Tuesday 15 October 2013

Comparisons and Competitive Edge

Comparing with others is one of the don’ts of fitness, the main reason being everybody starts at different fitness levels, everybody has different fitness goals. Focusing on your own personal goals always makes more sense than focusing on how somebody else is doing.My brain just doesn’t seem to understand this simple logic. I keep comparing and usually I compare with people who are a lot better than me and who have been working hard for a lot longer, so I am usually nowhere close to their fitness level.
Initially comparing with people would make me depressed because I would constantly be looking at my shortcomings, If I increased my base speed I would always find somebody else whose base speed was much more than mine in the process I would forget my growth. I have a little bit of fighters streak in me so I changed from being depressed to pushing myself more, again this also was not completely correct because I was usually pushing myself more than I should have and then I would be in more pain.
For the past few months I have been thinking of how to make the most of this attitude of mine, here's my conclusion: 

Use your role models as a bench mark and compare with yourself on daily basis.
So now I compare with how I did the last time while moving towards my bench mark which is usually based on somebody I look up to (I have so many different people I admire for different reasons, some have great weight lifting abilities, some run well, some are very flexible). Usually because everybody is working hard on their fitness levels my bench mark constantly moves ahead helping me improve.

Use persistance as your competitive edge
My fitness journey has made me a little competitive. I realised the one thing I can completely control is my persistance for living healthy. I can be as persistant as my role model. It does not depend on my physical capability it depends on how much I want to improve and how much effort I am willing to put. The one thing I can always rely on is my ability to get my workouts done. I know I might not be the fastest, I might not be able to do enough push ups but the one thing I can guarantee myself is that I will be there when my muscles are sore, I will be there when the weather is bad, I will be there when I am in a bad mood, I will be the one you will know as the ‘persistent one’
What do you think?

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing 
Tanvee

8 comments:

  1. Hi Tanvee! One of the biggest mistakes people make is to compare themselves to someone who has worked *several years* at getting that good! And then they want to be that good in a few months. I used to feel that way about others. Now, others feel that way about me.

    For example, when I accomplished parallel grip chin-ups this year, it took me 10 months of devoted practice in chin-ups. However, before that, I already had years of strength built up from heavy weightlifting. So this wasn't actually a 10 month project, it was really years. So if someone would say, "I want to be like you, Marion, doing chin-ups," that would mean a very long project over years because that is how I personally accomplished it. There as no short-cut for me.

    As you explain above in your own way, there is no short-cut for speeding this up. The persistent people, like yourself, who continue for years of devotion to it, are the ones who become very good at a lot of gym exercises. There is not speedy way because muscles will only develop as fast as they are able--which is slower than we'd like.

    But we like fitness anyhow, so does it really matter how long it takes? No! It's challenging and interesting the entire time.

    You have a very good attitude, which is why you keep succeeding. :D

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  2. Hi Marion, I used to compare a lot, even though I knew it did not make sense I would do it, finally I realised the one thing I can be good at is keeping at it, keep going and keep working hard...that's all I need to focus on while challenging myself daily :)
    I feel like my attitude and the way I think has changed so much through my fitness journey..

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  3. "Showing up and working hard" I showed up, but I wasn't doing the working hard part of it. Maybe, because I am goal weight I didn't think I needed the persistence of working hard. We need it all to achieve our goals.

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    1. yes showing up and working hard are very important, I always tell my self my workout should be worth it, if I am going to the gym when I am done I should feel like I have worked out and I have worked towards improving my fitness...

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