You’re Behind and It’s Perfect

I’ll never forget the day my neighbor friend, Andrew, and I were supposed to go to school together. You see, Andrew lived behind me. I’d hop the wall behind my house and land in his yard to play most days. The only day that I can remember that both my parents were away working and I had to go to kindergarten with Andrew was one I remember crystal clear.

There were two enrollments at my kindergarten; an AM and a PM. We were in the PM group. On this memorable day, Andrew’s grandmother took us to the library before school.

I’ll never forget being there, walking the aisles, and settling on a couple books to check out. When we were outside waiting to head to the car, I was blown away when Andrew opened up his children’s book and began slowly reading the first page.

“This kid can freaking read?!” I thought to myself.

I remember thinking, “Wait! Is that the deal? We’re supposed to know how to read by now? I don’t know how to read and I’m trying to be the best student around. Am I behind? How did he do that?” In an instance, all these thoughts passed through my head. I was certain that I was behind and felt like I’d never catch up with a head start like that.

I was reminiscing about this the other day and chuckled to myself. In hindsight, I realize now nothing was wrong with me and nothing was superhuman about him. His parents gave him a quick lesson a few weeks before we started learning the basics in school, and here he was seemingly like a genius before my eyes.

It’s quite easy to feel behind, especially when it comes to skills and traits in fitness. In my story, we can laugh about my worries about reading. I ending up doing just fine in school we’ll say. Andrew even struggled.

Perception is often not reality and the good news is if things don’t look so hot for you know, you’re in luck because it has nothing to do with how things will look down the line. You’re not behind. You’re right where you need to be.

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach