1000 Sit-ups, 1 Day

 Last Monday I took part in challenging myself to do 1000 sit-ups in one day and here's what I learned from it. (Gosh that sounds like the intro to a poorly written essay, but this is my casual-writing-style blog, so get off my back "me")

1) it is VERY easy to make goals, but creating a plan to actually achieve those goals can be much harder ("I'm going to do this!" Yea ok, but how?)

2) the speed of progression can have a huge influence on how you look at the goal, and also how you view each individual step (this can be a double edged sword: "oh god I have to do this many", or "oh look how far I am already because of how many I've been doing each time")

3) hyperawareness regarding mediocrity and understanding how not completing this goal now could lead to a mental pattern in which mediocrity is the default setting in your brain (like ruts in a dirt road, the more your wheels drive over it, the harder it will be to drive somewhere else the next time because they will get sucked into the ever-deepening rut) and feeling like if I lie to myself about completing this then my brain will be that much faster to reach for mediocrity in this upcoming year. 

4) spite can be a powerful tool. 

    because of point 3) there was nothing that was going to stop me from doing all 1000 (is that what           Sifu Brinker was talking about when he said "Blackbelts are mean?" -> more on this in the future)

4) learning how quickly you can become injured and how that injury can impact speed of progression, technique, and motivation, but also how to adapt and work around an injury.

5) human brains suck at visualizing large numbers and doing something like this really puts them into perspective, and I now have an appreciation for how many 1000 truly is.

6) I learned that I have no excuse not to do 180 sit-ups a day (with every 7th day off, rest is important kiddos) if 1000 is possible, and it helps to make it seem smaller and more manageable which will help to integrate it into a more "effortless effort" pattern in my day-to-day. 


... I have no elegant conclusion to this list, just that I am very glad I took part in this challenge because of these valuable lessons I learned that I can take with me into the start of the Year of the Tiger!

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