One of the best selling t-shirts of all time expresses itself with two words:
S**t happens.
If I recall, the ancient philosoper Parmenides said something similar…although he probably used different words.
Bottom line, things don’t always turn out as planned, have you noticed that?
When a person I train demonstrates their ability to respond to an unexpected challenge, and to follow through regardless, I know they’re starting to get it.
It could be a workout plan that fell through or maybe a protein day that got thwarted somehow. But they still managed to make it work. Maybe they squeezed in a bodyweight workout at home later, or made a creative food choice when ordering at a restaurant.
It’s not what happens to us but how we respond to what happens to us that counts.
When I used to train for strongman competitions I had a shed at the back of an industrial complex where I stored the various odd implements that I trained with. A friend of mine from the gym did iron work for houses and volunteered the courtyard at his warehouse for me to prep for contests. I had an 800-pound tire, a set of Atlas stones, some weighted kegs, a log with handles in it for overhead press, and a set of Farmer’s Walk cylinders.
The Farmer’s Walk was performed with oxygen tanks that had a metal handle welded to them. You’d hold them, one in each hand, and carry them suitcase style, either trying to cover a maximal distance or a predetermined distance in the fastest time possible. I’d normally train with anywhere from 225lbs. to 275lbs. per hand.
During the winter months, many of my fellow competitors would take a break from training with implements, unless they had access to an indoor facility where they could use them and be sheltered from the elements.
Not wanting to get behind, I trained outdoors year-round. It wouldn’t matter what the conditions were. I’ll never forget training on the coldest night of the year. The temperature was -40 with the windchill. I’d use a blow torch to warm up the metal handles on the Farmer’s Walk tanks (if you weren’t careful, your hands would freeze to the bar), and I’d leave my car running so I could stay warm.
I’d sit in the car until I was ready for my next set, jump out, run across the ice and snow while carrying the cylinders, and jump back in the car to warm up when I was done! I’d then strip down to my t-shirt so I could do runs with an Atlas stone (round concrete balls weighing anywhere from 245lbs. to 335lbs.) during which the skin on my forearms would go completely numb!
As I think back to those days, I wasn’t exactly moderate in my training approach. But it worked. I got better, and placed higher in competitions. Despite the difficult circumstances, I found a way to make it work. Besides, after training outside all winter, competing outside during the summer was a breeze!
Commitment is nothing without follow-through.
Follow-through is putting emphasis on the completion of a task. Successful people are finishers. People whose success eludes them are perpetual “starters”.
Follow-through is a habit, and one that can be cultivated with practice. It’s a habit that can make you more effective in everything you do.
People who lack follow-through are usually reacting to what is, instead of guiding their own response. Follow-through is about taking responsibility for your results and refusing to let random circumstances dictate your actions.
Follow-through is doing whatever the situation demands.
When you are following through, chances are it won’t always be pretty. It may not suit the perfect idea of how you wanted things to go. The point is to do your best with the cards you’ve been dealt.
If your goal is perfection, you’re gonna have to settle for excellence.
I’ve not yet encountered the person that does all of this perfectly. Everybody misses a workout sometimes. We all have bad eating days. Work around it. Do something, anything positive toward your goal. The winner is the one who employs consistency of effort. The winner is the one who follows through despite the obstacles she may encounter.
“I can give you a six-word formula for success: “Think things through – then follow through” – Sir Walter Scott
Here’s my own little rime which you might find helpful…”over, under, around, or through – whatever it takes, I’ll do.”
Live Strong and Healthy,
Conor Kelly
EVOLUTION FITNESS – PERSONAL TRAINERS TORONTO
(416) 220-7883
P.S. Follow through on your desire for renewed health and a better body! Call us for your complimentary Breakthrough Session (a $150 value) to discover your most high leverage strategies for fast results!
Personal Trainers Toronto: “If you had one piece of advice…”
“The magic is in the process.”
It might not surprise you, given my background in the strength sports, I have a tendency to apply brute force to almost everything I do.
I believe anyone with strong emotional drivers can suffer from similar tendencies. I call it ”all or nothing” sydrome. Those affected will normally identify themselves as an ”all or nothing” type of person. Life has since taught me that it is rarely the best approach.
Earl Nightingale defines success as “the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal”.
Success, therefore, is not an event, it’s a gradual unfolding of your wants and desires.
When embarking on any new endeavor, it’s crucial that you develop the ability to allow yourself to be ensconced in the process, i.e., to let the process work for you. You are meant to enjoy the ride. It is time intended for you to revel in your creation. If you just snapped your fingers and always had what you wanted, what would be the fun in that?
To really allow energy to flow completely toward the achievement of any worthy goal, there needs to be a certain degree of detachment from the actual outcome.
Every year at our studio we host an internal body transformation contest among our success stories. It’s just a fun thing to do. Some people get very competitive, and apply themselves more fully, therefore achieving faster results. The reason I’ve always liked these contests, is that they’re another opportunity to study success. I get to observe the route taken by the winners in each contest. I always gain even more insight into the inner workings of a successful body transformation.
