When the Spirit is Willing but the Body is Weak

Do you ever expect yourself to do something and you just physically don’t have it in you? In your mind, you want to… in your heart you want to be your best self… your body just isn’t responding in the same way? This is common in every walk of life, from toddlers to athletes to adults of all ages. I am picturing babies falling asleep in their high chair right now, haha. They want to eat that food so bad, but their body wants to sleep- insert ‘face plant into spaghetti’ image. Regardless, I think everyone experiences this feeling on some level at some point or throughout many points in life. There might be an incredible run/walk coming up that you’ve been training for. We have one on April 14th! With training, you may be experiencing some similarities of feeling sore, tired or just not up to running/walking sometimes. Similarly, I coach competitive youth rowers and as coaches we design annual programs on a progressive level to keep their performance improving with efforts to peak in competitive season. High school athletes have high expectations of their performance. They know what they want; they set goals and aim to reach them- after all, isn’t showing up and doing the training what will get them to reach those goals? Reality check. Your mind is powerful and your body will wear down if not treated properly. You can have all the mental toughness in the world and yet your body can still lack in responsiveness. When you’re measuring your improvements based off of numbers or previous experiences- this can set in. The Spirit is willing - You KNOW you can perform better, stronger, faster, (you’ve done it before!) and you just can’t get your body to reach those levels - but the body is weak…