I Repeat - Repetition is Good.

Somedays, I just don't feel like climbing out of bed and onto an elliptical trainer for 30 or 40 minutes. I'd rather sip coffee. I'd rather read. So, I have a short dialogue with myself - just a reminder that the feeling of not wanting to to do what I need to do will pass. I focus on what I want - to be healthy, active, have a vibrant life - not on how I feel at the moment. The more I repeat the process, the more success I have in overcoming the inertia of inactivity and get off my butt, the easier it becomes. Repetition breeds success.

When I was in grade school, my math teacher stood at the front of the class, and occasionally called out my name and  quizzed me on things like multiplication tables. If I missed it, she would hand me a piece of chalk, show me a chalkboard the size of Texas on which I would write, over and over, the multiplication tables starting with 1 x 1 = 1.

In music class, where I studied trumpet, I played the twelve chromatic scales until each scale was perfectly played. If I missed a note, I started over, from the beginning.

At the end of basketball practice, I shot free throws until I made 20 in a row. If missed, I started over.

See a pattern?

Repetition, of the right thing, done the right way, transforms flimsy knowledge, fragile understanding, and inconsistent performance into something dependable and solid. All teachers know that through repetition, you learn.

The same principle is at work in the body when you overcome an injury. Through repetition of training, you learn what to do and how to do it. Through repetition of movement, your body grows stronger, more flexible; you develop power and endurance. Your heart and lungs learn how to deliver the much needed oxygen. Through repetition of thought, your mind finds solutions; finds the positive alternatives to negative situations - ways to win.

I grumbled about having to go to the chalk board and write the formulas, repeat the scales on my trumpet, shoot the free throws just as you may grumble from time to time about having to change your daily routine because of an injury or surgery and work on drills until you master them. But, if you want to not just feel better but really be better, that's what you have to do. You have to show up and practice even when you don't feel like it. Your body makes you earn your health. Otherwise, everyone would be healthy.

Winning is built on repetition of the right thing done the right way. Is that what you're doing?

Make today count.
Doug Kelsey