Wednesday musings, 6/17/15

A few months ago, I hung a rope in my studio so I could work on climbing it. I began in a seated position, using my arms to pull me up, one arm at a time. I opted not to learn how to climb with my legs, since my rationale was I wanted to pull myself up more efficiently. It was intensely challenging, but every other day, I would sit down on the floor, and pull myself up. While I am not quite all of the way to the top, I am able to pull myself 2/3 of the way up. Whenever the time came for me to pull myself up another notch I just knew, intuitively, that I had the strength. I lower myself down slowly, focusing on control. A fun by-product of this little experiment is the fact that my pull-ups have improved, fairly dramatically. Something that happens with movement (or any learning for that matter), is if you are struggling to acquire a skill and you try something a little bit harder than the skill you are trying to acquire, the original skill will seem easy. Running up a steep single track on uneven terrain, for instance, makes the act of running up a formerly challenging paved hill seem easy. If you always stay in the “safe” zone in all aspects of life and never get outside of your comfort zone, the “safe” zone will never get easier. Pick something a little bit uncomfortable regularly and notice the impact it has on the rest of your life.