We all see them, at Wal Mart, the workplace, or looking in the mirror. Maybe with a sling on their arm, or favoring a strained back muscle, or limping through the door on their good leg.

Bar fight? Strong disagreement with their spouse? Exercise workout gone south? Good chance it’s none of those possibilities. Probably the result of an old-fashioned thing called Weekend Warrior on The Warpath. 

“I only have this Saturday and Sunday to build a treehouse for my kids.” Or, “Weatherman says it’s supposed to start raining early Monday morning, I gotta get my whole garden tilled up, and planted this weekend.”

Something backbreaking along those lines, anyway.

Or maybe you’re one of those who takes a good, long, honest look in your full-length mirror and decides that this will be the weekend you completely remove those extra twenty-five pounds. Don’t be surprised if you get acquainted with your local ER personnel, or at the very least spend a lot of time in the company of your mattress.

Cram a physical activity your body hasn’t done in months into one furiously-paced weekend, and you’re likely to find your muscles rebelling and accidents happening. Most likely you will recover, your tired and strained muscles will rest and heal. Slowly. And if you didn’t get your Warrior Goal finished before you fell over in pain, you will probably be feeling like getting back to it the next weekend. Maybe.

Good for you. Don’t give up, just get a little smarter about it. Realize you are older this year than you were 365 days ago, and that does make a difference. Make some adjustments in your thinking of how much weight you can lose in only forty-eight hours and you’ll be fine. Accept the possibility that you may have to take more than one weekend to finish that playhouse or your garden – nothing to beat yourself up about. Just do it at a reasonable pace for you.

Oh, yeah, there’ll probably be bruises, even if you take your time on your self-assignment. But bruises turn purple, then blue, then an ugly yellow, and go away. Don’t be afraid of the bruises, be more afraid of not trying to accomplish what you want.

Life is something we need to enjoy, to live the best we can. A time to involve yourself in whatever activity that brings a smile to your face – albeit maybe just before the grimace of pain. Go ahead and get busy with your plans, maybe just learn to tailor those plans a little.

Join that softball league, plant that garden, toss a softball with the neighbor kid in the yard you slowly raked yesterday. You don’t have to do it perfectly, and you don’t have to get it done in a certain amount of time. Just get started in the doing. Don’t vegetate on your sofa, find what you like to do and do it.