This is the final part of a two part series.
Why do some people succeed at adopting a yoga practice and others fail. It’s easy to put success down to luck or natural talent, but while there will always be an element of that, it does not seem to be “the answer”.
While reading some blogs I came across an article about why some people fail at Internet Marketing and others succeed. You can see the original article on Chris Garrett’s blog.
In the previous article I wrote about my interpretation of the seven reasons why people fail at yoga.
Below is my interpretation of the eight reasons why people succeed at yoga.
Decide now
Make the decision, KNOW what you are going to do. As Yoda says, “Do, or do not … There is no try.”
In yoga you need to make the decision that you will adopt a frequent and regular practice. Going to one class a week or every other week is not enough. You need to decide to go to 2-3 classes a week. Life may get in the way and prevent you from getting there all the time but make the decision and do your best to stick with it.
Gather resources
Once you know that you are going to do a regular and frequent yoga practice, find out how to achieve that and gather what you need. Find a studio in a convenient location. Find a yoga teacher that you like. Attend some workshops, learn how to do the poses a little better.
Staying power
Stick with it, and know in advance that you are going to give it your best shot. Developing flexibility in the body and reducing stress in the mind will take a long time. This is not a six week program for success. This is a life long mission. Once you get the body and mind to a state that you like, you will have to maintain it there. A frequent and regular yoga practice will get you to your goal and help to keep you there.
Suck it up
When it gets tough, keep going. There will be many times in your yoga practice that you will become very discouraged.
- You are not making the progress that you would like.
- Life has gotten in the way and your regular practice has fallen apart.
- You body has been injured and you have to reduce or suspend your yoga practice.
- And on and on. There are any number of events that will get in the way.
When it gets tough, keep going.
Be good enough
You don’t have to be the best, just do good. Perfection is not necessary.
Your yoga practice will never be as good as the person next you. That is okay. As long as your body and mind are improving that is good enough. You do not need to be the best in the room.
Be good
Another aspect of being good is being awesome to other people. Be humble with your ability or lack thereof. Always be positive and supportive to the other people that are practicing with you.
Progress
Always strive to improve your practice. It’s okay to compete with yourself. Motivate yourself, benchmark your own progress. Do better than your personal best, then beat that.
There will be stretches when nothing is improving physically, but the mind is becoming more focused or the breath is improving.
Get a teacher and partners
Some people manage to achieve great things in isolation with a home practice. Most of us do better when we have a teacher and attend group classes.
Having a person that you practice with on a regular basis is a great support mechanism. When you are down then your practice buddy can pick you up and help carry you forward. They can share you success, and help you with your set backs.
Well that’s the list. See how many of these you can adopt and add to your practice. And as you can see from Chris’s article these ideas also apply to life off of the mat. How many of these can you apply to your life as well.
