Relativity: Specific to the person, place and time
There are many avenues to exercise. You can run, row, lift heavy things off the ground and dance your heart away in a group class. They are all good, if they are done with a relative mind set. A relative mind set allows you to create context to the world at which you want to live and helps define what you want to create. It brings clarity to your starting position and gives you some insight on where you need to go. Now, getting there and how long it takes is another beast you will have to conquer, but we tend to use the relativity of our goals because goals take time and hard work. When we spend day after day, hour after hour, trying to achieve our goal and we don’t see the feedback we are looking for, we lose the relativity of our goal and lose the stability and strength of our platform at which we started.
Exercising is the interplay of accumulated movements and patterns that are developed through behavioral and physiological intrinsic and extrinsic perceptions, and awareness of one’s mind, body and soul. A relative mind set is understanding that all exercises are good but are only good for a particular time and place and must progress and advance based on the goal.
Dan John tells us all the time that, “the goal is to keep the goal the goal,” that is relative. If the goal is to get stronger, you lift weights. If you want to increase your flexibility, you take a stretching class. It is rather simple in the beginning to keep the goals relative, however, over time clarity diminishes and goals start to get foggy.
Our goals start to get foggy when our values start to change. Let’s face it, we all get bored. It takes a lot of effort to keep doing the same thing over and over again especially when we do not see the results we are looking for right off the bat. Our values drive us to change things up (which isn’t a bad thing), add exercises, subtract exercises, quit our current program and start fresh. This can be a good thing but can lead us astray if it doesn’t work.
Our values are subjective and they give us the ability to define who we are and what we want to do with our life. However, our values can be misleading and perceived differently based on who we talk to. They do not know who you are, what your world is like, or what your goals are. You found the information, the information didn’t find you, so taking everything with a grain of salt is key when establishing your goals. Just because there is an MD behind a name, doesn’t mean what is being said is good for you specifically. I have unfortunately seen doctor’s sale their soul to the dark side for money. I have read, listened, and watched exercise professionals capitalize on easy money because of their image and brand.
When your searching for exercises and approaches to help you reach your goals, ask these simple questions.
1# What is my goal?
2# How much time, equipment and space do I have to reach my goal?
3# Is what I am about to do going to help me take a step forward towards my goal?
These questions help create clarity and understanding to where you want to go.
There is a place and time for non-relative exercises and exercising. I believe we all should jump, climb and roll around in the grass. There doesn’t need to be a why behind every exercise program we do, just some of them. The number one thing is showing up. If you had no idea what you were doing, hands down just showing up helps create that clarity.
Remember that your goal is your goal and it’s your life. Do what makes you happy, not what others think will make you happy, because when it is all said in done you are the one living your life.
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