This is beyond inspiring. This has made me realise how much more I can do.
[quote]Alpha wrote:
poophead: Thanks man.
Mateus: Man, that guy is looking for every reason in the world to get rid of me! He has thrown out 90% of the serious lifters in the gym for dropping weights, grunting and using chalk…at this point when we see each other we both just turn the other way…Another confrontation is coming…But until then i will continue to hone my ninja chalk skills…Thanks for the kind words bro
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A Letter to Me:
Dear Alpha,
As your BFF, I figure someone has to say something...it may as well be me.
Youâ??re screwing up. I know you think you are doing ok, but ok is simply not good enough. Ok is for normal people, ok is for the masses, ok is for followers. It is NOT good enough for you. You have always strove for higher ideals, and now is no time to sit back and relaxâ?¦So in case you have forgotten, you are not a victim of your circumstances and you need to wake up and listen to what I have to say… That is, if you still desire to be more.
You always have a choice…No matter what the situation is, you ALWAYS have a choice. You can take the High road or the Low road—the hard part is making the correct decisions time after time even when those decisions hurt you or those you love. To do this will take great character and discipline, but if done correctly, you will never have to be ashamed of anything you have accomplished in your life…Here are a few things to keep your mind busy as you let this work through that thick skull of yours.
Start With the Small Stuff:
Being disciplined and living your life by a certain code is just like being lazy…the more you practice it, the more it becomes ingrained in you. It becomes part of you. If you are not making the correct small decisions, such as what you put in your mouth, how you react to annoying people, or how you choose to spend your money; than how could you ever expect to be trusted to take the higher road when really tough decisions stand in your way?
Your reactions to the daily, small, everyday occurrences are building a character inside of you. It is up to you every hour of every day to decide whether you will feed the weak, lazy, detrimental side of yourself and make it stronger; or if you will constantly strive to be better and challenge yourself, sacrificing so that tomorrow you will be better than you were today.
Either way, you will become the collective mass of these decisions, and whichever side you are feeding is sure to begin to raise it’s head everyday actions.
However, if you continually choose the correct path time and time again with the little things, when a big challenging monster comes along, you wonâ??t have to think twice… You will already know what kind of person you are and what you stand for.
For a person with character, the decision has already been made.
Discipline, perseverance, and valor come from a hard earned place.
Always Choose the Challenge:
Step back and take a good hard look at your life. Where are your weaknesses? What are you afraid of? What things do you hate to do most of all?
You need to identify these wraiths and choose to face them regularly. That may mean going to a cookout where your favorite foods are all over the place, but you choose to overcome and eat what you are supposed to. Or maybe you need to let a spider crawl all over you. Maybe it’s letting a loved one go…
The noun itself doesnâ??t even matter. Once you have beaten one of these, a new one will pop up. It is inevitable, there will always be something… The important thing is to look at whatever it is dead in the eyes and say, “Not today…today I own you.” And take your power back!
For whatever reason, you have given these things a complete irrational control over you. It is just like in middle school when someone made fun of you…the words can only have the power that you allow them to have.
By quitting, being scared, or just giving in, you give power away from yourself and give it right to the thing you dread most. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can scare you, and nothing can make you quit…except for yourself…
Alpha, you need to immunize yourself again such things. There may be things to be afraid of in this world, but puking during your last set of squats isn’t one of them! Rise above!
If you hate running stairs, run a whole stadium. If you can’t stand spinach, eat all that you have, go out to the store and buy more. If you are afraid of snakes, learn about them, hold one…don’t over react like a fool.
Make the positive aspects of these things greatly outweigh the irrational negative reactions you have to them.
Discipline for disciplineâ??s sake is never a bad thing, and it is the only way you are going to be able to excel in this world.
Learn to be comfortably uncomfortable…great people thrive in these situations.
Decide, Commit, Practice, and Prideâ?¦
Decide:
Your word needs to be your bond! And your actions should not conflict with the mass of junk that pours out of your mouth!
Do not waste your precious time and energy on negative people or things that hold no value…Take your time making your decisions. Heck, take time before you open your mouth! God gave you two eyes, two ears, and one mouth for a reason!
Weight out what is in front of you against your character and who/where you want to be. If these things do not align, don’t do it. Get educated on all aspects of the decision. If you don’t have that kind of time, get as much hasty information on it as you can. Even if it is asking the guy next to you.
Way too often anymore you are making decisions for the sake of someone else’s feelings or your own popularity… Don’t do that! In doing that you have agreed to do things that you never had any intention of following through on. Life is not a popularity contest.
If you have built a character of choosing the high road on the small things, than you know the right thing to do and how it should be done. When you decide, your “yes” should be yes and your “no” should be no. There should be no questioning it, not from you or anyone else. Everyone who knows you should understand that when you make a decision it was made with a great amount of thought and consideration.
Alpha, Just remember that once you have said it, you can’t take those words back…They are out there forever…
Commit:
If you have decided to do something…even if you have only made a deal with yourself…than you better follow through! Making your decision was the easy part, being committed and seeing it through to the end is the hard
part.
