A Boring Jump Rope Show

This past week had me performing in the Los Angeles area of California. Whenever I have the opportunity, I like to talk with students after the program and see what they liked about it and what they learned. One day this past week I asked a student if he liked the show and his response was a bit different, “I thought it was boring” after which he turned around and walked off. I stared at the student for a moment before a classmate of his ran up and yelled, “that was awesome!”

Expectation makes all the difference. Have you ever wondered how two people can watch the same thing and yet have completely different feelings and memories about what they just watched or did? We met up with an old classmate of Alicia’s this past week. I had a lot to do and spent most of the time working on my computer. When we left, Alicia was excited about the meeting, I was rather indifferent to it. We had different expectations walking in and left with very different experiences.

I find this negative attitude especially prevalent when it comes to exercise. I hear people complain that it’s boring, it’s too hard, they hate doing it. To really get the most benefit out of what you do, make the decision to enjoy it, whatever it is. If you believe something will be boring, it probably will. If you think something will be fun, you’ll enjoy it infinitely more. This is an attitude that will serve you well in whatever you do.

Granted there are certain exercises that are more interesting and fun than others, which is why it does help to add some discretion to what you choose to do when exercising. I personally hate to run, I find it monotonous and too repetitive. That’s why I don’t run. There are many different types of exercise you can do, find something that you like to do and enjoy it. If you haven’t tried something before, try it with the attitude that you will like it, regardless of what other people have said. You may find that you love to do something that most people don’t like. Your expectation will make a huge difference on what you get out of what you try or do.