By Samantha Parrish
While reading my daily devotional the other day I was faced with the question-“How often are you treating inconveniences like problems?”
This really stood out to me. As a mother of 2 toddlers, very rarely do things go according to my plan but I often see that the way I handle these ‘change of plans’ really effects the remainder of my day. Is leaving the house 5 minutes late a problem or an inconvenience? Is food on the floor a problem or an inconvenience? When I think about what a real problem would be, a family member sick or injured, a house fire, a car accident, etc, it makes what I had been qualifying as a problem seem quite small.
This may not seem like a big distinction but when we are talking about mindset it can be huge. Inconveniences are small setbacks that can be analyzed, adjusted and dealt with; problems are major issues that will take time. Too often I treat an inconvenience like a problem and get derailed from my progress for the day or even the week. I am not saying you will never face problems because undoubtedly you will but often the other stuff is just…life. Once I started viewing things this way I felt much more power to attack my day, and I found that those little things didn’t upset me as much.
This applies to training as well. You need to be able to accurately assess an inconvenience vs. a problem. Pain is a problem- this is something that needs to be dealt with immediately. A less than stellar outing, radar workout, long toss workout, command workout, lift session etc.- those are inconveniences. Use what you weren’t happy with in those circumstances to coach you and be your guide to improve next time. But these types of things cannot disrupt your mindset or they will undoubtedly disrupt your positive progression.
Next time you find yourself getting sidelined by something ask yourself: ‘Is this an inconvenience or a problem?’ and deal with it as such. Attack today and whatever it brings.
