Can you jump rope?

One day this week I set myself up to do jump rope sets in between my weight sets. It’s been a couple of years since I jump roped for exercise. But it’s a great cardio exercise so I added it in this past week.

The way I work it is, I do 2 weight lifting exercises and then throw in a cardio exercise of some sort. (3 rounds and at least 6 exercises) ie --row machine, jumping jacks, speed skaters (this one looks so silly but it is really fun!) and, in this case, jump rope. 100 each set.

The first set was a breeze, there was a great song in my headphones and I found a spot on the floor in front of me to watch and just jumped. The second set I was a little more fatigued. And I was in my head too much. I tripped on the jump rope. I hit my head with the jump rope and sent my hat when flying off.

I laughed at myself because I literally had just completed 100 of them with no problem and now all the sudden I literally couldn’t get over the rope once without tripping myself up. I finally talked myself down and got in a few rotations. Then bonked again. GEEZ!!!

I decided that I should just put the stupid rope away and find another exercise, this was too hard.

I went to put the rope away. I was done. This was dumb. I couldn’t jump the rope, but I could easily hop on the eliptical. What happened??? As I am having this conversation with myself(in my head, luckily) I couldn’t put the rope away. I was NOT going to be defeated by a jump rope. Not today!

I went back to my spot. I found a point on the floor in front of me, and turned the rope. Watching the point in front of me, I found my rhythm again. I jumped the rope 100 rotations no hiccups.

Do you find that in life? Sometimes we have a groove. We are in the zone. We can handle our rotations with ease and feel great. And then all the sudden, out of nowhere, we take our eye off the point in front of us. We get in our own head and we end up falling down? We turn the stupid rope and expect everything to just go with ease but it doesn't. We hit our own head, we lose sight of the spot in front of us. It’s easy to give up. To put the jump rope away and find something else to do.

What if instead of giving up, we simply acknowledge our desire to quit. We we step back, acknowledge that desire with no judgement of ourselves. Then ask the question, "what works best for me, what has worked in the past?" 

What can you do when you really just want to give up, find something else to do?

1. Step back and acknowledge the desire with no judgement.

2. Laugh at yourself. C'mon! You are human, and kinda funny.

3. Then, focus on what is in front of you, {in the case of the jump rope -a spot on the floor} or just the next step to accomplish. When the focus is too broad or seems too difficult we want to give up. 

4. Find the rythmn again and stay in the zone. Just keep going, ride it out and knock off that task like a BOSS!

5. Now remind yourself that you have accomplished something, even if it doesn't seem significant because you are going to build on that for the next step and the one after that and the one after that. 

Get out there and jump some rope or knock out your to-do list or lose those 3 lbs or file for the LLC. Stay focused on what is in front of you and find your zone. I totally believe that you can do this!! 

Let me know if I can help you as you grow your business. I've learned A LOT over these last few years in business and I want to help small businesses grow, it's my passion and heart.