New Year's resolutions are always tricky, and I always have difficulty toeing the line between what is realistic and what is idealistic. If there is one feeling that I really dislike, it's setting a goal and not achieving it. So I was thinking over the last few days as to what I really want out of 2007?
One of my students is a very precocious 8 year old girl, who has been studying privately with me for about a year and a half. I have various gamuts of drills that I have my students do that I suppose are unique to my teaching style - as in, they frequently involve cardio meshed into technique, or as they affectionately like to call them: torture drills. ("affectionately" being a loosely defined term). There is one particular set of plyo warmups that I have all my students do that involves a bit of coordination, leg strength, and endurance. Some of my students will groan, some will try to negotiate the number down, and some will grimace but suck it up and do it. As with most of the things I make them do, they know that it may not necessarily (read: won't be) be enjoyable, but that it's good for them (read: they don't have a choice).
One day last year, L and I were having a lesson, and as per usual, I told her to do a set on the big pad. Now, L is one of my youngest and smallest students at about 60 lbs and something like 3 and a half ft tall. We only have one size pad to do this plyo drill on, and for most people, the height is reasonable (but challenging when you're tired) for picking their legs up. Undersized for her age, L has to lift her legs about 25% higher in proportion just to clear the pad.
Usually when I tell people we're doing this drill, they look at me and ask "how many?" They're totally stalling for time and entertaining some delusional hope that I'm going to lower the number of reps. And I always shoot back "how many do we always do?" and they know it's 50's.
So that day when I told L to do a set, she looked at me and asked "how many?" So I asked "how many do we always do?" She replied, "50's?". I shot back "yep, you got it!" And to my surprise, she asked, "can I do 100's?"
Uh, what?
Never has any of my students asked for MORE. But L is crazy like that - if I tell her to do 50, she will ask for 100. If I tell her to do pushups, she'll ask if she can do them on her knuckles. If I tell her we're doing abs, she jumps up and down and claps. Why? Because she not only understands that it'll make her better, but because she (for some reason even I don't understand) actually LIKES these things.
I know, weirdo, right?
One of the most exhilirating things about teaching is when you see a student wanting to achieve their full potential - not just be willing to do what you ask, but to desire to go beyond the minimum and really push themselves...when you see them actually enjoy doing the things that are good for them. It makes you want to help them even more, and when they ask for more painful drills that are good for them, I'm more than happy to oblige. And it also really affirms me as a teacher, that when I announce that our lesson is over, she puts on a frown and says "aww...already??"
I know I certainly don't ask for 100 when I'm told to do 50. And I have definitely never done a single pushup more than I've been told, nor any more on my knuckles than absolutely necessary. (Though in my defense, I did have a broken hand for most of the past year). But somehow the will of an 8 year old challenged me to look at my own training habits.
This encounter with my student is like Matthew 7, and what it means to ask for good things. Obviously this passage has been misinterpreted to think that God should give us whatever we ask for, and that we can gripe when He doesn't grant our wishes like a good genie should. But I think that the key word in this passage is the "good" before the gifts. I'm not a parent (in the conventional sense) so I can't really say, but as a teacher, it was thrilling when my 10 year old asked me what pi meant. I was happy to digress from fractions and talk about geometry. And it's thrilling to see L become the student that she is capable of being - watching her grow and improve and take delight in it has been one of my greatest simple pleasures. How much happier must God be to see our characters grow as we struggle through the conditioning to become (well, hopefully) the men and women we were made to be...
Sometimes we know what is good for us, and we may even have the guts to ask for it. Those are dangerous prayers, because "be careful what you ask for" isn't a saying for nothing. I do firmly believe that if you ask for something challenging and refining to your character, you will get it - and probably regret in the moment that you asked for it. But life is kind of like knuckle pushups - it hurts every part of your body, but if you build up the strength in your arms and your core to distribute the weight evenly, and condition your knuckles to be strong - then it really doesn't have to be so painful.
And then your punches are super awesome!
And so my first new year's resolution is to ask for good things. Whatever that means. As most things are with me, there has to be a tangible, practical application. So in 2007 - barring any further debilitating injuries to my hands, wrists, or arms - I want to be able to do real pushups, knuckle or otherwise. There are very few women out there who can do them right, and I want to be one of them.
7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! -Matthew 7:7-11
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