Are you wearing "negativity" goggles?

This past weekend I went to visit my sister, Shelley, in Elk Grove Village (Chicago suburb). It was a good visit. It doesn't really matter what we do, we always enjoy spending time together. Saturday afternoon and evening were filled with good food, a little shopping (really just looking, no purchasing), watching a movie, and just hanging out.

Sunday morning I planned to do a swim at her workout club, while she did a cardio workout. The morning was cold, damp, and drizzle pelted us as we headed inside. Not exactly enough to inspire me to want to get into the "cold" pool and swim. I decided to get in and give it a try, dreading it all the way from the locker room to the pool area.

To my surprise, I had a wonderful swim. The water temperature was just right - not too cold, not too warm. The pool was filled with just the right number of people - not too few, not too many. We each had our own lane and there were a couple of open lanes available. The water was perfect as well - not too much chlorine. There was some music playing in the background, again just right - not too loud and not so soft I couldn't hear it. It was one of the most enjoyable swim workouts I've had in a long time.

I could have so easily missed this swim if I had allowed my negative mindset to impact the choice I made to swim or not. Even wearing my "negativity" goggles, I managed to get a clearer picture of my swim that morning. Imagine if I had entered the pool wearing "positivity" goggles. Then, I'm guessing, my good swim might have been even better.

The workout was followed by a nice warm shower, coffee at a local Starbuck's while sitting in front of a fireplace, and lunch. Sounds like a perfect time for a nap! Or.... a two hour drive home.

Once home, I had a 30-minute client call, followed by a scheduled 1 hour ride on the trainer. The 60 minute ride was to be a EXT END (83-86% of maximum HR), which is not always easy to maintain. I'm still on the learning curve of cycling. It is easy for me to run for a long time at a high HR zone, much more difficult for me to do that on a bike. Luckily I had borrowed a CD from my sister for the trip home. The music was energizing as I drove home, so I decided to listen to it while riding.

I found myself pedaling through 1:07 minutes with no problems maintaining that HR. What was I listening to? The Doors Scattered Sun CD. In case you wondered, "Light My Fire", "Riders on the Storm", "Break on Through" and "Not to Touch the Earth" are all over 7 minutes long. And, they are great songs to ride to.

The CD comes with a little booklet about the Doors and Jim Morrison in particular. I find myself drawn to Jim Morrison's music. The booklet describes Jim Morrison has being strongly drawn to poetry, literature, mysticism, religion, psychology and philosophy. Apparently one of his favorite philosophers was Friedrich Nietzsche and his favorite writers included Blake, Rimbaud and Byron. Perhaps that is exactly what draws me to his music.

Once again I was given a lesson in the importance of mindset. A friend of ours often would use the phrase; "Get off your Huffy bike". It made us laugh every time he would say it. And it is so true. We have choice as to whether we stay angry (on the Huffy bike), dread a workout vs. look forward to it,or any other mindset we elect to camp out in.