By: Jaime Rhodes
It’s easy to get discouraged by your favorite blogger, celebrity, public figure, or even peer. I’m talking about the woman with “Carrie Underwood legs”, who happily completes her two-hour daily workout. Or the friend with the will power to skip out on a trip for ice cream (who’s probably crazy). Or the person who just seems to be thankful for EVERYTHING. These people are often met with eye-rolls from others. Not for their progress, but for their ability to look as if running until your legs feel numb is actually fun (I’m sure some really do love the feeling—however, I believe that many do not).
Society pressures us to do, act and speak in a certain manner. Social media tells us to approach everything in life with love, happiness, and minimal road blocks.
In theory? Sounds great. Who wouldn’t want to love every single day. In reality? These “perfect” practices are few and far between, as a general observation (judging from personal experience, too…)
As a frequent eye-roller, I have found a glimmer of hope for those of us who have days where going to the gym is too daunting of a task. And being thankful for what you have is much harder than wishing you could be like someone else. Through my experience, I have found that a key to loving more of what I am doing is to love the results before all else. Results being any victory large or small, not simply the end result of say, losing 10 pounds.
For example, you tell yourself that you’ll head to the gym three times per week, for three weeks. You want to work-out, but you hate working out, and claim it’s not for you.
Fine, so we all don’t find feeling like an outcast in a sea of buff men and toned women desirable.
Driving 10 minutes to do what you said you wanted to do becomes too difficult, and you skip a day here and there. You eventually say “screw it”. Suddenly it’s been three weeks—and you’ve accomplished nothing but feeling bitter and unsatisfied.
However, the days you gathered the courage and energy to go and complete your workout, you felt great. Not only did you feel less guilty about chowing down your large pepperoni pizza that night, but you felt accountable—as if you accomplished something. That feeling alone, the feeling of holding yourself accountable, is the result.
In order to love what we do, we must acknowledge and love our results (besides, who doesn’t love instant gratification?).
The more instant gratification you can create for yourself (no matter how small) the more results you will see. You might like sweating your clothes off at the gym, and not losing those 10 pounds after one visit. You might not love spending your morning on a treadmill, but you will be more committed to doing so, if that’s ultimately what you want.
Besides a workout, you can love results through any aspect of life, with any goal.
The less you complained yesterday because you decided to interrupt your negative thoughts by giving a compliment to someone else? A result. The less you rolled your eyes (and more beautiful you looked) deciding to smile at everyone your eyes met, instead of looking away? A result. These examples, although seemingly insignificant, are all instant gratification creators—ones that can turn your self-proclaimed “average” day, week, or life into one with more purpose, less eye-rolling, and more results.
When you let yourself love a result, large or small, you are subconsciously loving a process. When you love the process, you are committed. When you are committed, there is no telling how much you will accomplish, and how much you will enjoy doing so.
Jaime Rhodes is a sophomore at the University of Indianapolis. She is currently on the track team, and she dreams of becoming a lawyer someday. She loves fitness, advocating, and rap music. You can follow along with her life at @jaimjaimr on Instagram.
