So there I was, top of my game and I had been there for a while… I was noticing some odd things about being really fit and exceptionally healthy after 8 months of pretty much straight killing it. I was taking it for granted that I was in better shape than when I was in my twenties. Like everything else, once you have it for a while, it starts to feel mundane, normal to feel not just good, but great…
With these feelings, came workouts that were mediocre. I felt like I could skip things in my 100 Day Challenge and not sweat it because I felt like I was doing enough. Didn’t read on Tuesday? No problem, I had been reading daily for months… Didn’t practice guitar on Thursday? That’s fine; I had done it enough to make up for my lack of enthusiasm. My workouts I never missed but I noticed that my heart wasn’t in it anymore. I switched it up, changed exercises and changed my routine but I just couldn’t find that spark I needed to feel like I was conquering the workout rather than just going through the motions.
A lot of people ask me how I achieve the consistency that I maintain and not quit… I tell them that I am just like everyone else, I want to quit. It’s hard to get up every single day at the same time regardless of weekends or holidays. It’s hard to eat well every single day, day in and day out. Keeping a schedule is sometimes grueling, especially when you just don’t fucking feel like doing it. I am human, and I have the exact same inclinations that every human being walking the planet has. So look, it’s not that I never doubt myself or have that inclination to procrastinate or the desire to avoid a workout or a self imposed challenge. I don’t always feel like doing what I should do…
So what’s the difference between me and the majority of the population?
I simply focus and lean into it. I act anyway, regardless of how I feel. It would be fucking great if I could decide to never have a negative thought, but that isn’t realistic is it? Even the most positive of us get gripped by the throat by a negative hand once in a while, no matter how hard we try to avoid it.
So 25 days into my newest 100 Day Challenge, a wonderful thing happened to me… I got a lung infection and it took me completely out of the game. Let me say that again for those of you who didn’t catch that… The best thing that could have happened to me happened… I got taken out by a lung infection. Missed almost a week of work, missed almost a week of workouts. I stopped getting up early, slept in and simply laid on my back and watched television.
The first few days, I was not thankful, like a petulant child I whined about how this infection fucked up my 100 Day Challenge and I would have to start P90X over, I would have to restart my 100 Day Challenge cycle, etc... I would lose muscle mass, gain weight, my back started hurting and other self-indulgent bleating until I was sick of myself. Poor Bob, he couldn’t work out… What was he to do?
Well, first of all, I stopped feeling sorry for myself because I had been lying to myself for quite a while anyway. I was so tired, and bored of working out that I cheated on almost every session. I was just going through the motions and I knew it. Now listen, I was working out and that was more than most people but I try never to compare myself to the average person.
Let’s stop right for a second so I can clarify that statement. Some might leap on me right here and ask me that accusatory question of “So you think you are better than the average person?” That’s not what I meant at all. When I say I do not compare myself to the average person, I don’t mean that I think I am better. I compare myself to the Dwayne Johnsons of the world. I don’t mean I am better than anyone, when I do my comparisons, I mean I am not as disciplined as the people I compare myself to. I look to the people that push themselves so hard that they are obviously superior to me. I strive to be like them. They get up 0430 to work out; I get up at 0430 to work out. They read a book a week; I read a book a week. Instead of thinking that I am better than anyone else, I choose to look at the people in the world who are working harder than me. I want to work as hard as top athletes like Kobe Bryant who instead of stopping after breaking a finger, he just changed the way he shot the ball, intellects like Noam Chomsky and game changers like Elon Musk. I don’t want to be better than anyone; I simply want to be as good at what I do as the people I look up to. This isn’t about ego, this is about how far an average person can push themselves to be the best person they can be.
I hold myself to a high standard when it comes to diet, exercise, positivity and self improvement. I knew that the last few weeks were going to end badly for me. A workout where I would just cruise through it, an extra helping of food, a 20 minute snooze session… I was rushing through exercise time and cruising through my self improvement time taking it easy and lying to myself that missing a day of reading here or a guitar practice there was okay, because ”I was doing so well…” When we are working for self improvement we can clearly see results (or the “not” results) folks, and we know when we are not doing the fucking work or just coasting. First rule for self improvement should be “tell the fucking truth about what you are doing or not doing” because not following the program you laid out for yourself won’t get you where you want to be…
Let’s get back to that lung infection, shall we? In the middle of the week I switched from “poor me I had a setback” to “shut the fuck up and find your way out of this.” There had to be some great lessons in this impedance to my progress.
The first thing I realized was that in the last few weeks, I hadn’t made any progress. Going through the motions is not progress. It isn’t going backwards but it sure wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been either. So this little break I was forced to take wasn’t interrupting anything great, in fact, it alerted me to the fact that I was slacking off.
Okay… Now that I had that settled, I started watching some YouTube videos, documentaries and videos that were educational, informative and enlightening. Feeding my mind philosophy, provocative thought and meaningful dialogue instead of filling it with useless, entertainment designed to pass my time painlessly.
Instead of whining about my predicament, I changed gears and made my predicament a constructive situation… Now what exactly could be positive about getting a lung infection that knocks you off the top of the mountain? Good question, I’m really glad you asked… Let’s find out, shall we?
Lesson One: The Value of a Healthy Body
We could also call this lesson “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” When you’re healthy, it’s the status quo. You can do anything and everything, and it becomes normal. So what is there to appreciate about normal? Nothing, it’s normal… That is correct until you get a lung infection and you don’t have that health anymore, life becomes substantially more difficult. Simple shit like showering goes from a 15 minute job to a medium-term project… Grocery shopping? Yikes… Getting a cup of coffee from the kitchen goes from a no-brainer to making a bed escape plan that only Steve McQeen could pull off… So being sick gave me that perspective again of what unhealthy feels like and how difficult life is when you aren’t in top physical shape.
Lesson Two: Learning to Accept a “New Normal” Even if Only Temporarily
Getting sick was obviously not what I wanted or intended to do so it might sound counterintuitive to practice acceptance in the face of illness. Making peace with the reality of my temporary loss of physical fitness time and the inevitable pain of the restart helped me get past the unhappiness… Yes, it sucks to feel like you’re starting from scratch, but I imagine I will survive and before I know it, I will surpass the level of fitness I was before I got sick… My trick is to not obsess over lost strength and flexibility and concentrate on the fact that the return will be easier because I have done this many times before and I know that even though it will suck hairy donkey balls to get up in the morning at 0430 I will probably have that little smile because I will be proud of myself for doing it. I will hit it hard too because if you gotta suck hairy donkey balls, may as well put your heart into it… The donkey will appreciate it.
Lesson Three: Set New Goals
Today, in addition to this blog, I am working on my new action plan… New exercises, new challenges and new goals for a new 100 Day Challenge. The stagnation I hit was going to stall me out even if I had not gotten the infection in my lung. Eventually I would have had to stop and retool anyway, so this sickness was the universe’s way of telling me to take a break. I learned from the boredom I hit during the last series not to let it get the best of me. So I had a setback, which just gives me the opportunity for that huge adrenaline/dopamine rush of a huge comeback… Stronger, faster, smarter and even better than the best I have ever been.
So listen, when you get knocked down, don't just get up... Stay there for a second and consider what it means to get up. Learn your lessons, retool and rework your plan... Staying down for a second doesn't make you weak, but getting up and doing the same thing over makes you a dipshit... Learn the lessons, set new goals and get up like Buster Douglas did against Mike Tyson... Shock yourself, you got it in you..
So tomorrow morning I start again… Now it’s time for me “ Get to Fucking Work…”
Peace
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