There’s a point during a really long run where you can almost not blame the woman in the New York Marathon who cabbed it to the finish line. Regardless of how great your training was, your mind and body begin to crave relief, and thoughts can easily drift to wanting to fast track to the finish line to get it.
Now, I said ‘almost’ because shortcuts never pay off in the long term. We both know this. There is a massive sense of accomplishment that comes after having endured and overcome that temptation to quit. Taking the easy way robs you of the gift that only persevering and getting to the finish line the hard way can give.
When my boys were younger, we were in a three-storey mall and needed to get to the highest level from the lowest one. The escalator was out of service and as we got closer to the top, their little legs began to get tired.
First, they asked for us to carry them and then they asked if we could stop and take the elevator. Instead, we took a break and when they were ready to finish the climb, we carried on. As we took the last step, they celebrated the accomplishment of doing it on their own and I relished having seen this profound life lesson unfold before my eyes; don’t take the elevator, take a break if you need to rest, but keep climbing those steps.
It’s a human reaction to want things to be easier when they get hard. Regardless of what you set out to attempt – building of a business, losing weight, finally getting that first chin up – when striving to accomplish anything great, the elevator will at one point or another, tempt you.
It will catch you in a weak moment, when you’re tired and you’ve taken a seat on one of the challenging steps, or have fallen down a few of them and feel like your goal is just too far away.
It will look like a beacon of hope. It will convince you that it’s the answer to getting off the staircase once and for all. It will promise ease; get rich quick without lifting a finger, get famous fast without doing anything of importance, become successful without ever having to fail, or my favourite – lose 30 pounds without exercising or doing the self-disciplined, hard work in the food department.
There is a reason most people who win the lottery have lost all of their winnings within the first year. There is a reason most people who lose weight with a pill gain it all back and usually more. There is a reason that insta-famous people crumble under the weight of the pressure – they never had to build a tolerance up to it. They never learned what they needed to learn that only the climb could have taught.
From a weight loss standpoint, the stairs are the greatest teacher. They make you stronger. They increase the will power to say ‘no’ to all the temptations that arise. As you climb, you will learn what works for your body, what daily work you need to put in in order to lose the weight, and how to overcome obstacles and curve balls.
The staircase will teach you everything you’ll need in order to keep the weight off once you reach your goal. Skipping steps to get there faster will only set you back.
The elevator teaches you one thing and one thing only – dependence on it. The elevator wants you to depend on it to get you there. Reach for it when you are facing something hard and it will be there to make it all easier. Hop on and you’ll bypass all the hard work and time the stairs will take you. The more you take it, the weaker you will get. It’s a figurative and literal fact; the elevator will make you weak, the stairs will make you strong.
Over the years, I’ve watched the trends in the wellness space that rise at the dawn of New Year’s resolutions. The last 20 years has brought with it teas, pills, creams, cleanses, powders, fasts, or contraptions that melt or shake the fat away and diets that claim the same.
The elevator may come dressed looking different each time, but the elevator is still the elevator and it still won’t teach you anything that will actually help you make a lifestyle change. A lot has changed in the world of fitness and nutrition but what has always remained the same is what works long term.
The day in, day out little stuff that adds up to big stuff a year, five years and 10 years from now is drinking more water, eating more lean protein, consuming more veggies, eating less refined sugar, resistance training two to four days a week, cardiovascular conditioning 2-4 days a week and increasing daily movement rather than sitting so much.
These are the boring, step-by-step work items that will lead you to where you wish to go. It’s also the work that will help you stay at your goal when you get there. Without learning how to do it along the way, you’ll revert back to old habits and mindsets and quickly find yourself back at ground zero.
As we stare down another new year and the elevator screams out at you to give it a try, I urge you to reconsider. The stairs will be more effort, they will absolutely take you longer, there will be days and months where you feel like you would rather have a seat on the steps than climb them, but what you’ll gain with each and every brave and determined step can and will never be gained by a fast track to the top.
Start your new year with one resolve and one only – don’t take the elevator. You’ll be better because you didn’t.
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This is a monthly opinion piece; Alison Brown is a Walkerton native now living in Listowel, where she is a local business owner, mother and published author.
