Sometimes I look back on how long I have been physically training and I am almost a bit disillusioned. I have been training for over two decades and I have no major record behind my name or any major achievements. It’s easier to compare ourselves to others than it’s ever been. Not only can we compare ourselves to others, but we can compare ourselves to others across the whole world. You’re not just keeping up with your neighbor, you are keeping up with Dante from Serbia who is a physical specimen who has survived through the toughest conditions known to man.
Still, the lessons provided from continuous physical training are numerous and chief among them is this.
You have to be willing to show up and try for a long time.
I see it all the time. We want to skip steps. In business someone wants to have people find them without gaining marketing skills. In training someone wants to continuously load the bar or run as fast as possible all the time. In school someone wants to get the grade without doing the homework.
To some extent I think our culture has created this notion that we can have the cake without the calories. We can get the benefit without providing any value. We can achieve the goal without effort.
It simply doesn’t work. Because you didn’t.
I alluded to the fact that I really haven’t done anything amazing in my training career. But that’s not quite true. I haven’t given up. I’ve rode the waves of injuries, lulls in performance, and stressful periods of time. And it has made me better.
I am healthier, stronger, more capable, and more optimistic than I would be if I had fallen off the consistency train. And even better I have seen how being on the consistency train has helped me in just about every avenue of life. I use training as an analogy for everything. Because the process of training is a lot like the process of life.
You show up. Try. Learn. Ride the ups and downs. And repeat while trusting that you’ll get to a good place if you ride those waves.
