What a one-handed gymnast taught me about excuses

This past weekend I traveled down to Richmond, VA, to watch the Cal Club Gymnastics team compete in Nationals. Whenever I watch big gymnastics meets, I’m always left feeling so inspired by the grace and skill of the competing gymnasts. At this meet in particular, I was amazed to see grad students in their mid 20s (way past the gymnast retirement age) who were still competing with their college teams. Even more, they were doing tricks that I was never even able to master at the peak of my career in my teens!

At this particular meet, there was a girl named Casey who really stood out to me. Casey was a phenomenal gymnast whose routines caught my eye from the very beginning of the day. She had stunning skills, solid routines, and a peppy attitude. When it came to her last event, floor, I realized that Casey was doing all of her tumbling on one hand. She tumbled with power across the floor – round off-back handspring-double full – and her right hand never touched the ground. I soon found out that Casey had a rod in her right hand, and instead of quitting gymnastics, she adapted her skills to be able to continue with the sport that she loved.

You can watch her amazing routine here:

After watching Casey’s routine, I began to think that if Casey can do gymnastics on one arm, then I should be able to accomplish anything in my life, too.

So this week, instead of letting the excuses rule my decisions, I’ll be living by the mantra “Oh heck, go for it anyway!”

It’s amazing, but I can’t even think of the things that I’ve wanted to do but haven’t done because of the excuses – all I can remember are the excuses that I have! I’m not good enough; I don’t have enough money; I’m too tired. Those are the phrases that I can remember most from my past few months. So whenever I hear those phrases this week, I intend to stop everything that I’m doing and write down what came before that phrase in my head. I’m expecting something like “I really want to lead a cooking class, but I’m not good enough.”  I’ll be scratching that excuse out of my journal, and focusing all my energy on the first part of the sentence. If I ever get stuck, I intend to come back and watch Casey’s floor routine. If she can do that, then what can’t I do?

What are your excuses? What are they holding you back from accomplishing? What do you plan on doing this week instead of giving in to the excuses? I’d love to hear from you!