Life as Chipper

Even if you don't Crossfit, and even if you're tired of listening to your Crossfit friends talk about Crossfit endlessly, bear with me for just a paragraph or two.

There's this type of workout called a "chipper" in Crossfit that I really like. It is a series of movements that each have a high number of repetitions assigned to them. But once you're done with that movement, you're done with that movement for the rest of the workout. It's tough while you're doing it, but you can focus on getting done with it--because you'll move on to the next thing, which will be challenging all right, but in a different way.

A quick example before I get to my point: 50 air squats, 50 pull ups, 50 push ups, 50 cartwheels.

(I had to throw that last one in just to see if you were skimming or reading.)

I like these workouts a lot. But I like even more how they apply to my life-outside-of-Crossfit.

Everything is a phase--parenting jumps to mind first, of course. Remember the newborn phase? I was so exhausted from the no-sleep-during-the-night phase that I was hardly ready for the moving-to-naps phase. Then the switch from one diaper size to the next would catch me off-guard, and there was no turning back. Growth, baby! The fussy periods gave way to the whining, and now whining gives way to pouting.

Good news and bad news: it's all a phase.

But life is like a chipper: You gut it out (while simultaneously trying to enjoy each day) in order to finish that phase and move on to the next. You're not exactly ready for it, but life doesn't wait until you're ready. You've just got to breathe deeply, pace yourself, do your best, and try to enjoy it.