Yesterday, after over eight years without any serious exercise and having gained over 20 kilos (44 lbs.) of body weight, I somehow challenged myself to complete 50 push-ups in a go. I am amazed that I, somehow, did it. I am actually amazed that I could do a push up at all, but fifty- that was just awesome!
Today, I tried to repeat that feat. I managed all of twelve push-ups before I collapsed, unable to do any more. Maybe I had burned out all my energy yesterday. Maybe my muscles had been damaged by yesterday's effort. Maybe the earth's gravitational pull was much lower yesterday. Maybe God (probably fuelled by my lack of belief in His/Her/Its existence or relevance) was trying to freak me out trying to figure out what happened. Maybe the clothes I wore yesterday were much more comfortable.
Whatever the reason, I did something yesterday and I could not repeat it today. Perhaps, yesterday was just my day. Just like a footballer (I am not American, so when I say football, it means a sport in which you actually kick the ball around) who scores a hat-trick one day but can't get a single shot on target until the seventieth minute, when he gets red-carded for a reckless challenge. And suspended for a month for that not-so-nice word he shared with the ref.
While my second outing wasn't as bad as the unfortunate footballer's, it was pathetic compared to my first. But, there is one major factor I have overlooked, thus far. My first attempt was a challenge. I looked at myself, thought I couldn’t do it, then went ahead and proved myself wrong. The second outing was just an attempt to copy the first. It wasn't a real challenge. I knew, given the right situations, I could pull it off. I had done it twenty four hours before.
While my first attempt was fairly impromptu and more or less unconscious, the second time involved a lot of thinking. Did I plan on a daily exercise regimen? Did I want to equal what I did the day before or go further? Did I find yesterday's effort rewarding? Would it be as rewarding if I repeated it today? All these thoughts must have been playing in my mind as I positioned my hands and began the session.
Perhaps the knowledge that you can do something is detrimental to sudden success. Because, then, you start to envision the things that follow instead of focusing on the task at hand. Perhaps, some amount of self-doubt is necessary, in order to keep your crosshairs on the bull's-eye. If you go into a situation where you know you can do it just because you have done it before, perhaps your knowledge can lead to your undoing.
I agree that the knowledge you can do something can be more useful in the long term. It builds confidence that is based on real experience, which comprises both successes and failures. But being confident based on a single success or two can stop a mission in its seedling phase. I am unlikely to start a real exercise regimen soon. Perhaps if I had started with 10-15 push-ups and continued that for a week then increased it steadily, I might have continued with it. But, knowing that I can do 50 after years of not exercising at all makes me complacent. And, the fact that I could barely cross ten today makes me unwilling to try again tomorrow.
Here's my conclusion based on two mornings of physical effort- If you want to complete a challenge, such as getting 50 push-ups at a go was for me, tackle it head on. It makes the process less rational and much easier to tackle. However, if you want to take on a long term objective such as exercising daily, starting low and building up is the better approach. Of course, if you have run both a 100 yard dash and a marathon in your life, you will know what I am getting at.
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