It’s so interesting how much our mind comes into play when it comes to meeting our goals or how we measure our success. We get so caught up in NUMBERS. In measuring our success with statistics, pounds, percentages. I think it’s completely ridiculous that I can be having a perfectly good day, feeling confident about myself and my efforts, and then step on the scale and allow one single number to determine how I feel about myself. One measure of my body’s force on the ground against gravity can whole heartedly determine the last thoughts that run through my mind before I go to sleep. Absurd, yet totally a daily struggle.
Why do we give numbers so much power over us? We allow the size of our jeans or the number on a scale to determine our happiness, our success, our overall mindset? We are all guilty of it, and I challenge you to join me in trying to break this mold. If I am going to let a number define me, it is going to be the new personal record I hit on squats last night, or the number of people that I made smile by the end of the day. We are defined by SO many things, and these silly numbers should not be one of them. Be defined by your strength, your inner beauty, your ability to make others laugh. Choose to be recognized for your phenomenal power clean, the beads of sweat dripping off your brow after a killer workout, or your constant positivity even when a situation might not be 100% ideal. Choose to applaud yourself for your current efforts, rather than getting down on yourself for the goals that you have yet to achieve.
I am a firm believer that a positive mindset can completely make or break your progress. Whether you think you CAN or you think you CAN’T…you’re probably right. Believe in yourself, be your biggest fan, love every inch of your body and THANK it for all that it does for you.
I sound like a sappy cliche pinterest board, but I don’t really care. I am sick and tired of beating myself up over a stupid number that has absolutely nothing to do with who I am inside. I am sick of justifying the number staring back at me with water weight, supplements, and excuses. I am sick of never being good enough for myself, for feeling as though my efforts aren’t paying off, and for choosing to ignore all of my accomplishments to focus on my downfalls.
Take a second to look at how you appear to the outside world. If someone were asked to describe you, what would they say?
“She weighs about 150 pounds today, but she’s skipping dinner and drinking 2 gallons of water before bed, so hopefully that number will be less in the morning” THAT. IS. RIDICULOUS. Guess who cares about how much you weigh? NO ONE. Guess who wants to be your friend solely because you dropped 2% body fat last month? NO ONE. Guess who is going to disown you because your pant size went up? NO ONE. Noticing a trend here?
What matters is what we give back. What sparks the fire within us, what gets our passion burning. What makes us tick, what we have been through, and what we have learned from our experiences. What matters is being someone’s shoulder to cry on, standing up for what we know is right, fighting for someone we don’t want to lose. We can spend our entire lives allowing one single number to define our happiness, or we can live our lives breaking the mold, determining our own success, and CHOOSING to be happy no matter what.
I stumbled across a Nike Women quote a few years back, and it has always stayed with me, especially on days like today:
A WOMAN IS OFTEN MEASURED by the things she cannot control. She is measured by the way her body curves or doesn’t curve, by where she is flat or straight or round. She is measured by 36-24-26 and inches and ages and numbers, by all the outside things that don’t ever add up to who she is on the inside. And so if a woman is to be measured, let her be measured by the things she can control, by who she is and who she is trying to become. Because every woman knows, measurements are only statistics and STATISTICS LIE.
I hope you feel beautiful right now. I hope you feel powerful, accomplished, and hopeful. I hope you know that you can do anything you set your mind to and that you are only defined by the things you allow yourself to be defined by. You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it and whether you will even allow it to effect you or not. Strive to have an inner peace that is so strong that it can’t be broken. You have the power to do anything you want to do… what will it be?
take.your.heart 
My wife is in great shape and will probably outlive me by 20 years. However, she is also the kindest, sweetest, and most compassionate person in the world — and this means more to me than any number anyone could ever assign to her based upon physical attributes.
I love this! Thank you for sharing. Part of learning how to recognize our strengths and most beautiful qualities is surrounding ourselves with the people that see them even when we cannot.
Let me give you one illustration of her character. My wife is 4’10” and very petite—she works in a public high school as a secretary. A couple of years ago we were in the parking lot at a mall in the Chicago suburbs. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a gangbanger walking towards us in a hurry (he was clearly wearing the colors of a violent street gang in our area). I drew my wife closer to me and got ready for a fight since it looked like we were getting ready to be robbed. Just before we reached the door this gang member jumped in front of my wife and said, “Let me get the door there for you Mrs. P.” My wife knew this kid from school! She asked him about his mother and he said she was doing fine. This miscreant had a gang tattoo under his eye to tell the world he had killed someone before, but as violent as he might of been to the rest of the world he respected my wife because she had always treated him like a person — even when other people at the school wrote him off. This is character — how could anyone put a number on that?
What a wonderful and beautiful story and testament of your wife’s internal beauty. There is no number that could ever measure the amount of beauty that an individual radiates. It is always such a good reminder for me to think about all of the blessings in my life, all of the people that are there to lift me up when I am down, and the people who know me so well that they can sing my heart’s song back to me when I have forgotten the words. Your wife sounds like a wonderful, beautiful, pure woman, and she is a lucky woman to have someone who sees her for all of her best qualities.
Too often people get in toxic relationships where all of their negative qualities are drawn out, while their beauty and light becomes masked. What an amazing love you have found where you are with someone you speak so highly of, as I’m sure she does of you, as well. Thanks again for sharing.
You are absolutely right, the number shouldn’t mean anything! Seriously, if you are doing the right things and like how you look and feel, what the heck does a number on a scale mean? Nothing, nothing at all. Hope you can stick with that attitude!
I am sure that I will still have days where I will struggle or get consumed by the “numbers”, but I know that I am worth so much more than a number on a scale and that my daily effort is not so I will be happy with my weight. WEIGHT really doesn’t mean anything to anyone. It is the force of your body against gravity. You could be 100 pounds of fat or 100 pounds of muscle, and while the number is the same… there is a HUGE difference! I am going to measure my success by the weight I can LIFT, the weight I can remove from someone else’s shoulders, and by the weight of my conscience when I do what I know is right. That “weight” matters so much more than a stupid number on the scale. Thanks for your comment!! 🙂
VERY well said!!! Kinda feel like going out and squatting or deadlifting or something after reading this! LOL Great attitude, just keep that and you’ll be golden!
My previous attempts at getting into shape have been ruined because all I focused on was numbers. This time I barely look at a scale and focus on my long term goals/ how I feel. I now love fitness and workout regularly 🙂 Really enjoyed this post, Thanks
I am glad you enjoyed it, it’s been great to receive so much positive feedback. I think that I lot of people could benefit from never weighing themselves again. Never measuring or picking and prodding, but rather listening to their own bodies and deciding for themselves how they feel, rather than let a number decide that for them. It makes me smile to hear that you have found a love for working out and fitness that doesn’t involve being at war with yourself against the numbers that really don’t matter.
Wow I must say your very beautiful 😊