What a Foam Roller Can Teach Us About Success

I love to get massages. Ever since going to massage therapy school a million years ago, I have been a bodywork junkie. I know first-hand the many therapeutic and stress-reducing benefits that receiving regular bodywork can bring. But, alas, I don't have unlimited resources of time and money to enjoy a pampering spa visit every week.

But I DO have an orange foam roller.

Since I don't have the freedom to get my weekly bodywork (at this point), I recently made the decision to bring the spa to me. At least one night a week, I get out my yoga mat, put on Spa Radio on my Pandora app, don my favorite workout gear, bring out my various implements of delicious torture, and roll away. After an hour of rolling, stretching, grunting, and moaning, my body feels so much better and more able to do more of what I need to do to reach my professional and personal objectives. Yes, it's not as rewarding as visiting the Mandarin Oriental Miami to get a 2 hour Thai Massage in the Spa Suite, but hey, it's better than nothing.

So often we convince ourselves that if we don't have the perfect outcome -- the luxurious full-body massage delivered by Inga the Swedish Goddess, the workout facility complete with Stairclimber and Bosu ball, the on-call personal chef who creates delicious and healthy meals, the perfect sales region with top-of-the-line products and promotional materials, or the executive leadership retreat led by Elon Musk -- we might as well not even try to improve. We convince ourselves of the lie that 'good enough' isn't good enough.