Have you ever seen a child playing with a broom set, or a sponge, or some other piece of housework/cleaning equipment? There’s something rather delightful about watching a kid do something that we consider an obligation or chore -- something that we dread -- and seeing them enjoy it as much as they would enjoy playing with another of their favorite toys. It’s cute, in the way that a child doing any sort of “grown-up” activity is, but it’s also a good lesson.

The thing is, I think that activities like sweeping the floor and washing dishes are not themselves all that unenjoyable. Rather, we’ve made them unenjoyable. We’ve built complexes up around the activity, attached obligation and preconceived societal notions, and burdened them down to make them something they really are not. This begs the question: what if you enjoyed doing the dishes? What if you looked forward to sweeping the floors, or mowing the lawn, or dusting the shelves? Not only would your home be a lot cleaner, but you might be a lot happier, too.

I see these same constructed complexes built up around exercise. We’ve been told that exercise is some obligatory thing we must do, that the highest commodity is doing the least amount of exercise possible to get the most results, that exercise is something you just have to get through so you can get on with the enjoyable parts of life. We’ve turned it into something that it is not and created resentment about the whole process before we've even started.

Here’s the thing: you don’t have to exercise. Yes, you heard it here first. You have every freedom to live out your days in idleness and comfort, exercise-free. Exercise is a choice, and a privilege, and something that can be whatever you want it to be. I’m not saying you’ll enjoy every moment (I certainly do not), but what if you stopped believing the story that exercise is an obligation or a burden or a box that must be checked, and started enjoying the process and appreciating the opportunity? It might just change your life.

Your perception is your reality. Make it what you want.

- PS

11/28/17

• Establish max set of unbroken DUs

Then...

• 10 min AMRAP

• 30 DUs

• 50’ burpee broad jumps