Recently, one of the winners had a very interesting approach. It was great because we practically had to twist her arm to get her to enter. As soon as the decision was made however, it was like she was a new woman. At her initial weigh in, she proclaimed herself the winner! She wasn’t the least bit interested in her initial measurements, nor any subsequent progress measurements. Progress updates were performed on the agreement that we wouldn’t tell her the results. She spent all of her energy focusing on changing her habits. She improved her eating habits and upped the frequency of her workouts.
Throughout the weeks she repeated often her intention to win. This focused energy paid off because she made good on her promise and won the competition!
With some trainees it actually works better not to do progress updates. Get focused on changing your habits, and doing the activities that are likely to bring you the results you want. Don’t worry about how fast your body is actually changing, if you’re doing the right things consistently and for long enough, you can’t help but reach your goal! It becomes a foregone conclusion. Work on you and let the results take care of themselves.
In yesterday’s post I advised you to indentify compelling reasons for wanting change, and described how some people don’t get results because they just don’t want it bad enough. Yet there is also such a thing as wanting something too much.
Your desire becomes counterproductive when you’re overly attached to the outcome and fail to allow the time for it to enter your experience.
Putting excessive pressure on yourself interferes with your ability to execute.
I had learned this lesson many years ago in my competitive days. In my first few years of competition, I was out to prove something. I wanted it too much. I would push and push and push, and the results would be very mediocre. My performance in competition was always less than what I’d done in training. I was putting so much pressure on myself by focusing on the outcome that I couldn’t follow through properly.
In the Ontario’s Strongest Man Competition of 2002 I received a very painful lesson.
I had trained so hard. I desperately wanted a good showing. But I made a crucial mistake. I attempted to superload my electrolyte balance by drinking an entire bottle of Pedialyte the day before the contest. That evening I was already unwell. Without getting into too much graphic detail, I ended up losing a lot of liquid. By the day of the competition I was completely dehydrated, and I barely qualified for the finals the next day.
That’s when the fun really got started. After the first event on the second day I started experiencing extreme muscle cramps. My massage therapist was furiously working away trying to loosen me up, feeding me salt and forcing me to drink water, but it was already too late. The damage was done. One by one, every muscle in my body cramped up making every movement excruciating. I somehow managed to get through the day’s events, but obviously put up a pretty weak performance.
I remember feeling completely crushed by this. As I sat in the locker room, I sunk my face into a towel and began to sob uncontrollably. It’s not your typical strongman behaviour. I later broke down again while speaking to my parents on the phone. As painful as the experience was at the time, it made me reflect.
“Why am I doing this? It’s supposed to fun.”
I came away with the realization that I was taking things way too seriously. I learned to prepare myself as best I could for each competition, and to be at peace with my level of preparation, knowing I’d done the best I could. I’d then enter the competition with the singular goal of having as much fun as possible, and focusing purely on execution, staying in the moment, and releasing all and any attachment to the outcome.
As soon as I’d made this shift, I began to place higher in competitions.
The following year I placed third in my regional qualifier for the provincials, and the year after I made it to eighth place in a very strong field of big men at the OSM competition. My competition performances began to exceed what I’d done in training, aided by a healthy dose of adrenaline. I really started to love competing and I enjoyed my training more and more.
As soon as I discovered and identified my passion for the process of training and competing, I steadily improved, faster and faster.
The point is, I meet a lot of people who are just plain trying too hard to lose fat! It’s as if they’d like to hammer the fat out of their body. They’re always looking for what else they can do, and they’re running themselves ragged at the same time. They’re frustrated. The big shift here is that you need to learn to allow the process to work for you.
Feelings of overwhelm and frustration make your progress slow and painful. It’s like trying to run under water. When you can find ways to enjoy what you’re doing, and not worry if the results aren’t here today, right this minute, it lowers the resistance to the program. Once you initiate a program, you need to let go and be in the energy of allowing the changes you want to occur.
Before I lost the weight, I was ignoring this point. I just kept feeling frustrated that the changes I wanted didn’t seem to come fast enough. Then I’d slip up. I’d think “well, I’m not making much progress anyway, so what’s the point,” and use that to justify wasting another week or two of progress. That was me. Some people give up altogether.
The funny thing is that when pressure is removed from the outcome the results tend to come that much faster!
Trying to force things never works. Focus on feeling good within the process, concentrate on the immediate action steps that will be the most helpful, and let the results take care of themselves. Know in your heart that you’ll reach your goal, regardless of when it happens.
If you only focus on results, you’ll never see change. If you focus on change, you’ll always get results.
It’s been sort of a mantra of mine for the last few years. Put it to work in your life, and I believe the benefits to you will be numerous. Oh, and be sure to take time along the way to enjoy the ride. : )
To Your Success,
Conor Kelly