When You Feel Like Giving Up

What to do when you feel like giving up? In a sentence: DO NOT QUIT.

My fitness routine has been hit or miss since having kids. Hard to believe, I know. 

Tonight I did a spin class.  It has been six years since spin classes have been part of my regular routine.

I’m sure you can imagine how it went.

The music was pumping.

The adrenaline and excitement in the room was enticing.

I was still getting readjusted to the gears and figuring out how to pace myself through a class. It didn’t seem like I was working very hard so I turned my gear up. Way up.

Yep. I started to feel it.

My thighs and calves started to burn.

My heart started pounding.

I could see myself in the mirror turning the deep red color of a pomegranate as I started gasping for air. 

For the remainder of the class the instructor would yell out “turn that gear up!” at various intervals. The class members would obediently reach down and twist the nob to turn up the gear…

Except me. 

Nope.

I value breathing.

And being able to walk at the end of the class. 

It was all I could do to stay on the bike. I had hit my limit of how far I could push it and I knew it. My goal became just to stay on the bike and keep going until the end of class.

And as I sat there gasping for breath, I began to realize that sometimes life is a lot like spin class.

Sometimes there are seasons where your goal is just to stay on the bike. 

There are seasons to really push it – but there are other seasons where your goal should be to just not give up. 

When you’re taking on big goals, the excitement and ambition in the beginning is so thrilling. The adrenaline rush of dreaming big dreams is almost intoxicating. But eventually that wears off and you hit The Middle. 

There are seasons in The Middle that get hard. They get heavy. The excitement starts to fade before you’ve really started to see any of the reward. It feels like you’re pedaling through mud. The Middle is when you feel like giving up. But you know what?

If you choose not to quit today, you will be further ahead tomorrow than you were today.

A sucky workout still burns more calories than sitting on the couch.

A crappy month of budgeting and doing all the frugal living things still gets you further than coasting or using credit cards.

A day of going through the motions and doing all the right things to connect with your kids even when your heart just doesn’t feeeeel it still gets you further than yelling at them and disengaging. 

Even if you make minimal progress, If you just don’t quit you will be further tomorrow than you were today. 

Don’t get off the bike. 

So when I was panting and fairly certain that I was moments away from my legs exploding, the instructor looked me in the eye and yelled “COME ON ANNA MARIE! FINISH!” 

Sometimes we need those people around us to look us in the eye and yell “FINISH! DO NOT QUIT! DO THE HARD THINGS!” 

This is me being that person for you today. 

YOU ARE CAPABLE!

Do the thing that you don’t feel like doing!

Refuse to quit! 

Beginnings are glamorous. The finish line is celebrated. But the middle is what separates the people who achieve their goals from those who don’t. Don’t quit in the middle.  

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