I’ve been practicing Bikram yoga for almost 12 years now. Yes it’s the crazy hot yoga!
Every year around this time of year, my studio mentions they are offering a 60-day yoga challenge. It’s 60 consecutive days of yoga. And every year, I find an excuse to avoid it!
Last year it was: “Oh I’m traveling.” The year before it was: “Oh I’m moving.” And the year before that, it was: “Oh I’m so busy with my business, I just don’t have the time.”
But deep down inside, the real excuse was, “Are you f*@king kidding me?! I don’t think I can do 60 consecutive days of yoga!”
I was stuck thinking that the 3-5 days of yoga that I do weekly were enough. Why would I bother pushing myself? What could I possibly get out of doing it everyday for 60 days?
But I couched it in excuses and worries.
At the end of December last year, as I was laying on my mat in class, gasping for air as usual, my yoga instructor mentioned the challenge in class and said, “Think about it, and then sign up anyway.”
I guess he knew which button to push, because those were the words I needed to hear to stop coming up with excuses and sign up.
Today is day 19. Nearly ⅓ of the way through, whoohoo!
The first 5 days were the hardest. Who knew your pinkie finger could cramp up? Or worse that when you sneeze your stomach would cramp up! Apparently I needed more electrolytes, an easy fix.
By day 10 I was feeling great.
But then there was day 12 and 14, when I had to wake up at 5am to get on the mat by 6am, so that I could then catch the train to SF by 830am to film new episodes of FemgineerTV. Whew!
By day 16 I had caught a cold, which meant that day 17 was my first actual rest day. I’ll be making that up this weekend with a double dose.
They call it a challenge for a reason…
I’m glad I signed up. I didn’t realize that I was indeed stuck but I was. I’ve been suffering from a pain in my piriformis, which has now magically disappeared. An ankle which I sprained 6 months ago, is slowly healing. And most importantly, a daily dose of yoga, has helped me manage my ongoing anxiety, to the point that it’s pretty much nonexistent.
As I’ve been going through this 60 day challenge I’ve realized four things:
We all get comfortable and then stay in our comfort zone. I coach entrepreneurs and engineers on how they need to push themselves, but clearly I’ve ignored the fact that I’ve been in a comfort zone for 12 years with something as simple as my yoga practice… We all need someone to call us out, like my yoga instructor did.
“What if” thoughts just create worries that are necessary. I had worries like “What if I don’t have time…”, but somehow on days 12 and 14 I magically found the time to get on the mat and get to SF to get my work done.
Take it one day at a time. When I signed up 60 days seemed like a lot, which was incredibly overwhelming. But before each class I just think about being in that class and enjoying my practice in that moment. I do the same now with my business. I’ve stopped worrying about what will happen this year. I plan ahead for the quarter, but still take it one day at a time. This is one way for how to get unstuck.
We are more capable than we think we are. I always knew this was true, because people come to me with their career or startup problems, over time I guide them, but they are really the ones who are overcoming them. But I somehow managed to underestimate myself when it came to the yoga challenge, and now I’m realizing that I’m stronger than I thought.
41 days to go, and I know I’ll make it 😉
Is there something you feel like you’re stuck on, and you want to take on a challenge? How do you get unstuck? Just hit reply and let me know!
Yes. For some reason I got stuck on my market research for my startup. Knowing that this company i am building might get me off this 8/5 work and get me closer to spend more time with my kids. Who knows what is happening to me. I just cannot get over to overcome and start researching my stuff.