. The media inundates us with images of what we should look like – what the beautiful people look like. What clothes we should wear, how we should style our hair, what is acceptable, what is not, and what it perfect.

But seriously, what is perfect???

What is perfect? Is it a look? Is it a style? Is it a person? Is it a thought? If something is perfect, how can it be perfect one day and not perfect another day? Or hour? Or month? Or year? Why does it change, if it is “perfect”?

As women, we constantly struggle with our body image -- we are bombarded by the media's opinion of what we should look like. What "beautiful" is. What “perfect” is. We are emotional – this media bombardment affects us. It makes us think about things that are not true, that are not real, and that are not perfect. Perfection is flawed, and the media paints a happy, unflawed, non-perfect picture of beauty and perfection. It is up to us to recognize it for what it is – untrue.

I challenge you to find one person, in the entire world, living or dead, who is perfect. No one is perfect. Everyone has flaws. Whether physical, mental, emotional or other... Every single person is flawed. We have been designed that way. And because we are designed that way, each of us is truly perfect, in our own, individually flawed ways. It is our flaws that make us perfect. Our flaws make us unlike any other person, our flaws which make us perfect and beautiful.

Because we are flawed, we are perfect and beautiful.

This has always been one of my favorite articles from Again Faster.

You Are Beautiful

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Going After the Big Dog

I enter each workout with a certain expectation. The expectation that I should be able to do as much, or a little more, than I previously did. A little more weight, a slightly faster time, better form, etc. I compete with myself, trying to outdo myself.

I have never thought of tying to do better than those I workout with. I’ve never thought of my workout as a competition between me and those I workout with. I have always competed against myself. And because I am highly motivated, I have been a good competitor for myself. But could I have been a better competitor?

What if, instead of competing against myself, I competed against the big dog during the workout. The one person who is pushing max reps, or big weight, or has spectacular form. What if that big dog was right next to me, and instead of thinking that I could never do what they are doing -- that all I need to do is better than I did previously… What if I thought that I needed to do better than the big dog? That I needed to do more weight, I needed a faster time, I needed better form, because the big dog next to me was going to kick some CrossFit ass, and I needed to beat them to it. Would that light my competitive fire and push my abilities through the “better-than-my-previous-time” ceiling? My guess is that my competitive fire would become a firestorm, and I could do more than I ever would have expected, and blow my PRs out of the water.

So the big dogs better watch out. Because I am not going after my previous weights or times – I’m going after them. And I am going to fight for every pound, every rep and every second.

Patrick Cummings talks about this in After the Gun, a post on Again Faster. Read it and get some fire.

Motivation

There are many things that motivate me. My desire to constantly do better, be better -- in many ways (performance, with my family, my job, etc.) -- to develop that mental toughness that surmounts obstacles, achieves results and succeeds in the given situation.

This, along with an understanding of no matter how horrible, difficult, miserable (pick your negative adjective) things can be, they can always be worse, and they are worse for many people.

And as horrible as things can sometimes be for me, there is almost always a silver lining, or an end in sight. One more minute, one more round, one more rep... TIME!

There is also nothing like a good, inspirational article from AgainFaster:

http://www.againfaster.com/articles/from-the-archives-dedication.html
http://www.againfaster.com/articles/you-are-beautiful.html
http://www.againfaster.com/articles/youll-be-fine.html
http://www.againfaster.com/articles/fortitude.html

The list could go on, but I think you get it...