Future success comes from the habit of pushing yourself beyond what you can do today. I can have goals, and I can make plans, and I can talk about what I want to do. I can ‘do’ all of these things, but it is actions and effort that make the difference.
Here I am failing to do handstand push-ups against the wall.
I could have shown the 3 successful reps before the last fail… but this video is a bit more honest about how my sets went today. #SDFitnessChallenge @kellywchris @jonathansclater @rmacdonald15 pic.twitter.com/R7WOzHrqT3
— Dᴀᴠɪᴅ Tʀᴜss ∞β (@datruss) May 10, 2020
I scraped some skin off me knee on that last fall. However, that last fall came after 3 successful reps. That’s 3 more than I did on the first set. I’m getting there. That doesn’t mean the failures feel good. That doesn’t mean the next 3 will feel easy… yet. I have a lot of hard work and effort to get there.
Six weeks ago, if you told me that I could do something like this, I would have ‘No, waaay too hard!’:
With a hat-tip to @kellywchris & @jonathansclater for the inspiration and motivation:
• 10 shoulder taps
• 10 hip taps
• 30 second wall stand.
This was set 2 of 2. #SDFitnessChallenge #handstand pic.twitter.com/z87aI0AK7h— Dᴀᴠɪᴅ Tʀᴜss ∞β (@datruss) May 4, 2020
But that’s only 32 days after trying to do just this:
Day 10 of my #SDFitnessChallenge #30DayChallenge
Hip Taps… Unfortunately, I’m not ready for these, have to go back to shoulder taps:(
@kellywchris @jonathansclater pic.twitter.com/1LDi69srMm— Dᴀᴠɪᴅ Tʀᴜss ∞β (@datruss) April 3, 2020
After sharing my fail video above, Kelly Christopherson tweeted:
Struggle is part of growth. It takes courage to admit we are struggling! You are doing great and are an inspiration. Keep going, keep trying, you will get there. I love how honest and open you are about the trials and how hard it is. You’ll get this!
— Dr. K. Christopherson(he/him)🔥 (@kellywchris) May 10, 2020
The reality is that Kelly and Jonathan Sclater have been inspiring me as well. We are sharing our efforts publicly and push each other: To keep improving; To appreciate effort and hard work; and, To recognize our incremental improvements;
My future includes being able to do a 30 second, unassisted handstand. I failed at reaching this goal on my original two timelines. My next timeline is aggressive and I might not make that either. But it will happen. The journey will include more failures, and false starts, and frustration.
I started by saying, ‘Future success comes from the habit of pushing yourself beyond what you can do today.’ If I’m going to push myself beyond my comfort zone, I’m going to reach failure points. But last months failed attempts got me where I am now, and tomorrow’s failures will bring me future success.
