Being Good Every Day by Sarah Nuse
I was working out at my Crossfit gym, a very normal morning for me with my usual crew of people that I have grown to adore over the years. At my gym, you walk into what I call beautiful chaos, in that things are organized enough, but not in a perfect order. There is a gritty feeling that instantly makes you want to work hard and sweat. There is a rubber floor where chalk from the previous workout is scattered and chalkboards adorn the wall with workouts written in a rainbow of colors. You find boxes lined up side by side waiting to be used for a workout and towers of weights on rollers throughout the gym. The walls are tan with several missing paint spots and the building has no heat or air conditioning, but rather, just huge fans that only get turned on when absolutely needed in the summer. There are huge garage doors that can be thrown up to allow a breeze to sweep through the building. Roaring music normally is blaring as weights get dropped, sweat gets dripped and high fives get passed out liberally. The owners named it “Old School Crossfit” because they wanted to bring back the “old school” mentality of customer service, where the customer is the boss and where first names are used and what’s happening in each other’s lives is important. It isn’t anything fancy but it is an inviting space where fellow cross-fitters become friends and our coaches treat us more like family. This is my gym.
I bring all of this up because something happened while working out one especially hot July day. It was a very normal morning for me with my usual crew of people that I have grown to adore over the years. For our workout, we ran 600 meters outside with a 14-pound medicine ball, then came inside to do 25 “double unders,” where you jump rope and the rope goes under you two times instead of just once. The goal of that particular day was to see how many rounds we could do in just 17 minutes. We went out to the starting spot, the coach started to count down and a large group of us started to run.
I battle it out with one particular girl at the gym on most workouts. We push each other, encourage each other but, if we are truly honest, we always try to beat each other too. On this day, there was absolutely nothing I could do to keep up with her, literally not a thing. It wasn’t even like I was in the same league as she was. It seemed like she worked twice as hard as I had and she left me in her dust.
This particular summer I had planned to commit to the gym six days a week and stay even longer to lift weights. But guess what? That is really hard to do with three kids at home in the summer, a husband that works an hour away, some planned family trips and a few work trips sprinkled in. That commitment went down the tubes fast. In fact, I had missed more days than I had been to the gym that summer. I was disappointed in myself, but I resigned myself to the fact that the things that I chose to do instead of go to the gym held a higher priority for me that summer.
You know what was staring me in the face? The fact that the commitment to work out and get better didn’t happen for me, but it did for someone else. My friend not only committed to the summer workout plan of six days at the gym per week and extra weights, but she also got some help from a nutritionist who implemented a program to allow her body to fuel properly so she could get stronger, go faster and be better. It wasn’t like she took a magic pill to beat me so bad that particular day, and for that matter, many days after that one. It was that my friend and competitor committed and worked hard every single day. While I was missing the gym she was putting in the time. While I was on vacation, she was staying for more reps. While I was indulging in the feasts that come with summer travel, she was calculating the ways to best fuel her body. I was exposed and it was clear my work was not like hers. It was a glaring reminder that if I want to be great, I must be good every single day.
Maybe working out isn’t it for you, but maybe it’s your business, your patience in parenting, your side gig you have a strong desire to start, hitting your sales numbers, losing weight, or kicking a certain habit. There isn’t a magic button to make you skyrocket to the success you have put in your head. Rather you will get to your goal by choosing to be good every single day. When you do the hard work to nudge yourself forward a bit every single day you will look up one day and be great. You will be the person that people look at and say “I want to be like them.” You’ll be the one that beats everyone at the gym, the one who has a long-standing, stable business, or the one that has kids that impress adults by their kind words and actions. It may be that you blow past all the other salespeople because it was you making those small daily deposits, in your career, that really matter. Maybe it is counting the calories when everyone else isn’t, or choosing to say “no” to something when you know it’s just not right for you.
Don’t work at being great, just decide to be good every single day. The one thing that you have that nobody else on earth has is your voice, vision, mind, imagination, dreams, goals and drive. Now, really let that sink in for a little while. All of that is yours. You were born with it and it is yours to do with it whatever you want. Write your own story and build something so great that impacts the world around you.
Take a moment and think about where it is that you want to be and think about the path it will take to get you there. Now think about what it is that you have to do every single day to be good and to get you where you want to be. Small daily deposits will equal great success in whatever you choose it to be.
My guest blogger, Sarah Nuse, is an entrepreneur, wife and mother of three. She has successfully run a thriving business for nearly 20 years with Tippi Toes franchises across the country. She is an author, speaker, shoe designer and creator of four children's music albums. She is passionate about helping women successfully run their business while balancing her family. Jump on over to her page and learn more about Sarah at www.sarahnuse.com!
