"Settling In"

When participating in an endurance spin class, the instructor will often tell the group to “settle in”. 

Much easier said than done. 

The reality is, what the instructor is asking is for the cyclists to focus, prepare themselves and drive towards a finish line that is not within sight.  When you can’t see the end, the task can be incredibly daunting.  Add a challenging effort and pace and an endurance ride can be darn right uncomfortable and yet the instructor tells you over and over again to “settle in”.  

Why? 

Well, what’s the alternative?  I guess you could quit, jump off your bike, leave the class and go about your day.  I don’t think this is a very viable option for most and it certainly would never be one I would consider.  Anyone who knows me well, will tell you “settling” really isn’t my strong suit.  In fact, I am pretty sure I have been heard announcing “I don’t settle” on more than one occasion.  Nevertheless, during an endurance spin class, I bear down, do what I am told and “settle in”.

What I have decided is this type of settling really isn’t settling at all.  Maybe spin instructions should tell you to “prepare to survive”, rather than “settle in”.  Our perhaps “grin and bear it” would be a more appropriate mantra.  Let’s face it, what the spin instructor is really saying is…”this is going to hurt.  It’s going to hurt for a while and you simply have to work your way through it.  You need to become one with the discomfort.  You have to accept the pain.  You want the benefit of this class?   You want to get better? Be fitter?  Be healthier?  Then suck it up and settle the heck in.”

The simplicity of life often amazes me.  Whether it is through an endurance spin class, a long distance run, a tumultuous economy or a bumpy professional patch, what is required of you is the same.  You need to “settle in”.  You need to be okay working through the discomfort and recognizing that while the finish line may not be insight, you need to power through.  It is in that uncomfortable fringe, right outside your comfort zone, that all the good stuff is predicted to happen.  You get smarter, stronger, etc.  I think the greater challenge is not being able to endure, but rather finding satisfaction in the discomfort. 

Long distance runners often talk about the sweet spot or the zone.  After gut wrenching hours on the road, some have claimed to find a pleasant, euphoric like section in the race.  I am sure there are all kinds of scientific explanation for this which doesn’t have to be addressed at this time.  What does need to be acknowledged is that it happens.  Even at your most uncomfortable, the possibility of joy is real.

Shouldn’t that be our ultimate goal?

No matter how difficult the situation, no matter how uncomfortable a circumstance makes us, shouldn’t the goal be to “settle in” and somehow, some way, find the joy in the situation??

 

Sounds like a pretty good goal to me. J