Every year I try to gain a new skill, this year I decided to do something that I have never done before, but always wanted to do, boxing. It is a good skill to have and it is a great calorie burner.
It all came about by coincidence, a trainer at the gym told me on the way home on the bus that one of the trainers at the gym is an excellent boxing coach. I decided to have a chat to him about it and he suggested I come in for a session. I told him that I had never done boxing before, I haven’t even thrown a punch in my life and that I personally think I am very uncoordinated (I have the habit of knocking things over or bashing my head on doors). Most tall people would tell you that they feel quite uncoordinated and being 6ft3 I am no different.
My first reaction when I realised that I would be doing this was, “Oh God, the entire gym is going to see how uncoordinated I am!” It’s the same fear that most first time gym goers experience, which I went through as well, that fear of looking like a fool, looking inadequate or feeling that you don’t belong.
I have memories of feeling ashamed that I had to do pushups on my knees, commonly referred to as a “girlie pushup” or when I tried to finally do a pull-up and had to jump to do one pull-up. Or the time I finished my maximum bench of 20kg only to be followed by a guy that warms up with 40kg loaded onto a bar.
It is not an uncommon feeling amongst anyone attempting to go to the gym for the first time. We struggle with the fear that we will not be as good as the person next to us or make a fool of ourselves, or that people would judge us for being overweight and this can be true of anything we attempt in life. Remember everyone had a first time in the gym, everyone stood there thinking; “I have to do pushups on my knees and the guy next to me does 20 standard ones”, “I can’t do even one pull-up” or “I feel so fat in my t-shirt, look how thin he is”.
I still see people struggling with pushups or benching 20kg. And it puts a smile on my face as I realise how far I have come and it makes me proud that I kept at it. Now I am that guy that uses 40kg for a light warm up. Remember everyone was once a beginner, just keep on fighting through it, I promise it gets better.
I then realised how stupid I am of being afraid of people thinking I look like a fool boxing, because in a year, I will be better at it and someone will look at me and go, “I want to be able to do that”! And if I didn’t try it, I wouldn’t have discovered how much I love it. I had the same fear of yoga classes and spin classes.
One important thing that this journey has taught me is that if I live my life in fear or cloud my mind with self doubt, I will never experience new things and hold myself back from achieving the things I want to achieve.
