We Can Do Hard: Part 2

I was thinking about the "We Can Do Hard" blog post yesterday when I went to the gym. (Yes. Me--at the gym. I'm on Day 30 or something. Crazy. I know. But that's another post.)


Truth be told, I was feeling kind of motivated by the whole "We Can Do Hard" statement. I was thinking how the statement applies in life--generally--but that it also applied to my lifting weights and facing real-life physical obstacles.


I was ready to push the limit and just take on the world! Bring on the 45 lb. dumbells!


And then I sat down to do my first exercise . . .


and I felt SO WEAK!


My body was so dang sore (from the previous 30 days of working out). And I don't mean achey--I mean sore.


(Like, I think the last time I was this sore, I had run a 5K with Dave, Jeff and Jody--without any prep. I just woke up and ran that race. Forty pounds heavier than I am now. Oh, and in KEDS. Anyone remember those shoes? They are white like Chicklets gum? They have zero arch support. Well, I think it took me something like 7 days to walk "normal" after that race. Every. Muscle. Hurt. Note to Younger Self: I should have dropped out of the race . . . but Dave and I were dating and I wanted him to think he was dating an athelete. OMGoodness that's funny now.)


Anyway, my point!


I was so sore yesterday. Just plain weak. And as a result, "Doing Hard," seemed nearly impossible.


I wanted to "Do Easy." (And I made a mental note to write a blog post one day entitled, "We Can Do Easy." LOL!)


You see, sometimes thinking about "doing hard" and actually "doing hard" are two different things.


Because I'm telling you, yesterday as I sat at that benchpress my brain was saying, "Go! Go! Go!"


. . . but my body was saying, "Go home! Go home! Go home!"


And yet, I didn't go home.


Nope. I just repeated Mary Beth Chapman's statement to myself over and over and over--"We can do hard"--everytime I lifted a weight.


And when I wanted to quit, I said it again and again and again. (I really did. I may have even said it out loud. Poor gym folks think I'm loopy. I'm my own Anthony Robbins.)


And you know what?


I got through it.


I did hard!


Well, at least the hard that was before me yesterday.


While I know my Tuesday "hard" was nothing like Mary Beth Chapman's "hard, " hopefully these small examples prepare me for the bigger examples that come my way.


And I definitely learned something about myself yesterday: even when I'm hurting/weak/sore, I can do hard.