This means no whining, no complaining, no excuses…
If you agreed to help a friend move into his apartment—on the sixth floor—and all of the elevators are broken—Then it is time to strap that extra large fold-out couch onto your back and get to work. You both know it sucks, opening your mouth to cry about it doesn’t make it any easier and just makes you look pathetic.
Possibly more important is a commitment you have made to yourself. If from the cozy confines of your bed you told yourself, “I’m going to run 15 hill sprints today.” But you are now looking at the contents of your lunch spewed across the asphalt after number 12…well now you have just created a puddle of a hurdle to jump over as you finish your last three…
For some reason we believe that a commitment to ourselves is ok to break because it wasn’t voiced aloud and no one will know about it…That is BS and you know it. The word you keep to yourself is all about how much you respect yourself, and more importantly, what were your motivations for either quitting or pushing through…If you quit and don’t hold your bond to a set of sprints because they made you feel sick, how are you ever going to be faithful to your family, country, or anything else you commit to?
If you feel the urge to give up slowly rising inside of you, face it with the question, “What is going to make me better today? Quitting right now, or tempering myself through this fire?”…What you choose is who you will become.
You are building a whole lot more than muscle in the gym…you need to understand this.
If it was easy everyone would do it.
Practice:
Very, very few people are born good at anything. Some may have been blessed with some natural physical attributes, but even these people became proficient through sacrifice, discipline and practice.
Once you have made a decision and committed to accomplish any goal in your life, the only way to get there is through hard work and quality reps…
The best bagpipe player in the world chose practicing scales on his instrument rather than hanging out with his buddies. He chose cleaning and attending to that thing over playing pick-up rugby games in the park. He has taken countless lessons, reads every issue of â??Bagpipeâ??s Monthlyâ??, and sleeps with that thing tucked snuggly under his arm while dreams of playing in the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh Castle, dance through his head…
The point is to have a single minded focus on the things you want. And sacrificing the time and effort involved is the only way you will get there. Besides, if you are going to do something, you might as well be the best at it.
The activity itself doesn’t really matter, whether deadlifting 1000 lbs or baking your Mother a birthday cake… The more PERFECT reps you get in of something, the better result you are going to achieve. That Bagpipe guy has spent more time blowing air into that crazy instrument than you have spent years on this earth.
Also, be patient! No one becomes good overnight. If you want results faster, use your time more wisely. Work on your recovery, read about your activity, and plan better ways to achieve your goals…
In regards to weightlifting, it may not behoove you to do MORE per se, but you can always strive to make every rep perfect, push further each workout to beat your logbook every time, and spend your downtime refueling with the proper foods and spending time foam rolling and doing mobility work…there are always more ways to improve the things you are focused on.
Alpha, you have been spending too much time being lazy and procrastinating that could be spent getting better.
You were made for more than you are showing…Act like it!
Pride:
Once you have made your decision, committed your hard earned time and attention to it, have been disciplined in practicing and using your time wisely to achieve your goals, then it is time to start taking pride in all that your hands touch.
This does not mean strutting around bragging about how awesome you are. It means that NO MATTER WHAT you commit to doing, you do it with 100% of everything you have.
If you despise your job—quit… If you are too much of a baby to quit and you are coming up with fifty lame excuse of why you can’t, then I offer you this…Be the best at it…
Do you hate squats? Do them three times a week for the next six weeks. See what happens.
Instead of wishing every second you could be somewhere else or doing something else, embrace whatever is in front of you and fully give your all to doing the absolute best you can possible do. Apply this to all aspect of your life.
If your hate of washing dishes is compounded by your missing of your favorite re-runs of Spongebob SquarePants. Make a decision and choose to be right in the present moment with those dishes. Wash every single one to the best of your ability. Don’t rush through it. Take pride in what you are doing; strive to wash dishes better than you ever have before. I can guarantee you will enjoy the job more, and you can at least look back and know that you took the high road and can hold your head high, not being ashamed of something you were entrusted with.
You know how many paraplegics would kill for the opportunity to do that last set of squats? Or how many starving kids would do anything just for the scraps you are washing off those dishes? Wake up man! See what is in front of you and take advantage of it!
From the moment you awake until the moment you fall asleep you are bombarded with choices. Some will be simple, others will seem impossible. The sheer fact that we get so many decisions to make is, in itself, staggering. Look at it as a blessing and stop feeling so sorry for yourself.
Destinations are great, but the journey is where you will forge your character and become who you want to show up as.
Donâ??t neglect the small things everyday that can make you better.
Face your fears and dreads. Take back the power they have stolen from you.
Let your word be your bond, and once you have committed donâ??t waiver.
Anything worth doing is worth doing right, and everything you put your hand to should be autographed with the excellence and discipline of your character.
If you can live your life like this, not a moment of it will be wasted.
Now go do that last set of squats, tell your loved once how you feel about them before it is too late, finish your puke puddle hurdling sprints, and dry those dishes. With any luck and you still may be able to catch the end of SpnogeBob…
Your Loving BFF,
Alpha
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