Sunday 18 September 2011

Doing Something That Scares You


Today I did something terrifying. My trainer recommended taking a one-hour introductory posing seminar. If you aren’t familiar with posing for a physique competition, just youtube IFBB Figure or IFBB Bikini Competition The walking and posing you see is a little trickier than it looks so coaching is a must. Anyway, this seminar was not a lecture style. It was a participatory instructional class, which meant I had to don my figure suit and heels to prance about in front of perfect strangers.
As, I drove up to the gym where the seminar was being held, I actually felt sick to my stomach and I was literally shaking. I seriously considered turning around, getting back in my car, and driving away… far, far away. I was the first to arrive so as I put on my figure suit in the change room I was terrified that I was going to look like the frumpy ugly duckling next to all these amazingly fit women.  Now, before anyone wants to reach through the screen to slap me, let me explain that last statement. Don’t misunderstand, on any given day I am very happy with my body BUT this is not your average day. I was about to walk into a room in a teeny-weeny bikini (which fyi I don’t even wear those to the beach) filled with women who look like they could be in a fitness magazine AND people are intentionally comparing/judging you.  Furthermore, I still have 7 weeks of hard training and clean eating to get my body competition ready.
As it turns out, although a few of the women looked jaw-dropping amazing (one woman had the most beautiful abs I have ever seen) most of the women there were in the same boat as me – still 7 weeks of clean eating and hard training needed. In fact, there were a few women that I was probably ahead of in terms of my physique. That totally shocked me. As if that weren’t shock enough, as we got started I found myself actually having fun! I loved playing pretend as a child, and that is exactly what this felt like. I felt like I was playing dress-up and walking around in my mom’s heels. So, as it turned out, I had nothing to be afraid of. Doing it afraid was worth it!
I, also, got an illustration of a life lesson. While on stage you have to keep smiling the whole time… the whole time while the posing hurts (think arch your back and flex your muscles) AND you are wearing giant pinchy stilettos AND you could possibly be doing this for a long, long time. However, if you look like you are in pain you will probably lose. Where is the life lesson in this? It is in the smiling. Being miserable when things aren’t going your way does nothing for you, but smiling through your trials can actually he

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