The Lab
The Lab is where I think out loud. These are my raw notes, half-formed ideas, scripture observations, clinical patterns I’m noticing, things I’m working through, and who knows what else.
I also like to make things, so The Lab is my way of holding myself accountable.
This is where it happens before it gets polished and market-y. Newest posts at the top.
Consistent Effort is a Principle, Not a Hack
/in The Lab/by loriLifting 12 pounds today. Will I one day make it to 45?
As a woman in midlife, I’m determined to build and maintain muscle to help me stay healthy and strong as I get older.
The past few years, I’ve poked at my workouts with a stick. I haven’t really committed to anything consistent in about four years now.
And this week that caught up with me. Big numbers in all the wrong places.
So arm-in-arm with a healthy eating plan focused on protein and fiber, I decided also this week that this four-year streak comes to a close.
The first bastion to build is strength training, starting with the big butt and leg muscles. Followed by building a strong back and core.
For conditioning, I’m starting with 12 pound dumbbells. A place that will allow me to rebuild safely and that won’t blow me out of the water. You can go too hard, too fast when it comes to exercise.
I do feel a little like a girly-girl with my small 12 pound weights. But I’m also okay with the time needed to build these muscles again.
After yesterday’s inaugural workout, I would have loved to wake up this morning with all the extra weight gone and my glimmering quads on display as the thing of beauty they once were.
Sadly, I woke up to the same body.
But I expected that. Because there’s zero scenario where I should see visible changes overnight. That’s not a thing.
It’s easy to accept that principle with exercise.
We’re quick to give ourselves time and margin for growth at the gym. You have no problem giving yourself lots of atta-girls and you got this, you’ll see results if you don’t quit, rah rah rah.
We understand that the visible results of fitness take time.
So why do we feel so helpless when we don’t see overnight success in other parts of our lives?
When our business doesn’t make the big money in the first year, or five?
In our relationships when we keep seeing the same results even though we’ve tried hard to improve communication?
In changing the erroneous ways of thinking that keep defeating us?
All of those things require enormous repetition, over and over and over until you wonder if any of this is even remotely working.
Until one day, you notice that things are moving a little.
Consistent effort isn’t something you pull out to solve a problem right now. It’s not something you can maxx or hack.
It’s a principle that relies on the volume of repetition that makes you blind to the results.
After a while, you learn to love the reps.
The principles are the same.
MORE POSTS FROM THE LAB
Still Wobbly After All These Years
/in The Lab/by loriOne of the surprising things about getting older is how little I have my stuff together.
When you forecast out in the future, it’s easy to imagine becoming a person who’s defeated all your self-limiting beliefs.
Someone who finally “gets it” and is now acting in accordance with some newly discovered set of values and rules about life.
But the reality feels different.
I expected at this age I would feel less like a wobbly newborn fawn and more like a proud lioness.
The reality still feels more wide-eyed and unsuspecting than I’d like.
While I know more about the dangers my own actions (or inactions) can bring, I still sometimes feel like prey to the larger world.
My brain and my heart are always on the move trying to figure out what’s happened behind me, and what might be ahead.
What can I learn from back there that I can use?
And what lies ahead that I haven’t even thought to want yet?
Should I just graze here for a bit? Or should I eat with my head turned slightly up?
That’s the doe. Traveling the terrain with lessons, and an ear turned toward what’s next.
No coronation, just the next stretch of grass.
There’s no one point where you step into some specific role in your life.
It’s one role that keeps evolving.
There are always new things to learn. New experiences to try.
And, as always, the voices (internal and external) that try their very best to ensure you stay small in the tall grass.
That doesn’t mean you don’t try your best to become that version of yourself you see in your head.
You can’t adequately explain that person to anyone. That person is too complex with dreams, fears, and fragile emotions.
The only choice you have is to keep moving and understand that the wobbly legs are part of putting yourself out there.
If you’re not getting that wobbly feeling, then you may not be trying hard enough.
Earthly life isn’t a linear series of steps that lead to a grand coronation upon a great rock above the plain.
It’s a convoluted jungle mess of vines, rapids, rocks, streams, and trails that take you to the next place, some with more drama than others.
The more you embrace it like that, the happier you’ll be.
You will never arrive.
You’ll always be just arriving.
MORE POSTS FROM THE LAB
When Every Option Feels Pointless
/in The Lab/by loriWhen you hit a true stuck point, every direction you want to go seems to throw a stop sign at you.
It’s not like you CAN’T go anywhere.
It’s that any direction seems like it won’t lead to anywhere meaningful. The last thing you want are more options that feel meaningless.
And that’s the part you have to take action against.
When you make it solely about whether or not this action will add up to anything, you’ll stay stuck.
Because action, any action at all, no matter how minuscule, simply serves to keep you from spinning your wheels at that intersection.
Movement forward is forward movement.
Any movement at all.
And that right there keeps you from being stuck.
So when this hits you, do one little part of your thing.
Commit to do one thing.
For now.
MORE POSTS FROM THE LAB