Tomorrow is my son, Stephon’s 11th birthday.
This past Saturday we had a birthday party for him at Vortex Martial Arts Academy.
It was a lot of fun!
Everything was going great until the instructors called the parents up to play dodgeball against the kids.
A couple of things to keep in mind in reading this story:
1.) The kids age ranges were from 6-13
2.) Two of the kids in particular, Noah and Carter, throw like 30yr old men and were trying to aim at each parents head.
3.) I’m slightly “competitive.”
4.) I forgot that I’m 6’5 and all of the kids come up to my waist:)
The game started out well.
Everyone was having fun and trying to get each other out.
My first opportunity to peg someone was my friends son, Elijah.
I “slightly” misjudged the height of my throw and pegged him directly in the nose.
Thankfully he was okay and I decided to aim a little lower in my throws with a little more gentleness:).
Then my friend’s son Noah entered the picture.
Noah is 11 but looks 13 and throws like he’s 30.
He’s got a cannon for an arm and kept trying to hit every dad in the face.
He also had a really smart strategy of launching the ball at someone then hiding behind other kids.
As the game went on, I was waiting for my opportunity to get Noah.
Finally, I saw an opening where he was trying to hide but was left unprotected.
I reared back and threw the ball with a lot of force and velocity. Our team was not going to be beaten by children!
Noah didn’t even see the ball coming.
As it was in the air about to hit him, my 6 yr old Jeremiah pops up right in front of Noah.
The ball hits him directly on the forehead and knocks him down.
As this is unfolding a couple of thoughts hit my brain all at once:
1.) I’ve made a huge mistake
2.) I couldn’t believe how perfect a throw that was
3.) Oh my gosh, poor thing I hope he’s okay.
I went over and picked him up as he was crying and held him.
Told him how sorry I was and that it was an accident.
After a minute or two he got down and went back in and finished the dodgeball game.
I on the other hand took myself out of the game not wanting to take out another small child:(.
Many times we have oops moments in our fitness journey’s.
- We have the best intentions to workout after work, but we get off late and just go home and crash.
- Dinner was supposed to be chicken and veggies but the kids soccer practice went late so Taco Bell it is!
- You desperately want to get into a habit of more sleep but the new season of Stranger Things dropped on Netflix.
When this happens you have thoughts of, “I messed up and failed, I’m going to quit.”
Every single person in their fitness journey has an oops moment and gets knocked down at some point.
As long as you don’t quit you are going to succeed.
When you quit, you have a 100% chance for failure.
What oops moment in your fitness journey do you struggle with the most?
