Are You Up for the Challenge?

An uncommon phenomenon happened this past weekend, I was able to spend a Saturday night with my wife completely free of children and wake up in the morning in that same state of delirium.

We spend our last free weekend, and really one of our only, in Lake George, NY enjoying the carnival like atmosphere of the village on Saturday night and waking up Sunday morning to do some “”back to school” shopping in the outlet centers located there.

We made a stop in the Reebok outlet. Reebok is a huge sponsor for the Crossfit brand producing athletic apparel and footwear specific to the sport. When I walked into the store a local crossfit gym had set up a display near the entrance. There were barbells, plyo boxes and other apparatus, it immediately grabbed my attention and naturally I levitated towards it to see what was going on. The promotion was “do 5 burpees and receive a $30 coupon for a $100 purchase”. Pretty much a no brainer, I would have done them even if there was no offer.

I looked at the leader board and the current score to beat was 22 burpees. I looked at the coaches and jokingly remarked, “It’s 11am and the most burpees you’ve been able to get out of anyone is 22?” Well I wanted to see if we could do a little better than but I wasn’t going to do it alone. I asked one of the coaches there if he’d like to join me. We are now turning a leisurely shopping experience into a competition. I would probably go shopping a bit more if this were always the case.

After setting up some ground rules for the way the burpees would be graded we agreed to put our max effort forth and perform a continuous 1 minute of burpees. I kicked off my flip flops, the buzzer sounded and we set off on a torrid pace. Between the two of us we complied 73 burpees in the 60 seconds! We stood up congratulated each other and shared a laugh.

Now here is the twist. I didn’t have to think twice about doing the 5 burpees for my coupon or even engaging in 60 seconds of intense work, that’s become my norm. What’s not normal is the passerby-ers that even though they were set on spending well over $100 would not put forth the effort to get the coupon. At the register someone was being rung up and had a total of $104, they said, “Hey do 5 burpees you’ll save 30 bucks.” The answer was no; unbelievable! One guy passing by when asked if he would do the 5 burpees said, “Why the hell would anyone want to do that!” Mind you we are in a store whose primary product is apparel for exercise!

I shared this experience with members of the gym I work at, Higher Choices Personal Fitness in Lagrange, NY. They thought it was absurd, some of the members took a poke at themselves and said even they would have done the work.

Well that’s the point, if you are taking care of yourself on a regular basis, if you are committed or even semi-committed to a fitness routine you are going to be up for the challenges that life throws at you on a daily basis. You’ll have the energy to get everything done that need to get done, if curve balls get thrown at you then you’ll be able to handle those as well.

So ask yourself and be honest, are you up for the challenge or are you going to let opportunities continue to pass you by?