Live

Take a Stand

It is really funny what you can get used to.  Remember, when Conan was placed on the grind stone and forced to walk around.  It seemed insurmountable and unthinkable that one person could push that massive wheel.  Little by little, after all the weaklings died off, Conan was left pushing it by himself.

Yes, that really happened.

What about Milo, who carried the calf every day? As the calf grew, his strength grew – little by little.  But we’re not talking about training today, we’re talking about life.

The things that you said you would never do, you are doing now.  The small decisions you have made everyday in your life have led you here.  

You said you would never end up at (insert the job you’re working, the shape you’re in or the whatever you’ve feared). 

Soundgarden said it best, “Whatsoever I’ve feared has come to life Whatsoever I’ve fought off became my life.”

The Turning Point

When did it all become so common to take the easy way out?

I was telling someone the other day how I lost at a particular “challenge” in the weightroom.

They said, “Why are you torturing yourself?”

Just a harmless comment, right?

But after I thought about it, I was enraged and sad at the same time.

Sad that they didn’t understand how fleeting life is and that they would never know what it feels like to win a challenge or to hit a goal.  That sadness turned into rage when I thought about how society accepts this mindset.  We have, over the course of time, accepted defeat so many times that it has become an afterthought.

Competitive drive has been replaced with complacency. Relentlessness has been replaced with lack of focus and the honorable mention ribbon.

What happened to not settling for 2nd place? What happened to – if I lose, I will work harder?

Why am I torturing myself?

Probably because I hate losing and want to keep challenging myself and getting better everyday.

I used to work with a scientist at a R&D facility. He was an older Korean guy and no one would work with him, because he was too “flightly.”  He was all over the place and he used to do math problems in the air by writing with his finger.

I asked him one day, when he thought he would retire?

He said, “Retire? Never. If I retire, I die.”  He said it so matter-a-factly that I was taken aback. He knew when he stopped challenging his mind and if he didn’t have a purpose everyday, he would die.

We are all dying, very slowly everyday – that is a cold hard fact. But are you really living?

When is the last time you felt alive?

When is the last time your heart was beating out of your chest?

When was the last time you took a pair of kettlebells and walked with them until your arms fell off?

When was the last time you did burpees until you passed out?

When was the last time you did pull-ups until you were just hanging from the bar?

When was the last time you did something someone told you that you could never do.

Just do something!

Live, because you haven’t “been awake” in a while.

Live with a sense of urgency.

Live like your kids are taking notes on how they should live.

Live like there is no tomorrow.

Live.