The Gym Bag

Remember the first time you went to the gym. You were quite prepared. You had towels, extra shoes, 2 different watches, a couple of heart rate monitors, two sets of clothes, two bars of soap, your hairspray, your makeup kit, extra deodorant, and you even remember to bring your extra special loofa just for good measure. That's a lot of stuff to carry around, day in and day out, while you navigate the gym. 

 

As you, no doubt, continued to progress, you started to realize that it was okay to leave certain things behind. Your bag then began to shrink according to your situation. You became less afraid of what you don't have and more self aware of the badassery that lied dormant within yourself. All of this STUFF to prepare yourself for when your workout was over. It was an amazing shift in how you saw things.

 

You see, when you first started going to the gym with the extra special bag, the workout had to fit into your schedule. There were other things more important to you and the workout was just a part of the daily grind of life. It was nothing special. It came, it went, and you carried on. However, slowly there was change. 

 

You started noticing positive things going on with your body. You started becoming self assure and self confident. You begin to know your limits, and even better, how to overcome them. No one could tell you diffferent. Perhaps they laughed at first, now they sought you out for advice. Perhaps you had once been a student of the gym, but now had become a sage. More importantly, your workouts became a lifestyle. It became a part of you as integral as breathing. That was the day you showed up at the gym without the bag.

 

I'm reminded of Erykah Badu's song "Bag Lady." One of the lines she says "You can't hurry up, you got too much stuff." How much does that apply to your journey. Are you still lugging huge bags out to the gym, or have you become BAWSS enough to trust in yourself, your plan, and your direction to let the things weighing you down melt away? Take stock. Take inventory. You might just find that you left that bag at home a long time ago, and all that remains is the strap that used to pin it to your life. 

 

"To hell with circumstances. I create opportunities.” – Bruce Lee