When I was in seventh grade, we had a grade-wide fitness competition. We jumped rope, did some ridiculous number of situps, and ran various relay and distance races. When we got to the hurdles, I started out and managed to stumble into one instead of over it. I got a face full of dirt, a cut knee, and the laughter of my classmates for my effort.<\/p>\n
But I was stubborn. And I got back up and, in the second round, I came up with the best hurdling time of everyone.<\/p>\n
These days when I run into hurdles, I tend to get down on myself and psyche myself out of getting back up for a second try. There are easier things I can do instead, I tell myself, so I avoid stretching to reach a goal that could be beyond my reach.<\/p>\n
So today, I will remind myself back to think back to seventh grade, stick a bandaid on the cut knee and sore pride after my public faceplant, and take another shot at getting over the impasse.<\/p>\n
I may not win a prize or have my name highlighted for all to see when I do eventually make it through the course, but I will know that I didn’t roll over and give up. Which should be enough for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was in seventh grade, we had a grade-wide fitness competition. We jumped rope, did some ridiculous number of situps, and ran various relay and distance races. When we got to the hurdles, I started out and managed to stumble into one instead of over it. I got a face full of dirt, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n