The hardest part of the workout is The Workout

In every workout, there is some part of the workout that is the hardest, or most dreaded. Even in a very difficult workout, I can determine one exercise or sequence of exercises that I dread above all the rest. If two generally loathed exercises are in a workout, I will still be able to pick out one of which I hate more than the other. (These are strong words. Of course I do not hate these exercises, even the ones that are difficult. I love them, in a way. And fear them. They are like God.)

I call this, the most dreaded part of the workout, The Workout. Everything surrounding The Workout, though it is workout, is merely a lead in to The Workout. After The Workout is done, I know that I have finished, even though I may have more workout to do.

The Workout is the center of gravity, the focal point, the centerpiece, the turkey of the Thanksgiving dinner. It is both everything and also only a small part of the whole. And there is always a The Workout, because minds are good at constructing hierarchies.

The usefulness of The Workout is this: that it shrinks down the size of mental focus to one point. It shifts burden from thinking about each individual piece of the workout, because The Workout is always looming, e.g. “Well this is difficult, but at least it’s not __.” And it is short. So I can tell myself, “The hardest part will be done soon. See now it is done.”

And there is some sense in which The Workout is the entirety of the workout, and the only part that truly matters. Because once you know you can do The Workout, you know you can do the rest of the workout, no problem.

There’s probably some takeaway here about software engineering project management. I’ll let you draw that conclusion.