So on Sunday morning, I grated off a chunk of my knuckle.

The grater went in nice and deep and the cut oozed blood all day and my knuckle swelled up.

It hurt, but what hurt more than the cut was the fact that I knew I had my battling ropes challenges starting the very next day.

How the heck was I going to grip the rope for 10 minutes and then even 20 minutes with a freaking finger that wouldn’t bend?

And on top of the fact that I now had this annoying little injury, I DIDN’T WANT TO DO THE BATTLING ROPES FOR FIVE MINUTES LET ALONE 20!

Have I mentioned before that I really really dislike any form of long cardio?

Well, I DO!

So between the fact that my finger hurt and I had to do cardio for a while, I developed a very bad attitude.

Usually, I’d consider myself fairly tough. I suck it up and do it.

But usually I also semi-enjoy the torture I’m putting myself through.

Speed work on the power ropes?

Sure no problem.

Endurance work doing battling ropes?

No thank you.

But I didn’t have a choice.

So I grumpily made my way into the gym and started pouting to Jeff and Aaron about my stupid finger.

I had the whole lip out and head down pout really going when Aaron said, “Ready?”

I wanted to say, “NOOOOOOOO!”

But instead I just nodded and picked up the ropes.

Five minutes in, I was whining to myself in my head. I was counting the seconds. It seemed like forever until I hit 1o minutes. My forearms were on fire and I couldn’t seem to get out of my mental funk.

At 10 minutes, I was done. It wasn’t AWFUl, but I was still dreading the 20 minute challenge yet to come.

It wasn’t even mental fatigue. Honestly, other than my forearms nothing even felt worked. It was all in my head.

When I went home, I kept telling myself that it wasn’t THAT bad. That 20 minutes wouldn’t be much worse.

But that didn’t change my attitude for today.

I walked into that gym as grumpy as could be.

But I started the ropes.

About a minute in, I wanted to drop the ropes. I felt tired. I didn’t want to do long cardio!

When Aaron told me I’d hit 5 minutes, I wanted to scream. AHHHHHHHH!

15 more minutes!?!

My forearms were already tired and my legs were even feeling it today.

I had such a bad attitude that I even told Aaron that I basically just wanted to stop.

He kept repeating positive thinks and I mentally told myself to SHUT UP! with the negative thoughts.

And something finally clicked.

I started cruising.

The last 10 minutes felt 100 times easier than the first 5.

And all because my attitude had changed.

I’d been such a wimp and once I finally got over the negative attitude, things got easier.

So all I can say from this experience is that working out and pushing yourself to reach new goals is about 80% mental.

Yes, your body has to be strong enough, but if your mind isn’t strong….you’ll never achieve your goals.

So tell those negative thoughts to SHUT UP and see just how much more you can accomplish.

I mean it….Don’t even let yourself say you’re tired and you may just surprise yourself with how strong you ACTUALLY are!