Once a week I head to a hillside of stairs to do my interval workout. It is a challenging workout with 160 stairs to climb.

I am always amazed by the different people I see out there also doing the stairs. People of all fitness levels – some this is their first workout in years as they trudge up the stairs once or twice and call it a day, others are athletes home for a holiday break flying up three stairs at a time, or firefighters at the local station or mom’s making it a family outing with their kids who are joining in doing the stairs too.

Recently the city planted trees blocking the entryway to get to the stairs. There are no signs that say – “No Trespassing”, but I can only assume they are trying to keep people from using the stairs as a form of exercise. (It seems the stairs were built to reach the landscaping on the hillside, not for the purpose of giving us a place to workout).

As you walk up toward the stairs, it now appears, with no obvious path to get to them, that these trees block them. This would be an easy obstacle, if you were looking for an excuse to not do the stairs. And we have all been in the situation where you are looking for an excuse to not do something especially when it comes to exercise or anything out of your comfort zone.

Where there is a will there is a way…there is a small opening where you can squeeze by the trees maneuvering around them to get to the stairs.

A few weeks ago as I was doing my intervals and catching my breathe at the top of the stairs I noticed a couple walking up to join me. They were trying to figure out how to get up there and were not going to give up. As she stood looking determined with her hands on her hips strategizing the best way, looking for an opening, he actually started to climb through the bushes, practically climbing trees to get up there I’m sure scratching himself up. They were not going to use this as an excuse to not do the stairs today. As I came down and saw him tangled in the bushes going the wrong direction, I yelled out to them that they could get through at the small opening and they were on their way joining me on the stairs. No surprise they were great training partners as we chased each other up and down pushing each other to do “one more round.”

A few minutes later I was at the top of the stairs catching my breathe and noticed another couple walking up toward the stairs but before I could get down to tell them where the opening was they had given up and turned around. It was as if they were hoping an obstacle would get in the way – “Oh darn, there are trees blocking the stairs. I guess we can’t do them…” turning around faster than I could run down the stairs they had given up on doing what they had set out to do that morning…

How easy do you let obstacles get in your way? Do you back down as soon as you have an excuse?