Consistency

October 24, 2012

October 24, 2012

I’ve never played a sport in my life.

The only time I ventured into anything athletic was when my college boyfriend, Karim, persuaded me to play intramural tennis. Not only was he a tennis pro, but he was a naturally gifted athlete in skiing and snowboarding. His talents gave me the confidence to play tennis even though I often missed the ball, swung out of bounds and failed to serve inside the box. While it took me several practices and games to finally get an ‘okay’ groove, I never quite excelled as a tennis partner. Karim encouraged me to have confidence in my skills and to focus on my seemingly only strength, which was to ‘tap’ the ball while serving to ensure it lands into the service box. As long as I can make the ball ‘playable’, then he can volley with the other team and eventually create opportunities to score.

His coaching came in good hand as I played in a tennis tournament this past weekend in Las Vegas. While I’m not usually a big fan of Vegas, I went to accompany my good friend, Emily, as she was awarded for her performance as a Fitness Manager with Crunch Fitness. Unbeknownst to me, she signed me up for tennis.

I was assigned with Jason Root, a Fitness Manager at a SF Crunch location. We were an interesting team. He was tall, I was shorter. He drank beer in-between plays, I drank a latte. We didn’t practice beforehand, nor did we talk much. We just encouraged each other and played with focus and a bit of fun. Game after game, I was astonished how much we were winning. As I became more competitive, I even posed a tennis tip question on my Facebook page. When we surprisingly made it to the ‘championships’, we needed to win six games to prevail.

We won 6 to 1.

I was shocked – after all, I never played a sport. I was mediocre in college and I rarely picked up a racket since then. As we celebrated, Derek Gallup, Crunch’s Vice President of Personal Training, applauded that I was very consistent throughout the matches and rarely made mistakes.

In tennis and in life, I have realized that mistakes don’t matter, what matters is your consistency to follow through.

While I’m not always the  best at things, what I do aim for is consistency. I met a great man who works for ESPN named David while en route to Vegas. He was floored when I spoke about my children and my different projects. Eventually he discovered my website and was astonished by the amount of information it contained. He questioned how it was possible for me to complete various professional, physical and personal goals – and I answered in one word:

Consistency.

There are times when I eat unhealthy foods, skip workouts, and fail to finish tasks or complete an online weekly journal. Regardless of the small setbacks… if I was moving, changing jobs, pregnant or traveling, I’ve consistently trained, worked, worked out and wrote. Who I am is an accumulation of the things I do consistently.

As we celebrated our tennis win, everyone made plans to meet at the cabana for swimming, drinks and food. I was excited to relax and soak the success of our achievement but I grabbed my gear and headed straight to the gym.

After all, it was Friday and I still had 3 miles left to hit my physical goal for that week….

We Won! We Won!!!

The sem-finalists

so happy to be Emily's date

The heat wasn't too bad in Vegas.

3 Comments

  • Reply Bob Lewis October 31, 2012 at 5:34 am

    Maria, You are very inspiring. I am also doing something but I am not consistent in efforts. Thanks you for writing such a inspiring post for all those who are stuck and left in doubt or laziness. I have decided and your post will help me to do something that will be consisting. Thanks…

  • Reply Lawrence November 5, 2013 at 8:11 am

    i enjoyed this article a lot, along with all your previous ones. Great stuff !

  • Reply Venecia Harris November 8, 2013 at 4:19 am

    If it’s one thing I learned from you, and plenty have learned from you, is that people are going to judge. They’ll judge you when your wrong, and they’ll judge you even more when you’re right. Whats more important is that you know that what your doing is right! Consistency is important, and loving yourself outside of the husband and the children is just as important. Looking at you in these photos, I see a woman who enjoys her life. I think every woman deserves that! You’ve probably heard this a million times, but thanks again for being true to yourself, as a result, so many of women have learned we can be a mom of three, a wife, and still hold onto our identity. Stay pretty!

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