Cotton Candy Cuddled - Inspired by @Fighter_Diet

A great friend tells you to keep working hard. A great friend does not tell you to, “Take it easy and don’t be so hard on yourself.” We grow from pushing our limits, not from being cotton candy cuddled.

Pauline Nordin, Fighter Diet

I follow Pauline Nordin on Facebook for a few reasons:

1. She’s pretty darn funny with some of her comments about her fellow gym users.
2. She gives some pretty solid, motivating quotes.

I haven’t read her eBooks as of yet, but from what I understand, it is fairly similar to the paleo diet, but with a little more flexibility in the menu items that are allowed. Just in case anyone was interested.

Back to her quote.

The quote caught me off guard when she said the phrase “cotton candy cuddled.” I re-read it a few times and thought about how it applies to situations outside of exercise and working out. I am extremely hard on myself. I over-analyze, I hate admitting mistakes, I hate asking for help, I hate looking at instruction manuals. In a way, I am setting myself up for failure. When I accomplish something, I was think about what I could have done differently, and what is the next challenge. I never reflect upon the challenge I had just overcome.

When I make a mistake, or someone mentions something even a bit critical towards me, I take it harder than what it was intended. A lot of people I have crossed paths with in life have told me that I should not take things so seriously, that I need to lighten up, and be more easy going. When people tell me this, I am almost always bothered by it. First, because I take it as criticism over who I am. Second, because I wonder what is so inherently wrong in taking things seriously and challenging myself to perfection?

I believe Pauline is right when she says that growth occurs when we push ourselves. In order to grow muscles, you first have to wear out the muscle fibres. In order to be a stellar designer with PhotoShop, you have to spend the hours learning the tools and experimenting. It is said on countless sites, that in order to be a great writer, one has to keep writing every day. When we stop pushing to achieve that goal, we will fall short. When people tell us to take it easy, that gives us permission to stop short, because everything will be okay. But when you look back over human history, almost all great moments and achievements happened because the person/group never stopped short and took it easy.

There are far too many to list in detail here as examples, and I am sure everyone can already think of at least one in their head. So I apologize to everyone who comes across me in life and finds me to be too observant, too quiet, too serious. I am merely studying humans to learn the patterns of what to do, and what not to do, so I can continue improving myself to be better.

I am not going to loosen up on my diet to make you feel more comfortable about your diet.

I am not going to stop walking so far, so fast, because you don’t want to push yourself that extra step.

I am here to improve upon myself, and not be cotton candy cuddled. How about you?