Do It With A Frown

I burned my leg last weekend, and it put me out of commission for a full four days.  I’m totally fine, but it was one of those injuries that wouldn’t let me do anything even if I wanted to, so I just had to stay in the house.  It hurt just as much to be still, so four days of doing nothing wasn’t as fun as it sounds.  By day five, I had serious ants in my pants.  I was able to bend my leg pretty normally again, so I decided I needed to get my annoyed self out of the house.  The workout class at my gym that night was mostly pull ups, so I figured it’d be a good day for me to get back at it.  After all, I do pay a monthly membership fee, and I felt like a quarter of it had gone completely to waste that week.  I knew going would stink, but staying home would also stink, so I went.

It wasn’t fun.  Sure, there were positives.  I got off the couch, and I felt better being able to go to the gym at least one day out of the week.  My guilt was gone, and I got some energy out.  But it hurt, I struggled through the workout, and I didn’t want to be there.  I’d be lying if I said “I’m so glad I went” because I’m not.  It felt like I was darned if I did and darned if I didn’t.  But at the end of the day, I did.

While scrolling through Instagram the next morning, I saw a post that said something like “if you’re not having fun” or “if you’re not doing it with a smile, you’re doing it wrong.”  What a line of crap.  Sometimes (often) the things we have to do are not fun, exciting, or worthy of a toothy grin.  Sometimes (often) we have to do things even when we aren’t happy about it.  Failure is not doing something with a frown, it’s not doing it at all.  Life is hard, and if all you have to offer is showing up with a frown, I think that’s alright.  At least you’re showing up!