Sometimes it’s the best thing to not get what you want right away.
Not getting what you want gives you an opportunity to show just how much you want it.
This is especially true when you strive for a huge goal and come up just short of what you envisioned. That feeling of almost having it is still in your fingertips but you didn’t quite grasp it.
Then what?
Do you give up altogether or do you capitalize on the progress that you made? I’ve done both.
The former feels awful in the long run and you send yourself right back to where you were before. The latter though, now that’s new for me.
Thing thing is, it’s going to take you a long time to make any significant long-lasting changes. I learned that the hard way with watching my body and health morph and change throughout the past 6 months.
I ended up short of where I wanted after my first 14 week challenge even though I completed an incredible milestone…and that left me upset initially and then after a few weeks of rest – hungry for more.
I was looking for how I could improve upon the process I had just gone through and how I could reach that goal.
That goal has been sitting in the back of my head since I was 12 years old.
There were many reasons for not achieving it.
Mostly eating habits, but a large amount of it was rooted in my mental ability to discipline myself.
I wasn’t committed. I was interested – but not committed.
There’s a huge difference between those two.
When it comes down to your vision, you have to be willing to make all the sacrifices…and then once you learn of new things to sacrifice, you have to give up those as well.
It’s going to take everything you have to get it done. For me, right now, my body is aching, every step of cardio hurts, and yet I am trying to somehow find a way to make it happen.
6 more weeks.
6 more weeks of pushing as hard as I can.
That’s where the mental development of spending hours in the gym over the past few years of my life comes into play.
Sure it’s about getting stronger physically, but mentally you find yourself capable of so much when you can pull from that internal discipline and overcome pain and fatigue in order to get something done.
Those are lessons that translate into the rest of your life.
There’s no going through this without some pain.
You will feel it…and when you feel it, you have to find a way to use it.
You have to tap into that because if you don’t it will consume you. It will eat up every piece of you and eventually make you stop because you are aching.
Your mind is so powerful – you just have to give it a chance to warm up and overcome the bumps and bruises the body has gone through.
Life makes a compelling case for living in fear.
While living with fear isn’t a choice…living in fear is. You have the choice to continue to act or to play it safe…or to not even play at all.
That’s an option.
You can sit on the bench your entire life and watch everyone else play – and even worse – simply comment, bicker, and grovel about those who are on the field.
That’s even worse than not playing the game at all.
I think people start to focus on what others are doing simply because they can’t possibly comprehend why they haven’t even begun to see what they are capable of.
Focus that energy inward and you will grow.
Remember – there are huge differences between what you are interested in and what you are committed to.
Commitment breeds sacrifice. Interest breeds comfort.
Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project