“Bounce Pep” is not just a random phrase. It actually means something, and I want you to embed it in your psyche. So this week’s Pep Talk will be about bounce. 

You may not realize it, but every time you train, you summon a little bounce. Think about it. When you rep until failure, do you quit your whole session after finishing just one set? Of course not. You rest briefly to recover some strength and endurance, or perhaps to catch your breath, and then you begin another set, right? That resilience, the ability to recover and keep striving, is what bounce is.

Bounce is something we all need to summon from time to time, whether in the gym or outside of it. It’s about how we react when situations get challenging. If you know someone who has no bounce, tell them to get some quick because they’re going to need it sooner rather than later.

Life throws curve balls we’re not prepared to hit. You’ve undoubtedly dealt with a frustrating setback before and had a moment when you felt dumb, discouraged, or even defeated. If you’re human, you’ll have those moments. In case you didn’t know, roughly 110 billion people have lived on this earth, so no matter what setback you’ve encountered or how insurmountable you believe it to be, it’s been experienced by many others across the millennia.

Just don’t let the negative emotions fester. Understand that many things that happen just happen. The happenings have no target, and therefore don’t happen to you. It’s your interpretation of the happening that creates your negative experience of it. You can roll with the punches and recover from the situation with your wits intact if you resist personalizing it. “Why did this happen to me?” is not a question to preoccupy yourself with.

When you have bounce, you won’t sulk too long over oversights, failures, or even personal slights. A small setback may slow you down, and a big one may bring you to a halt, but the bounce in your spirit will compel you to come out swinging again. That curve ball you didn’t see coming will be something you can reflect on and learn from. Keep swinging, and you’ll figure out how to hit it.

Sayonara until next time.