Why 'making an attempt' is the most important thing
NOTE - This post was originally written for our 'weekly warble' segment in a few Facebook groups for the community local to our gym.
Welcome to the weekly warble here at Ideanthro Movement!
In this week's warble I'm going to talk about why "making an attempt is the most important thing".
The reason why I'm talking about this topic today is that I know that there are many of you out there reading these warbles and looking at our pictures and thinking "That looks fun. I'd really like to try it. But can I do it?"
The take home message of today's post is that it doesn't matter if you can do it right now. What matters is that you make the attempt, because by making the attempt our bodies and brains start learning and adapting, and through that process we become able to do it! And we, as coaches, will support you along that journey.
Rightio, let's dig into this warble.
So, how do we learn new things?
To answer that question we need to understand that our bodies and brains are programmed for efficiency. Without getting too far into the weeds, we evolved in a time when energy (food) was scarce. It was thus a big advantage to be efficient with our energy. One way to do that is for our bodies to only learn and adapt to movements, skills etc that we "need".
But how do our bodies and brains know what movements and skills we "need"?
Our bodies and brains find this out from the things that we try to do. When we put time and effort into a task that we can't yet do, or aren't yet sufficiently good at, it sends a message to our body that we want (or "need") to be better at that thing. Our bodies and brains then start allocating energy to getting better at whatever that might be.
And this is why attempting things is so important. Even when you attempt but "fail" it's not really a failure. It's you sending a little message to your body and brain to start slowly adapting. They then respond, albeit slowly, and you begin to improve. Do this consistently over time and it all adds up.
This is why, when you look at our pictures and read these warbles and think to yourself "I'd like to try that but I'm not sure if I can do it", the answer is always, "if it's important to me I should give it a go regardless, because even if I can't do it now, by trying I will learn how!"
I hope that struck a chord. Have a nice day!
You might also like…
If you liked this post you might also like these other resources: