Define "Fun"

What is your idea of fun?  It is different for everyone, and the definition of fun changes throughout our lives.  Take my friend Diana for instance.  I met her this summer at my Stampin Up! Convention (the very definition of "fun" BTW), where we became fast friends.  We both started blogging, and have been able to maintain our friendship through the blogosphere.  (Isn't technology fantastic?).  Anyway, when we met this summer she said that her husband was a triathlete, and that she was toying with the idea of training for a triathlon herself.  Since then she has trained like a mad woman and lost over 30 pounds in the process!  Wow!  I am so stinkin' impressed with her and her accomplishment.  Well, this mother of three is getting ready for her very first triathlon this Saturday.  After months and months of training the date is finally here and I am so excited for her!  In a recent post she talked about how she had just run five miles in the pouring rain, and it was so "fun."  Fun?  Really?  For me running even 0.5 miles in any weather would be absolute sheer torture!  She said that it is a great feeling to find yourself in a place where you thought you'd never want to be, yet laughing inside that you are actually doing it and feeling good about it.  About her weight loss and upcoming big race she said: 

 I'm looking forward to the feeling of joy I'll have when I finish something that I would have never thought I could do. I had a light bulb moment discovery about myself this week when I realized that one of the ways I find joy is when I recognize progress in life. I think that's why one of the first things that pops into my head when someone comments on my weight loss is how FUN this whole process has been. Not that ordering boring chicken when your companions order yummy nachos is "FUN", or feeling like you're going to pass out or puke after running at a faster speed than before is "FUN," but the feeling of accomplishment when you see that you did something today that you couldn't do before (like fitting into a smaller size or completing a triathlon) is, in fact, a really joyous feeling. I'm grateful to know this about myself now. 

 I love that!  Isn't she an inspiration?  Fun is sometimes really hard, but the difficulty is what makes it fun.

Well, yesterday I had some real FUN (in capitol letters!).  I haven't had fun like that in a long time.  Yesterday I took the afternoon for myself and drove to Riverside to train with my old taekwando instructors.  Taekwando used to be so fun for me.  (Well, at first I hated it, because I felt like a huge dork in too short pants, hated seeing my goofy self in the big mirror, and was super uncoordinated!  Being a swimmer, I felt literally, like fish out of water - a large, gangly fish in an ill-fitting gi.)  But over time, things changed.  I started loving taekwando, and looked forward to every class.  It was SO FUN!  And when I started to progress and move up the ranks it became even funner!  

Then suddenly, my instructors had to move, and the fun stopped.  The new instructor is very nice and a very accomplished 7th degree black belt, and he works us hard.  But For some reason I don't have fun anymore.  For one thing, he did away with the women's only class, which I thought I was fine with.  I needed the class to be women's only at first, because of the whole embarrassment/intimidation factor.  But after I gained some confidence, I didn't care who was in the class.  The hard part for me now that we are all together - kids and adults-  is that where before I would run off to class, and have a whole hour that was just about me and my training, now the kids are in class with me and I can't help but be a parent the whole time. My workouts are interjected with "Caleb, pay attention!" and  "Derek, cut that out."  Not so fun.  But even more importantly, it stopped being fun, I now realize, because I stopped being challenged.  My new instructor is old school Korean - kicking and forms - that's it.  I have learned all the kicks, for the most part, and I have learned all the forms (not that I can remember them all).  And now all I do is practice, practice, practice.- which is good, but not really fun.  But I keep going because I am so close to my black belt now, and I am not a quitter.  Plus, it is a really good workout.  But I find myself going to my workouts because I should, not because I want to.

Well, yesterday I went to Riverside because I wanted to.  I have been trying to fit in a trip out there for several months.  Spring break means I don't have to drive everyone everywhere (basically, my job description) so I drove to Riverside instead.  After a short visit to catch up with my dear friends, we got to work with 2 1/2 hour personal workout.  Stretching, push hands, self defense, kicking (obviously) and even weaponry (nunchucks = fun).  Just like old times, only better, because I am more advanced, so I get to do more advanced, fun things.  I learned a ton and much of it was mental.  And I realized that is what made it so fun!  For so long now at taekwando, I have been just rehashing the same ol' same ol' - getting better at it, of course, but just the same old thing.  But yesterday was fun because I was learning something new, and really exerting myself to do things I haven't done before.  Wasn't that Diana's definition of FUN?  Well, it is my definition.

When the workout was over, we sat down and created a plan for everything I need to do to get my black belt from them.  It is quite a list, not the least of which is to be able to do 100 push-ups without stopping.  YIKES!  Now, mind you, the new instructor requires no push ups to get a black belt.  In fact, I could probably get my black belt with him at the next test, as long as I plop down the $$$.  But I want to really feel like I earned my belt.  I need this challenge.  And I want it to be FUN.  So we laid out a plan for what I need to work on, and set a date for my next training session in Riverside.  I am SO looking forward to that!  Meanwhile, I will keep going to my not-so-fun class with my kids, and work on this list stuff on my own, including practicing all the new stuff, and do a ton of push ups (OK, maybe that isn't so fun - it can't all be fun, right?).

And with a lot of hard work - the fun kind - I will be getting my black belt, and like my friend Diana says, I, too, am looking forward to the feeling of joy I'll have when I finish something I never thought I could do.  Fun is hard... but fun!

Diana, you have been my inspiration!  Good luck on your big race this weekend, and I hope it is more FUN than you ever imagined!