Falling off the horse
Back in June I took a trip up to the mountains to go fishing and horseback riding. There was an incident and I fell off my horse and ended up underneath this massive animal. I wrote an article about it back on June 28, 2020 and you can read the details here before reading on if you don't remember reading about it.
Getting back on the horse
There is a saying of ‘fall seven times, get up eight’, which is to say, learn from experience and get back on the horse. Often you're told to get right back on the horse after you fall, which is a good idea (after you've checked yourself over for damage), so you don't have time to think about the fall. This is so important. The longer we wait to get back on the horse the harder it becomes to get back on. You begin to go over and over again what went wrong and then you begin to doubt your ability to ever ride again.
I'm going to jump right into the comparison with our health and getting into the gym. Every single one of us is going to have a period of absence from the gym in one way or another. Whether our absence is due to illness. i.e Covid-19, due to hurt feelings with a fellow gym mate, due to injury, due to travel or any other reason that keeps us from the gym for an extended period of time. The longer we are away from the gym, the harder it is to make a comeback. Sometimes it's our pride that keeps us from returning... Sometimes it's fear of starting over and failing again... It can be any number of reasons but the longer we are away the harder it is to return. The longer we stay away the worse our health gets and therefore compounds the issue of returning because of how far we have fallen.
I totally understand this. I am not immune to this either. My fall off the horse happened back in June... Guess what? I didn't get back on a horse until this last week! That's 7 months! I had plenty of excuses to why I couldn't ride. "I'm too busy." "I'll watch the kids while you ride." But I didn't realize the true reason until I got back on the horse this past Wednesday and realized I was really nervous. Flashbacks of that horse landing on me bounced through my mind and that's when it clicked that it was fear that was keeping me from getting on a horse again.
When I finally conquered the fear that had been holding me back and I stood on the top of the hill near our house looking over the valley, I realized I needed this. It's only when we overcome our fear that we can grow.
I am speaking to many of you friends out there. 2020 was a hard year that saw many of my friends, many of my gym family, go through many trials. Some I haven't seen since we were forced to shut down way back in April 2020. Some I see sporadically but the consistency has been hard for them. I miss you all! I miss seeing your name on the board. I miss kidding around with you. I miss seeing your progress day in and day out.
I want to say to you, and you know who I am talking about, get back on the horse. Whatever may have knocked you off that horse, don't let another day go by that you don't get back on. You are needed at Point Fitness. Not only will your health and wellness thank you but you will motivate your friends to do the same thing.
It took me 7 months to get over my failure. That's 7 months where I didn't get to enjoy riding with my wife and my dad. While it sucks that it took me so long, now that I have gotten back up on that horse, I am ready to "start over". I am ready to regain my confidence and get back to enjoying the ride. I invite all of you who have "fallen off the horse" to get back on and do it now.
Coach Dan
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