Forget the Rest.
It’s one of the catchphrases of P90X, and one I love. Why? It conquers the evil perfectionist voice in my head that begs me to push stop if I don’t have great form, or if I can’t do everything the people on the video do. In reality, I think, “Of course I can’t do that, those people are professional athletes, trainers, and P90X regulars!” But there’s still a little voice inside that says, “Oh, just give up. It’s okay. You did enough.”
But enough isn’t my best. I’ve been working at this P90X journey with everything I have. For the first time, I’m bringing EVERYTHING. Diet, exercise, and as much heart and energy that I can muster for the workouts. Sometimes I fail. Sometimes, I’m sure I look like an injured elephant trying to flail about at some workout move the DVD peeps do effortlessly. But sometimes, on those sweet wonderful days, it all comes together. I feel good, the workout feels good, I eat what I should, and I succeed beautifully. But the truth is, every day I’m at it, pretty or not, I succeed. Every day I eat celery instead of Girl Scout cookies, I succeed. Every time I go to the grocery store and don’t buy that bottle of wine, I succeed. I know that I will stumble along this journey. I know that on at least one occasion I will fail so miserably, so completely that I will go to bed convinced that I am done with it. But success, I’m finding, isn’t about perfection. It’s about waking up the next day, lacing up the tennis shoes and pushing play all over again.
One of my favorite poems:
WILD GEESE, by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
