The Best Class of My Life

Tomorrow will be the best class I've ever taken!

How do I know?

It always is...

Because that's the decision I make on my drive to most classes. "This is my favorite class," and/or "This will be my best class" is what I'm saying to myself as I'm getting out of my car, grabbing my gym bag. Many times I say it out loud before getting out of the car or during my drive.

You should consider the same. Once you've decided to go to class, put 100% effort into doing your best, and purposely set your attitude in a positive direction. Nobody is forcing you or me to take classes; we choose to be there, so why not have a good attitude about it?

When I take some classes, I'm often the least skilled during some parts of the class. (That goes with the territory of starting dance in my 40's.) When we're doing ab work, balance, stretching or other conditioning, I may not be the best in the class, but I'm working toward 100% of my ability, trying to best my previous efforts. My mindset is, "Nobody is going to outwork me," especially on body weight conditioning, where I'm competing directly with myself.

Others may do it better than you today, but you'll consistently close the gap by working toward your maximum AND setting the right attitude toward growth.

Does that work 100% of the time? Of course not!

Some days are better than others, and I still have those occasional moments where I wonder what I was thinking when I started. Nothing works 100% of the time, but when my attitude is right, I do much better than on those days where I'm down on myself. You never want to start a class with the "I'm a loser" or "I can't do this..." attitude.

A great attitude won't overcome lack of practice or ignorance of the fundamentals, but a stronger attitude makes everything easier, even if "easier" doesn't mean "easy". (There's a big difference between those words!)

Who really cares how you measure against the others today? In my case, 95% of the people in classes started way down the road from me. If you and I continue and work toward constant refinements, we'll pass most people, except the others on the same continuous improvement road.

Once you make the decision to go, don't waste time on what you can't do or how you compare to the others in the room, but instead focus on what you can improve, compared to your last class.

Make up your mind that "today will be the best class of my life" and say it every time you go. Over time you'll be amazed at the results. It works for me. Please let me know what you're doing to keep your attitude growing in a positive direction.

Inside the ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down.
It's staying down that's wrong.
--Muhammad Ali