Patience is a virtue. Coming from someone who is internally and irrefutably impatient, I try to tell myself that fact almost every day. Patience with my clients, the economy, that darn red light on 12th Ave and Highway 7, and with life in general. Steadily, ploddingly even, we all make our way towards our goals. Those plateaus of achievement not only make us feel successful, but show us our next vista, the next goal. “There’s always going to be another mountain” as Miley Cyrus so “eloquently” sings. So it got me thinking, if plateaus are a measurement of success in life, why are "plateaus", in our quest for a healthy body, practically a dirty word?
Plateaus are great! Plateaus rock! Be happy when you get to one, relish in where you’re at and where you might have come from. Plateaus are incredibly valuable and necessary. Plateaus are like still being in school and having the summers off. Now I don’t mean you get to stop working out or mow through a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos…my favorite! In fact a plateau is the most important time to continue doing exactly what you’re doing. Your body just needs to chill in its new place before it can move on. It needs a break from changing and is just asking for a little time to get use to its new self.
We look at plateaus with impatience and with a sense of failure when in fact, it’s just the opposite. Plateaus are stepping stones and a slow steady climb will always get us to our ultimate destination. Skipping steps could send us all the way back down. As my best friend Robbin says, take the next right step. Sometimes that step is not forcing the next step at all.
Work out smart and see you in the gym!