In my bid to ‘walk my talk’ as an executive coach and achieve a balance between my mind, body & soul, I attended my first GRIT class at my local gym yesterday evening.
For those of you who have never attended a GRIT class before, it is a 30-minute high-intensity interval training workout… and as I quickly discovered, it is not for the faint hearted!
Had I done my due diligence prior to attending the class, I may have opted for a class that was more suited to my current level of fitness - but hey ho, as I was there, I thought I may as well give it a go… Besides that, I was too far from the exit to make a run for it!
My initial enthusiasm and energy quickly began to wane (5 minutes tops), as I was introduced to a number of jumps and burpees, which I felt were more suited in a superhero action movie. Nevertheless, I persevered, doing my best interpretation of the exercises that the instructor demonstrated.
There were several times during the class when I looked bewildered, trying to process what I had witnessed and thinking to myself “how on earth am I going to do that?” My animated facial expressions clearly caught the attention of two fellow gym attendees, who despite being total strangers, offered me warm smiles and words of positive reinforcement to keep going.
At one point, during a particularly precarious attempt at a Bear Crawl/Mountain Climb, the instructor came over to me, demonstrated the correct technique and then willed me to do 10 reps – which, by some minor miracle, I did!
I was profoundly grateful for the kindness shown to me by strangers, as it was clear that while they were there to achieve their individual fitness goals, they wanted me to achieve mine too and demonstrated a strong belief and sense of collective efficacy that if we all persevere, we can achieve our fitness goals together.
Will I attend a GRIT class again? Absolutely not! However, I am grateful to my fellow gym attendees and instructor for their kindness, support and encouragement…
I am joking – I will attend GRIT next week. I am either a glutton for punishment, or I can see a wonderful opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and improve my strength and cardiovascular fitness. I’d like to think the latter.
Expressing gratitude should be the norm; however, there are times when we get so caught up, that we forget to show appreciation for all that is good in our lives.
Who or what are you grateful for today?