Day 12: The First Day I Failed to Finish on Time
Today was the first day in the 30-Day Push-Up Challenge that I didn’t finish within the allotted time.
When the timer ended, I still had four push-ups left.
Oddly enough, I wasn’t upset.
Around minutes 9 and 10, I started wondering whether I would beat the clock. By minute 12, I knew I wasn’t.
And I was okay with that.
Not because I don’t care about the rules.
But because I’d already decided what the rules were.
A Taste of My Own Medicine
From the very beginning of this challenge, I’ve said that if you don’t finish your push-ups before time runs out, you have two choices:
Record what you accomplished and try to beat it tomorrow, or
Finish the remaining reps before the day is over.
Today, I finally had the chance to follow my own advice after learning of its importance on Day 11.
That mattered to me.
Having—and doing—make-up push-ups wasn’t just something I had written into the challenge anymore.
It was real, and I had a chance to keep going.
So I took a few minutes. Shook it off. Caught my breath.
Then came back to finish the last four push-ups.
What surprised me most wasn’t that I needed the break.
It was what the break did.
Take A Rest When You Need It
Those few minutes completely changed how my body felt, which, in turn, changed how I thought about the rest of this challenge.
The interval system I’d been designing suddenly made sense in a way it hadn’t before.
A little rest really does go a long way, and I can’t wait to start implementing them properly on Day 15 to see if they help prevent any carryovers.
As for today's accomplishments, I’m actually proud of several things, including my overall progress. Yesterday, Minute 11 took me almost the entire minute to finish. Today, I finished it with about ten seconds to spare.
Plus, those last four push-ups I owed myself after the timer expired? I still did them from my toes.
That’s still important because, in my mind, those final reps are where growth happens. There’s no clock anymore. No pressure to race. Just one last chance to give my body my strongest effort.
And maybe the accomplishment I’m proudest of…
I showed up.
I really didn’t want to today.
But I showed up anyway.
Today didn’t teach me that I need to be perfect.
It taught me that sometimes the smartest thing you can do is pause…
…and then keep going.
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Today was the first day in the 30-Day Push-Up Challenge that I didn’t finish within the allotted time.
When the timer ended, I still had four push-ups left.
Oddly enough, I wasn’t upset. Not because I don’t care about the rules.
But because I’d already decided what the rules were.