Commenter "4ddintx" had a good comment on the post about choosing activities to form a self-image as an athlete:
Just had a thought this morning that being a dancer is another identity that someone may have in terms of their fitness. Not usually what I think of under the category of "athlete" but definitely in the same vein.
What a great point! The point is to cultivate a self-image that inherently implies regular physical exertion and training. "Athlete" is the one that I've worked to develop in myself; "dancer" is another. I suppose some dancers think of themselves as athletes first and performers second!
Really, any descriptor that appeals to you will do, as long as it implies the need for physical training and fitness to keep up the skill, and as long as the activity you choose makes sense within that context. Can we come up with more? Gymnast? Circus artist? I can't think of a concise noun for it, but an image of someone who is capable of fairly hard physical labor might also be helpful — think of how fit you'd have to be if you worked, say, as a landscaper.
Are you a parent, homeschooling or otherwise, or another sort of mentor? How about cultivating a self-image as a trainer, coach, fitness instructor? I'm just throwing it out there. Does your work, paid or not, make you a role model? (Health care professional? Educator?) How about internalizing that and turning it into "I am a person who sets a good example by getting regular exercise?"
There's room for a lot of creativity here, and you may even think of a completely original self-image. Reinhard Engels (he of the No-S Diet and other everyday systems) came up with an excellent one for, well, walking wherever you have to go: he calls it the Urban Ranger. The image is borrowed from Lord of the Rings:
Remember Strider, in Lord of the Rings? They didn't call him Sneaker or Sprinter or Sworder, though he possessed these skills in abundance. His distinctive quality, the important, even lethal skill, for which he was named, was that of walking rapidly and mindfully over great distances. Not only could he thus outpace his enemies, but he came to outknow them.
A lethal skill? Well, you say, that's fantasy. OK, skeptic, how did the army of Alexander the Great get to India? They walked. How about the Grande Armee of Napoleon, how did they get all the way from Paris to Moscow? Not on the concorde. For thousands of years winning a war was largely a matter of being there before your enemy. Forced marches routinely left a great deal more than every tenth man dead from exhaustion. So get the aqua sweatpants out of your mind, this is man stuff!
See what I mean? Reinhard totally made that up, but it's a fantastic reimagining of the self, no? (At least for anyone who doesn't have kids between ages 3 and 11).
What else can you think of? Who else can you be?
ADDED: I happened upon the blog of Deb, a Search and Rescue volunteer, who happened to mention:
Well, it's time to trade my pajamas for spandex and a cotton tee and head to Jazzercise. I'm still trying to lose some pounds off of me and up my fitness level in preparation for that "3 miles in 45 minutes with a 45-pound pack" test for the Technical Rescue Team.
Add "technical rescue team" to the list of helpfully motivating self-images. If it's your volunteer calling, or job, to save other people's butts, it helps if yours gets off the couch now and then.
bearing blog 