I hear this a lot.

“I used to be so athletic.” “I used to be in really good shape.” “I used to be able to do this no problem.”

And I get it. It’s not a bad thing to remember what your body was capable of. For me, I used to compare my current lifting to when I was competitively powerlifting. 

But when “I used to” becomes the thing you’re constantly measuring yourself against, it stops being motivating and starts being a weight you’re dragging around every single workout.

Here’s the honest truth: that version of you existed in a different context. Different schedule, different stress levels, different age, different life. You can’t just pick up where you left off, and expecting yourself to is setting yourself up to feel like you’re failing when you’re actually just starting.

Starting is not failing. Starting is just where you are right now.

The athlete you were at 22, or before you had kids, or before the job got crazy, or before your chronic pain, or before whatever happened, that’s not the baseline. *Right now* is the baseline. And building from right now, with the body and the life you actually have, is the only version of this that works.

It’s also worth saying: the “used to” story has a way of making people either push too hard too fast (because they’re trying to get back to something) or not start at all (because they’re embarrassed they’re not already there). Neither one is helpful.

Let it go. Not because it doesn’t matter, but because it’s not useful anymore.

Where you are right now is a perfectly fine place to start.