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The year of The Humbling

Every year, I set myself a physical challenge. My rules are that it has to be something that can be done at home, in three minutes or less, with little-to-no equipment.

In 2023, I did pull ups, going from not being able to do a single one, to being able to do 10 (well, if I’m being all the way honest, it was more like 7, with an additional struggley, shaky three at the end).

Last year, I committed to doing 50 squats a day. I did it, but honestly, it was boring and didn’t challenge me much.

This year, I decided to do pull ups again and was pretty mortified on January 1st when I stood beneath my trusty pull up bar only to discover that I can barely do a single one anymore.

And so, we find ourselves back at square one.

I’m pissed off. I’m frustrated. I’m mad at myself. I put all that work in, only to get cocky, neglect it and slide back down to the bottom of the ladder.

It’s embarrassing. And it’s humbling as fuck.

To know me is to know that I do not separate out mental and physical health - it is all part of the same beast. Much of what I’ve learned about the way I operate mentally has only come about through the very visceral learning that exercise has given me.

So last year, when I did the squats, I committed to them at the last minute, knowing they wouldn’t necessarily challenge me that much and I felt somewhat blasé about them. I cruised through, kind of on auto-pilot.

And if I look at how that paralleled in my life, while yes, my entrepreneurship journey has been difficult and most certainly challenges me, I can’t help but think that a more challenging physical commitment would’ve put me in the mindset to push harder on the business front.

The squats felt like the bare minimum, and perhaps that’s how I was operating in every area of my life last year.

I wrote in my last post about the realisation that I have to let go of my ego and I think this is somewhat connected. There were plenty of moments I took my foot off the gas last year with my business because I was too busy playing the comparison game, feeling hung up on resentments that I’m not where I should be, that I deserve more.

As I struggled to get through that single pull up on January 1st, it was a stark reminder that if I want more in this life, I need to get my head out of my ass and work for it. So if the humbling comes by way of re-learning to do pull ups, so be it.

But this time I come with the knowledge that I can do it, I’ve done it before and this time around, I can do it even better if I commit. In pull ups and in life.

In the words of the great LL Cool J; don’t call it a comeback.

Let’s go.