A Perfect Body

I'd eased myself onto the floor in my office no more than 2 seconds before Quincy jumped down from where he'd been napping on the day bed to demand my immediate attention.

"Not now, buddy!" I scolded.  "I need to do my crunches."  In an effort to regain control of my physical wellness, I'd started both the 100 Push-Ups and 200 Sit-Ups Challenges this week.

"Fine," he sighed, hesitantly stepping away.  "But what exactly do you need to do them for?"

"I need...to get...in better...shape," I said on the out-breaths of my first set. 

"What's wrong with your current shape?" I knew where this was going.

"Nothing is wrong with my current shape.  I'd just prefer to have a better one."

"And what you're doing over there--that's going to get you a better shape?"

I nodded.

"Well I think your shape is perfect.  And my shape is perfect, too, and I don't need to do anything like that."

"Good for you!" I told him. "But for us humans, having a 'perfect' body isn't quite so easy."

"Sure it is!  You just say, 'I have a perfect body,' and then go on to doing something fun.  Like sleeping."

"Quincy, if all I did was sleep I'd never have a perfect body." I was starting to get annoyed.  "People need to exercise and eat a well-balanced diet and..."

"You'll never have a perfect body as long as you keep telling yourself you don't have one right now."  

I knew the power of affirmations.  I knew that by virtue of the Law of Attraction, our thoughts became things.  But physical fitness was different.  You couldn't think your way to toned muscles and firmer abs.  You had to work--physically--to achieve those things.

"But I'm not in shape like I used to be.  And I need to lose a few pounds.  I've got to do something."

"I don't sleep all day," he continued. "I walk around.  I chase things.  I jump up and down.  I explore. I share things with Holly.  I box with the dogs.  I eat.  I drink.  I use the litter box.  I stalk you in the bathroom.  I let you scratch my head.  I try to teach you stuff..."

"Right.  A lot of physical things," I pointed out to him.

"But I do them.  I don't need to do them.  There's a difference."

"But don't you need to eat, drink, and move around to survive and be healthy?" 

"Exactly.  I do these things because my instinct is to survive and be healthy. Not to get a perfect body.  I already have a perfect body.  The things I do just help me sustain it." 

"Yes, but that's why I said I wanted to get in better shape.  It will be easier to sustain that without having to worry about it so much."

"If you're doing things like what you were just doing, thinking you need to do them to get a 'perfect' body--or even a 'better' body--you're just going to have to keep on doing them.  That 'perfect' body will always be out of reach if you believe it's outside of your existing self, no matter how many exercises you do or don't do."  

"Okay. So you're saying I shouldn't do crunches."

"Hey, you should do all the crunches you want if you love to do crunches.  But I can't see how anyone could love doing something called 'crunches'--unless it involves food."