One Year of Skipping! 🥳
My story on consistency.
Today marks one year since I picked up a jump rope in my adult life. I didn’t have a goal, or rather didn’t set a goal of whatever I want to accomplish with it. It was a mere attempt to do some physical activity after months of lockdown inactivity.
The lack of a goal meant I could fill my skipping time with anything, any number of skips, any kind of tricks, on any or all days of the week.
Without giving it much thought, I had made a small yet conscious decision against counting.
Slowly, skipping became my favourite activity to do in the day. It was something I could look forward to. Because I worked out in the evening, it acted as a separator between my working hours and my personal time. It was easy to set it into a routine this way. I would work my job until 6–6:30 in the evening, call it a day and set straight to my terrace for my hour-long skipping sessions, and kept the rest of the evening for myself.
Eventually, I got better. I had perfected the basic jump and was able to pull off some tricks that I had seen on social media. But then I started following some of the most amazing skippers in the world and quickly realised that there was a long way to go. Unlike other physical activities that I had done previously, including strength training or cardio at gyms, skipping had a learning curve that wasn't easily quantifiable. It wasn't going from lifting 40kgs to 80kgs, it wasn't more reps or more sets.
Yet, there was so much to be learnt, so many tricks to be unlocked, and so much music and choreography to combine with these jumps! There was a learning curve, and that’s what made it more interesting for me.
Naturally, this is the only form of exercise that I have continued to keep at, for one year, consistently. Of course, this doesn't mean I jumped every day for all 365 days. I had my fair share of injuries and well, moods. But I have always been able to get back to it. After all, there is still too much to learn. ;)
In retrospect, I think the only reason I was able to enjoy jumping so much was because of the decision I had taken very early on — of relieving myself of the pressure of reaching an end result.
Not counting the number of skips, or the number on the weighing scale as a desired result, helped me skip consistently, based on the sheer joy it gave me. And of course, I saw myself getting better month after month, which became a huge intrinsic motivator later. I slowly gathered the courage to document my journey on Instagram which further helped me improve my form and share my process with others from the jump rope community. (Thanks to Aadya who forced me to start this page!)
Now I film myself as I skip, and later upload these videos on my page. Whether it’s about the number of likes/views, or the number on the scale, the pressure is still off, and the joy — still intact.
My conclusion?
Maybe some things are better left uncounted.