But it will happen, provided you commit to it, and work toward it daily.
Take it from someone who started from scratch – that’s me.
This is the story of my badassery, and I am hoping that it will help you.
I grew up as an unathletic, wimpy, uncoordinated bookworm. Just a typical weak girl, who wasn’t interested in being strong anyway. My flexed arm hang didn’t even last a recordable second: literally, zero exaggeration, you couldn’t have hit the stop button fast enough after hitting the start button. I once read three books on a Sunday as a pre-teen, and Mr King’s 1000-page rambling novels were no match for my voracious eyes. I was a straight-A student and received a bachelor’s degree 1.5 years ahead of everyone else I graduated high school with. Being super-smart was my thing. I didn’t watch a single game of any kind at college, and I certainly didn’t participate in any sports myself – a laughable suggestion.
Yet today, at age 36, I am absolutely addicted to lifting & running. I hope to bench my bodyweight soon, have just started working toward a single-arm chin-up, and plan to do 6900 pull-ups this year, enough to equate to a MILLION pounds. I also regularly get up at 5am (or earlier) on Saturdays to run for an hour or two with pals, and hardly even blink at running in a -30F windchill.
How in the hell did this happen?
The answer is, as it always is in any success story: little by little.
I didn’t wake up one morning and run a 50k or do 15 pull-ups. Or even 1 pull-up.
I woke up one morning at age 29 and decided to do SOMETHING, because I was the fattest I’d ever been, and very tired of hating my body.
I started with a daily 10-minute “toning” class at the work gym: the kind where you do lunges, and curl & press 3-lb weights, still in your work clothes. It was the biggest step outside my comfort zone that I could handle.
Eventually, it became part of my normal routine, and soon I added a 10-minute yoga class…yep, still in work clothes.
A few months later, I graduated to the 30-minute yoga class, the one where you actually change, in a locker room, in front of other people. SO far outside my comfort zone. Until, soon enough, it wasn’t; it became my norm, and in fact yoga became quite enjoyable.
Although I could tell I was getting stronger, my body didn’t change much, and I still didn't like it. I signed up for a 5k with a coworker, accountability that would force me to stick to a couch-to-5k plan. 4 months later, we ran our 5k without walking, and we felt like champions! That coworker is now one of my besties.
I tried new classes at the work gym, because cool coworkers were teaching them, and had a lot of fun. I got downright addicted to a tough strength training class, because it was taught by a woman who became a bestie, and her class became our main hangout time, and man, did we have great times sweating and getting stronger.
Still running, I graduated to 10ks. Oh my goodness, I could run for an hour without walking! Me!
Then I developed problems with my knee when running, so that fun strength class was all I did. And whoa, what’s this now? I missed running a whole lot more than I ever could have predicted. After seeing a seven different doctors who couldn’t fix me, I took a GIANT flying leap outside my comfort zone to work with a personal trainer (me? using a personal trainer? he’s watching my every move, how awkward!).
He got me running again, and I did a half marathon, easily. Then I did a full marathon, where I qualified for Boston. In my first marathon!
Then, surprisingly, my beloved running began to take second place to lifting with that fantastic trainer. Oh, man, I’m gonna do a pull-up! Me, the little weak girl! Then: I shall do many pull-ups. And oh, wow, the barbell, man. Now THAT is some fun stuff. Do you know how STRONG you can get if you work at it?
I fell in love with coaching others to run, when we did a couch-to-5k plan at the work gym. Soon enough I became I certified Group Fitness Instructor in order to help change the lives of others, the way these others had done for me. Me, now the "expert"! I lead couch-to-5k groups & teach strength training, and OH MAN do I freaking love it.
I also fell in love with trail-running. Nature + movement + quiet = bliss. Oh hey, do you know what trail runners do? They run ULTRA-marathons. So in addition to a couple more marathons, I did a few 50ks. That’s 31 miles! What the?
I don’t love it all, though; I did a kickboxing class once. Once. I completely hated it and never went back. Do you know how much coordination that takes? That’s also why I’m not going to Zumba, or step aerobics, or even Olympic weightlifting. They’re not for me. I’ll go for a bike ride, but no serious distance. And there will be no swimming for this kitty cat – thanks, but no. And listen, I have friends that run ONE HUNDRED MILES - yes, ALL AT ONCE - and I have a bestie who's a freaking beast at them. But I don’t have a desire to do that; 50k is the limit I’m interested in training for, and even that's pushing it. Too much running means too little time for lifting.
Who knew?
Who would have guessed a former bookwormy weakling would take to lifting & running like a duck to water? Who would have known that getting a personal trainer “just to get me running again” would turn into a 5-year (& counting) cherished relationship with him, no longer a luxury but an absolute necessity in my life? I even work part-time as an admin at his gym (dream job: work there full-time), and the other trainers are some of my very favorite people. Who expected me to be the sort of person who has her own squat rack in the basement, and a pull-up bar in the pantry doorway, and gymnastic rings in the garage (for even more pull-ups)?
No one knew any of that, nor could possibly have predicted any of it - not even me.
Especially not me. I didn't anticipate any of this when I took that first step.
And I'm still not done evolving. I love running, and I have run a lot of races, but I don’t care about racing anymore. And road races? Barf; you might as well ask me to swim. I just wanna run in the woods with my pals. I want to lift heavy, have felt the pull of competition, and I have some hardcore goals, but I’m not interested in competing right now. I've dialed back on tracking some of my data, compared to a time when I obsessively tracked every number possible and built some beautiful spreadsheets to do so. Things change, and they will keep changing, and all for the better.
Oh, and the best evolution of all? What I look like prompted the first step of this journey. (I
And if you haven't already figured this out: I feel awesome.
I just plain enjoy every bit of it. I enjoy running in the woods with my friends, I enjoy knocking out pull-ups, I am addicted to benching, and I love working with my trainer. These aren't things I make myself do. They are things I crave on a daily basis, in order to live, in order to thrive.
The above story covers a timespan of seven years. The change is dramatic, but the progress was little by little, baby step by baby step, day by day - as it always is.
The whole point of the above rambling is for you to understand the process: I kept trying stuff until I found stuff I LOVED, and it became my passion, and a natural, necessary part of my daily life. And so I did a lot of it, and thus I got better at it, and naturally I loved it even more. On and on and on, in a beautiful upward spiral, until it became a delightful source of fulfillment.
THAT is the secret of my badassery.
I am positive the same process will work for anyone, because there was absolutely nothing special about me when I started this journey: no talent, no innate athleticism, no adolescent background of former strength to return to.
So…back to you, and where you are, and where you can start. If you want to be a badass, then your next step is to start trying things. Try anything. Try everything.
Force yourself outside your comfort zone as far as you can manage today. It doesn’t have to be a huge leap, it just needs to be a change. Remember, my journey started with a 10-minute class in my work clothes.
Take that first step. Once that's easy, take another step.
Start saying “yes” to new things, until you are sure that you want to say “no” to them. Pretty soon you will find yourself zeroing in on the things that you love. And soon after that, you won’t simply be saying “yes” – you’ll be saying "ABSOLUTELY!"
I promise you that finding your source of daily enjoyment will fuel consistency, will fuel results, will fuel your own upward spiral in your own journey.
In a simple matter of time, you too will be truly, madly, deeply BADASS.
All the progress I’ve made toward becoming the strong person I am today can be found in this very simple quote:
Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal.
My strength lies solely in my tenacity.
–Louis Pasteur
Go forth, find your fun, get tenacious, and let me know how it goes.
I'll be over here doing pull-ups.
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