“Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.” – Louis E. Boone
When I was about 12 years old, I tried taking tennis lessons for one summer. I don’t think I was very good, and I hadn’t played since then…. until today.
My hubby had asked me a few times in the past couple of weeks if I wanted to take advantage of the multiple tennis courts in our community. He took my answer of, ”Yeah, sure, maybe…” as a go-ahead to come home with a new pink tennis racket for yours truly.
Note: My pink tennis racket is NOT a $600 Chanel one as pictured!
Oh crap. Now I actually have to play with him! I thought.
I guess I was a little hesitant about playing for fear of being completely horrible at it. But the truth is, I think I put myself out there pretty often in unfamiliar circumstances, so why would trying tennis be any different?
Putting any silly fear aside, this afternoon we ventured over to the tennis courts and engaged in an hour of poor form (at least on my part!) and totally not playing by the rules tennis. And you know what? I had a blast. I thought it was so fun that I suggested we could maybe make it a weekly exercise session, or at the very least, something we do again soon. I have a little (okay, a lot) to work on with my tennis skills, but in all honesty, I don’t really care if I was anyone’s entertainment for the day. I got a workout in while spending time with my hubby, being outside, and laughing my ass off all at once. Can’t really get much better than that in my opinion!
My tennis session brings up something I’ve talked about multiple times – having variety in my workouts. To me, switching up my exercise routine keeps things fun. Besides keeping you engaged, constantly switching up your workouts also keeps your body guessing. If you do the same exercises every single time you work out, your body adapts quickly, and then you stop seeing results. Whomp.
In the past week, here were the workouts I did:
Monday – the bike circuit routine I blogged about here
Tuesday – mountain biking
Wednesday – power yoga
Thursday – a circuit routine focusing on legs
Friday – hiking
Saturday – active rest day (only light yoga, stretching, and a long walk with my pup)
Sunday – tennis playing!
So blog friends, in moving forward with your week and your life in general, why not get out of your normal routine and try something new? Life is too short to always be playing it safe, whether it be something smaller like trying out a new workout or type of cuisine, to something bigger, such as going on an adventurous vacation or experimenting with a totally new look. Just take a chance and do it, because in the words of Helen Keller, ”Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” What do you want your life to be?
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