Embrace The Novice

Who doesn’t love a good old gym stereotype? There’s some you love and some you hate.

You have the juiced-up bodybuilders with veins bulging so far out they seem to be on the brink of passing out during each rep. You have your “all upper body, no lower body” dudes who look like Arnold up top and a ballerina below. You have your cardio bros who spend an hour walking on the treadmill at the highest incline the machine can handle.

But I’m neither of those.

Instead, I’m one of those calisthenics dudes who swing on the monkey bars, walk on their hands, and do handstand pushups instead of squats.

That’s me.

But I didn’t wake up one morning, after wishing upon a shooting star, and suddenly have the power to do insane bodyweight movements. They took years to learn. They involved a lot of falls and a lot of weird looks at the gym.

There were (and still are) plenty of days where I embarrass myself trying to learn a new skill. People who have never seen me raise their eyebrows and think, “What’s this lunatic up to?”

That’s how I felt today.

I tried doing a new handstand trick and failed over and over again. I looked more pathetic than a toddler learning how to swim. My legs kicked into the air and flailed around like a toddler trying not to drown.

Most people would be embarrassed by this. But I didn’t care. You can’t become a master at something without first becoming a novice.

So don’t fear being a novice. Embrace it.