A Little Competition is a Good Thing, Right?

So, my son and I are very different people.

Mind you, he looks like a "mini-me," but at his age we were already going in very different directions.  At 5 years old, I was just under the cutoff for t-ball.  It made me crazy. I was dying to be out there. I'd go to my brothers games and sprint out onto the field when a ball was hit, field it before the players could, and throw it in. I just had that desire to play. I'd be entertained for hours throwing a ball into the air and catching it in my glove, or pitching it against a wall. I wasn't the best player by any stretch, but I loved it.

I always wanted to run faster, play better and out-do the others, and would often be found passed out in bed at the end of the day with my ball glove and cap still on.

Now, my so has openly stated, "I'm not into sports so much." Let's face it, he's five! If hitting sticks against trees were a sport, he'd already be an all world player…but football, not so much.

I never intend to push my son into trying to live out the glories on the field I was never good enough to achieve. But upon further investigation, I found out why he didn't want to play—he feels he's just not good enough. As opposed to my approach of catching that pop-up thousands of time until I had it down, he just decided the easiest road was to give up.

Sound familiar? I think many of us probably have steered in that direction at least a few times.

Maybe it's with music, or public speaking, home improvement or anything really that seems a little out of our comfort zones.  Sometimes it's just easier to let someone else take care of that. How about exercise?  Never really been your thing?  Never been a jock, never gonna be… right?

Over the years, I've found that using multiple exercise forms has worked wonders for balancing out my body and making me feel great. A little yoga made me feel more balanced and even athletic. (You could try Shakti Ma Yoga for a little help there.)  A little Pilates helped me a ton with my hips (and you could go right up the stairs to Clain Pilates Plus for some extra instruction in that).

Now at first, I didn't even want to try any of these things…but I was glad I did.  I also stunk up the place at first. It took some practice to get decent at it.

Learning more about your body and how it works can be a great way to feel in charge, but maybe you need a more definite goal to make it happen. 

There was a large number of women in Maplewood and South Orange who recently took on the Danskin Triathlon. Doing this kind of event takes some serious dedication. Hours of training goes into being able to swim that far, then bike that far—then run that far!  Most who venture into it aren't the best at one of the skills necessary, maybe even all three.

But they practice.

They swim countless laps at The JCC or Lifetime Fitness. They bike for hours up and down the streets and run like there's no tomorrow. And before long, they're ready.

The point is that many of these people needed this event to push themselves beyond their comfort zones. Now they can swim better, run further, bike longer, and probably fit into their clothes better to boot!

I can also guarantee one thing about many of the participants—it probably wasn't always easy. Especially at first, getting into that lap pool probably felt a bit embarrassing when they wondered if they were ever going to be able to complete one lap without misery. They just weren't good at it…yet.

Back to my son. I tried to emphasize that I don't expect to see Pele out there. I just want him to try. I know that maybe he'll never be "so into sports." That's totally cool, but just maybe he should try it out before he decides. 

So, there we are at Borden Park Saturday morning. There are so many cuties running around in their neon bright MSO soccer jerseys. After some hesitation, August got out there and played. He wasn't the star, but he did make a great save as goalie. Most importantly, he had fun. And he did something he didn't think he could.

Maybe, just maybe, a little self confidence can come from that. 

Tim Reynolds is the owner/operator of THE GYM ON SPRINGFIELD, a personal training studio in it's 3rd year on Springfield Ave. in Maplewood. Tim lives in Maplewood with Suzanne and his children, August and Sinikka.