Try Again or Do It Differently?

Have there been times in your life when you asked yourself this question? Often, setbacks in our journeys test our determination and capacity to persist. But sometimes, the setbacks signal a need to change course. For a different course might lead to the same outcome, or a better one.

​"Can I do it differently this time?" - That’s the question I ask myself as I find myself heading toward injury-again. Injuries are no strangers in my life. Over the last 10 years of ~~training~~ workouts (the way I was doing it wasn't really training), I've spent more time recovering from injuries than actually training. Each time, I was lucky enough to come back, and as I write this, I'm still in the process of recovering from one, muscular imbalances bad enough to bring me down from easily running 21K to struggling to cover 2 kilometers without pain.

My tendency to push too hard too soon is to blame, most of the times. At least, I believe so. Is it because the runner’s high is too strong and gets me carried away? Or is it that the will to sacrifice today’s high for a longer tomorrow isn’t strong enough? A tomorrow where I'm able to stay injury free for years - something that hasn't happened in the last decade. My defaults won't help me get there, so I have to consciously override them. This doesn't guarantee a different outcome but opens up the possibility for one, which is 'good enough'. ​While the example of running may not apply to all, if you dig deeply enough, you might find patterns in your lives that are keeping you 'stuck', for lack of a better word. Often, our biggest strengths become the obstacles when overused, because as they say it - when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

We pick up different tools, master them, and they usually work well for us. Seldom do we question if the same tools could be also causing some of our problems. A common example is attachment styles that we develop as children. Patterns which, helpful back then, often become the biggest roadblocks in our relationships. I have several examples from my own life. My hedonic approach to training - giving it my best in the moment, yielded some great results. But that same approach also led to repeated injuries. I'm fortunate enough to be able to try a different approach. But I'll find out only in a few months how well I'm practicing what I preach here.

One thing I can say with certainty is that ​I'm learning my lessons the hard way. Are you? Or are you still in the process of identifying the lessons you need to learn?