I accidentally showed up for one of those over-the-top, beastly, power-core-death-crunch crazy ass yoga classes. Like: COMPLETELY out of my league. Like: Going to make a total ass of myself. Like: May break something.
For some reason I stepped into this cheeky, wise-assy kind of mode. I decided to be a giant A–hole. And by A–hole, I mean that I was just going to go for it all with reckless abandon, enthusiastically lumbering, flopping, flattening myself like a pancake to the floor as I fell on my actual face. There was no way this class was anywhere near my level. Failure was imminent.
I decided I would fail triumphantly.
And that I did. They apparently have these things like Frisbees that you need to stick your feet in and “mountain climb” the floor. So I stuck my feet in those things and tried to climb at 50mph. I fell on my face. I did more. I was entertaining myself left and right.
And then something magical happened. My teacher yelled out “handstands!” I was too busy being an A–hole that I forgot to be afraid. I hurled my legs up over my head. The teacher caught them and pushed them at the mirror in front of me, for support. I held my handstand until he told us to come down. 44 years old. I had never once done a handstand or even contemplated doing one in my life. And there I was, upside down and in love with my hilarious self.
At the end of class the guy to my right said “It was fun doing class with you. You brought such great energy.”
Today my mom told me about this quote and I had to write it down:
“Never pass up the opportunity to totally screw up.” – Steve Tyler
When you are hellbent on going for it, even when the “it” is pretty out there, that enthusiasm to fail triumphantly leaves little to no room for fear… and it just may bring you a different kind of success.
October 25th will forever hold a place in my heart