Every year so many of us begin the new year with the promise of working out on a regular basis. But it’s so easy to come up with excuses not to go to the gym.
It’s too cold. It’s too hot. It’s too rainy. It’s too sunny. I’m too fat and feel uncomfortable. It’s too far. I don’t have any time. I have to walk the dog. Oh, I don’t have a dog. Well, I have to go buy a dog.
It’s time to stop. Yesterday I watched Kyle Maynard on CNN. You’ve probably heard of Kyle since he’s been in the news for at least half of his 22 years. He’s never made any excuses although he’s a disabled, abbreviated man with stumps for arms and legs. Despite being born with a condition called congenital amputation, he played youth football and wrestled in high school and became a weight lifter. Today he can lift more than 200 pounds. Now he’s opened a gym called “No Excuses Athletics” in Suwanee, Ga. Imagine the motivation that comes from just seeing him in the gym. For Kyle there are no limits. A motivational speaker, he wrote a book, “No Excuses: The True Story of a Congenital Amputee Who Became a Champion in Wrestling and in Life.”
He said the question he gets asked the most is, if he could go back in time and be born normal would he. He said no because of the effect that he’s had on people, some of whom told him they were thinking of committing suicide until they heard him speak.
Once again, I put “to exercise regularly” on my list of new year resolutions. Whenever I think of a reason not to go work out, I’ll think of Kyle.
