I’ve been practicing yoga for quite some time now, but only decided to take it a bit more seriously last year after discovering Ashtanga Yoga. Every morning when I wake up I do yoga from anywhere between 10 minutes and an hour depending on my schedule for the day.
In the beginning, I found that I progressed quickly. I was able to get into binds that seemed very difficult after only a few months. I was more flexible and my body generally felt better. My yoga practice was so gratifying that I couldn’t imagine skipping it.
Then a few more months passed and I started to plateau. The steady progression that I saw early on in the practice dropped off. I was trying to get into a headstand and I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t lift my legs straight up in the air. I was depended on the wall to keep me from falling over. It got to the point where all I could think about was getting into a headstand. I started feeling frustrated with my progress.
Getting up in the morning and rolling out my yoga mat became a chore. “If I don’t get into a headstand today I’m quitting,” I’d sometimes tell myself. In the morning when everyone else in my house was still asleep I was choosing to torture myself by doing something that was beginning to feel useless. I wanted to progress, but I just wasn’t. Still I continued because I’d promised myself I would.
A few weeks ago I realized that my problem was that I was so focused on the end result of getting into that headstand that I wasn’t enjoying the journey. I was brushing over the steps to get there. I realized that I needed to practice every step with the same dedication … making sure my elbows are the correct distance apart, putting my head on the mat, firming my shoulder girdle, tightening my core, pulling my legs in and up. Every step on the way to the headstand was equally as important.
I started focusing on these steps enjoying the journey instead of focusing on the end goal and I was able to lift up with straight legs into a headstand without the safety net of a wall behind me. When it happened it seemed like a miracle. All these months of trying finally paid off. All of the falling seemed worth it. If I had quit months ago like I’d felt like doing I would have never experienced that breakthrough.
How many of us quit just before we are about to experience a major breakthrough? We lose our patience. We forget our purpose. We are so disappointed that the end result hasn’t arrived yet that we throw our hands in the air and walk away. I’m just as guilty of doing it as anybody.
I understand wanting results now and feeling disappointed when they don’t come as quickly as we’ve planned. I understand feeling so frustrated that you just want to walk away. I understand wondering if all this work is really worth it. Your goals are accomplished by chipping away at something everyday a little at a time. It’s not glamorous work. It can be as mundane as repeating that same steps again and again until you’ve got it right. Sometimes it can feel like hard thankless work, but keeping your purpose in mind can give you the strength to carry on.
The journey is just as important as reaching your end goal. I say it all the time, but it took trying to master a headstand to really bring that idea home. When you learn to savor the steps along the way that’s when you’ll finally be able to reach your goal.