Take the Win

For the past year, I've been working through a pretty significant back issue. Recently, I've begun to discover that a key element of my recovery is not doing the things that repeatedly cause injury. I know, I know, obvious right?

But I want to deadlift -- said with a bit of a whine. It is a functional movement that is really nothing more than picking something heavy up off of the floor and I should be able to do that right? Despite the fact that when my back is flaring up, I can't pick my friggin' socks up off the floor.

I'm learning -- or at least I’m trying to learn -- that the only way I'm going to get better is if I stop before I feel pain. Which means stopping far, far short of what I think I should be capable of. And now I have an expression for that -- I will literally say aloud "Joyce, take the win." I focus on what I did accomplish and I walk away.

Now, this is not actually about my back or about lifting weights. It is about learning to take the win. Learning to stop before you are exhausted and burned out. Learning to look at what we have accomplished with joy and satisfaction instead of beating ourselves up for the things still left to do.

We need to learn to take the win.