Shape Is A Look; Conditioning Is A Feel - Grasshopper

I’m sure if you’re anything like me you’ve said, “I gotta’ get back in shape.” That means you want to reshape your body to a specific image you’re holding in your mind – maybe from a time when your body resembled that image. Good luck with that.

Conditioning is quite different. Let me give you an example. Imagine you’re a football player who’s been training rigorously in the off season to keep his body in shape. You look damn good. If mythological figure Narcissus were in your mirror, he would give you a thumbs up.

Now you go out on the field and practice with your well-toned body, but you don’t have the feel you had at the close of last season. You’re in shape but you’re out of condition.

Conditioning takes practice.

Reminds me of a story . . . about 7 years ago I joined a gym that had a swimming pool. Years before that, I had regularly gone to an another gym to swim. I would swim non-stop for roughly 35 to 40 minutes. It was about a mile in distance. That was my workout back then.

So I looked to recreate my swimming workout at the new gym after several years of being away from a pool. After swimming about 3 minutes, I was gasping for air. I had to stop and catch my breath every 3 laps or so before continuing my workout. My body was in relatively good shape, but I was way out of condition.

But conditioning is more than physical. You may want to ask yourself, “How mentally conditioned am I for the task I’m attempting to accomplish? If it’s something new, prepare for some fits and starts before it becomes second nature. You’re reconditioning your mind for, what for many is, an uphill climb.

We fall into patterned ways of doing things and attempting to outgrow those patterns takes a sustained, incremental, reconditioning effort. You've got to conquer the foothills before you even attempt to scale the mountain.

Most people I know think they have to eradicate a pattern that’s getting in the way of their progress. That’s a fool’s errand. You’ll always have that pattern, but won’t be as conditioned into it once you embark on a trail to outgrow its domination.

Think of it this way. You may have a picture of you in a cute little outfit you wore as a tot. That outfit still exists, maybe in an attic, or a second hand shop, or a landfill somewhere.  Let’s pretend you find it and attempt to try it on. It just doesn’t fit anymore. You’ve outgrown it, not eradicated it.

Mental reconditioning is retraining your feelings to outgrow the old way and grow into a new way. It’s not a quick fix. They don’t last. When you take shortcuts, you cut yourself short.

Reconditioning takes patience and practice. I’m reminded of a quote from actor Hugh Jackman who plays the character Wolverine in the movies. He said, “It’s easier to stay in shape than it is to get in shape.” He could have easily added, “You have to condition yourself to stay in shape.”

All the best,