Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Overcoming 'the voice'
« twitter followers, comotivate bonds | Main | My new year's blogging resolution »So off I went to my first boxing class EVER tonight...me, three guys my age but who look like they were born with a six pack, and about 25 'yoofs' who were fitter than a butcher's dog. First humiliation: skipping. Now, clearly it helps to be light-footed when you enter the ring, but could there be any worse introduction to the class for someone who's never skipped before than being handed a rope and told to go outside to join the others...so there I was, jumping about 12 inches in the air to clear the rope as I swung it round flicking the nose of anyone stood within 10 feet of me. But I'm a fast learner and within 8 minutes, I'd picked up the old double-bounce jumping style (you won't find it in the text books). Another 5 minutes and I'd perfected the single jump and was managing 4 skips in a row at times. Unfortunatley, all this had the unfortunate effect of buggering me at the 'warm up' phase.
That's when 'the voice' almost convinced me to slope off home. Then I realised, the humiliation is all part of it. Strip away the ego and focus on the job. It's only paranoia that makes us feel out of place. Embrace the situation. And so I did. I lapped it up.
The next 45 minutes was brutally humiliating: why did I have to pick the heavy punch-bag? why was I flanked by 15 year old girls punching twice my speed and why was I defeated by sweat dripping into my eays way before the last of the twelve year olds was done shadow-boxing me into the water cooler?
Unfortunately, the wife's intent on going alternate nights with me so I'm locked into a follow-up session. Now that the voice is defeated, I should be 'on the card' in Vegas by next Christmas!
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