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TL;DR: No one likes doing things they're bad at, right? What if you stuffed your fear of failure and your perfectionism in your back pockets and tried doing it anyway?
this one sucks, but stay with me
I was in a yoga class one day, and the teacher cued some handstand work, which typically scares anybody unless they have a solid handstand practice.
It involves so many feelings:
doing something hard.
doing something hard in front of other people!!
possibly hurting yourself.
possibly falling and looking silly!!
or, simply not wanting to and feeling like you have to.
A voice chirped up in the room after hearing all of the offered modifications: "okay... so what's the easy one?"
The instructor replied straightforwardly, "There are no easy ones. They're all hard. Choose one that challenges you safely. We don't get better at the things we don't practice, and we usually practice the things we are already good at."
Yeesh. I'm sure "child's pose" was the sought after answer, but there we were... getting told about ourselves.
It had me thinking the rest of the class - how many times have I not wanted to do something (or completely turned it down) because every part of it looked hard? Too many times to count. Listen, pal, I don't even want to put my laundry away.
On the flipside, I've been in the instructor's shoes both as a yoga teacher and as a dietitian hearing responses like:
"Oh no... I won't ever be able to do that."
"I always think I can do that for myself, and then I just don't."
"The last time I made that meal, it sucked."
"That idea sounds fine now, but I will probably just mess it up myself."
A handstand is not a required part of a yoga practice. Yet, if you want to work on handstands, you have to get comfortable with being really bad at them as you work on getting better at them.
The same goes for starting a morning walk routine, regularly prepping meals for yourself, trying to eat more vegetables or protein or healthy fats, the list goes on.
For example, not everyone needs to meal prep, but for the person who wants to stop ordering takeout and doesn't have time to make lunch in the moment, learning to prep a meal is a challenge with good ROI. Future You is gonna LOVE this!
I'll gladly tell you if something is completely unnecessary or overly complicated as it pertains to nutrition and wellness. And also, we have to make peace with doing the things that serve us without coming close to perfection. The fear of failure or lack of perfectionism can hold us back from making sustainable habits.
What is a realistic and sustainable habit [to you] that you want to be a part of your nutrition or wellness routine?
I'm going to ask you, for one day this week, that you put that fear aside and you offer yourself a chance to give it a try anyway.
Even if you aren't good at it. Even if you end up not liking the lunch you prepped or leaving a new fitness class early.
My Co-Star once reminded me that "if it frustrates you, there's information in it." RUDE, right?
Let's remind ourselves that two things can be true at once. I hated reading that message from Co-Star, and I recognize it's something I needed to see.
You don't know what will happen until you try, and fear of failure is a feeling, not a stop sign.
Put yourself out there. Give it a try. Dip your toes in with full permission to pull them right out if you change your mind. You can do hard things.
Instead of second-guessing all the ways something could go badly, what if we reminded ourselves that it could go great, too?
Here's to f*cking around, finding out, and trying it all over again!
Thank you for reading this blog post! Take care of yourself 🫶🏼
Looking for more support for sustainable habits, we offer 1:1 nutrition counseling and group classes.
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