Create a Little Muscular Balance

I've been busy the past couple of weeks preparing for a couple of athletic events that are coming up. Don't misunderstand - these are not serious competitive events, just a local 5K run and a couple of marathon-type hiking treks later on in the summer. Right now I'm certainly in no shape to do either of those, so I've been easing myself into training at a local fitness center. I've been pounding my new running shoes (which are quite sporty) on the lap track along with a few other folks who are working on New Year's promises.

I told a good friend who is a professional personal fitness trainer about my efforts, and she was quick with some advice: make sure to run in the opposite direction from time to time. In other words, don't run each workout session clockwise or counter-clockwise. Switch things up. But it's not just to change the view; there's an important physical reason as well. You see, if one only runs laps in one direction, the same hip and ankle muscles are worked all the time. The muscles on the other side aren't trained as much, making them much more prone to injury as the training runs get longer and longer.

It all makes sense, and I'm doing what I can to take that advice. It occurs to me that the same advice can be applied to a lot of things. The way we go about life, for instance. I think it's safe to say that no one is good at all things. We all have strengths and weaknesses. But too often we gravitate immediately to the things we're good at and ignore the things that might need a little more work.

For example, most of us are excellent consumers, but not quite as good at giving. Conversely, some people just want to give all the time and never practice the art of graceful receiving. Either way, there's an imbalance. We tend to read the same types of books, watch the same types of shows, and become so habituated with our lives that we don't try much of anything that's new.

I have found that as I've grown older, I love being curious and learning new things. In the last few years I've sampled all sorts of new activities, read books that I normally wouldn't, listened to new music, and worked on a few new hobbies. I've smoked a turkey (success), tried golf (we won't talk about that), done some home brewing (success), studied chess (more losses than wins), and tried baking (long ways to go). I'm having a blast. New muscles are being trained.

So get out there and work some new mental muscles. It doesn't hurt to stretch those character muscles of patience, gratitude, temperance, and generosity as well. Sometimes those can get a bit flabby. This is a long life road we're on. Simply running laps can get a little boring. Plus, the more things we train and learn the more we'll be ready for whatever comes along.