115Move TimeIt’s fascinating how you can often identify a team’s sport
by the kids’ body types (not always, of course). The smaller,
leaner athletes are cross- country runners. The tall athletes
with strong shoulders are basketball or volleyball players.
Muscular legs and a lean frame usually point to soccer or ten-
nis. Strong bodies and a compact frame are often baseball or
softball. A tall, large, hulking frame is either football or some-
one the football coach is desperately trying to recruit.
Of course, there are always outliers whose athletic abilities
aren’t affected by their build, but, in general, different sports
clearly benefit from different physical attributes. Wouldn’t it be
silly if a golfer spent his time trying to add bulk like a linebacker?
Or if a soccer player focused on arm strength like a baseball
player? That would be pointless. Athletes base their workouts
on their pursuit of excellence on the field, not on how they look.
Shift Your Move- Time Perspective
What if we’ve been thinking about fitness all wrong? What if
it has nothing to do with a number on a scale or a size on a
tag? What if it has nothing to do with how much we can lift or
how far we can run? What if those are all just vanity metrics—
misleading indicators of our true health?
Shift 1: Fitness Is About Energy, Not Image
I wonder if this bit of sports trivia could also be true for us.
Just as successful athletes come in all shapes and sizes tailored
to their sport, maybe we are not all meant to look exactly the
same because we do not all have the same God- given purpose.