It's 17:49, and in writing I almost missed my usual workout report time.

Things are getting easy, and it's a joy to watch them turn from insurmounable monsters to something far more achievable and even enjoyable. Sure, my lungs hurt after I finished today's run and I wanted to quit halfway through, but what seemed beyond me earlier - something like running for two minutes - now became something I know I can do.

I wanted to run, for the first time in my life, because it's possible for me to do it in a way that will satisfy me - which was always harmed by the perfectionist part of me; now, I have clearly-defined goals and I achieve them if I apply myself. Yes, I wanted to stop running halfway through, but I tossed the idea aside and kept running - and I ran for longer than I could imagine earlier. There's something great in the sense of achievement, especially when you step over something that terrifies you. It's the idea that I've learned a long time ago but never had... courage? will? to apply - and now that I'm forced to by the challenges, I have to witness how true it is.

Due to having been tired from running, I told myself that I'd take a rest in front of the screen... which turned into sitting and watching bored until it was time to write something - a critique of someone's work that they requested (as part of the worldbuilding helper group that I mentioned in the previous post). I only finished the Core and the Burpee challenges a few minutes before starting this post because I felt so bored with doing nothing while waiting for my CV to be accepted by the mentioned group's leaders, which is to say nothing of the challenges' difficulty - they weren't hard, even though I hesitated a bit before going for burpees - but to say plenty of my addiction to the Internet's quick pleasures and lack of personal control (which I why I wasn't capable of doing the challenges on my own previously; I tried once and did pretty good, but I bit more than I could chew, with four challenges at once).

I noticed a trend with the things I do, be it relationships, activities or exercise in particular: whenever I fear doing something or getting back to it, I demonize it - turn it, unwillingly, into an evil entity who's there solely to devour me so I mustn't engage with it. It's not a fun thing to have in your head, particularly when what you demonize is something helpful; still, it's there, and I feel like reporting it so that others could find that they're not the only ones with such batshit in their brains. The thing is - even if you feel that way, it's okay: just remember that things are never there to eat you alive... unless you're in a Stephen King novel, in which case - run like hell.

Against demonizing and in spite of it, it seems magical how the previously hard 10 burpees turned into fairly-doable 10 burpees plus "hard" 5 burpees (that weren't hard at all - it was my mind scaring me of doing hard physical work again), and previously-abominable 14 plank reaches turned out to be more than doable (this time, I could even stand on one elbow while reaching with the other with no problem). How just sticking to plan and persevering does wonders! It's amazing, and even though the future hold bigger challenges, I, myself, grow bigger with every challenge I conquer, and as such, I can't wait for things to continue.

As a reminder, you can find my public workout table here. There, I post the stats on what I do so I won't slack off and would have something to prove it.

Well, it's 18:07 on the clock. Have a good day and be healthy.