There are these moments when you have the choice to fly.
These days I’m learning more about myself than ever. Two weeks ago I crossed into waters never drifted upon before and from that point on, it has been new experience after new experience.
The smell and sound of fresh waters is encouraging, exciting, full of adventure and scary at times. Dangers in the water come up on you fast and you have this choice…
You have the choice to fly.
These choices are made every single day. When things get really really hard…everything burns and you feel like you have nothing left…your brain is telling you to stop…you have a choice to make – quit where you are at or finish what you are doing. I’ve been learning what it really means to never quit. Because that decision to stop doesn’t mean you didn’t work hard…it just means you weren’t competing with your potential.
That’s how you get results.
Every single day you have to go out there and compete with the version of yourself that’s a little bit faster than you, a little bit stronger, a little bit more motivated than you. Eventually you catch up but then it just keeps running an arms length out of your reach.
You can be discouraged by this or you could understand that you are getting better because you constantly have something to chase. You are consistently aiming higher and higher – and there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with it as long as you are happy with getting better every single day.
I’ve heard many say over my time blogging that “it sounds like I’ll never be happy with myself.” False. It has nothing to do with happiness actually.
For 90% of my days, I am incredibly happy. I think that’s a damn good place to be. It’s about not being satisfied…about always staying hungry…and about never settling for your past performances.
I’ve been a competitive knucklehead since I came out of the womb and I truly learned what it meant to compete when I starting facing off with myself.
That’s when magic started to happen.
Sports teach you many things about dedication, passion, desire, competition etc…but there has to be another switch turned on inside of you to get to a point where you can truly go after yourself.
You have to dig into the mental side of the game and tap into visualization of what you are capable of.
I had a small glimpse of that from a sports psychologist in college, but I only found out how influential your mind is when I started to take my new passions seriously.
To those out there riding the fitness wave from New Year’s Resolutions – I want to congratulate you. But the fitness world has done you a bit of a disservice from the following claim.
You’re going to hear something like this all the time…”It’s 70% food and 30% gym…It’s 100% food and 110% gym” or something of that nature. Those percentages aren’t exactly wrong, but they make you focus on the wrong things. It’s bigger than that. It’s 100% in your head.
That’s. In. Your. Head.
If you don’t believe that you can do it – then nothing out there in this world is going to help you.
No weight loss pill. No drug. No expensive trainer. Nothing you can think of is going to fix it for you. The enemy is going to fight you in your mind over and over again because that’s the easiest place to destroy everything else.
So start with your mind. Dedicate yourself to something and decide that no matter what you will achieve it. No matter what.
Because it’s hard.
It’s ridiculously hard and if you don’t have all of your own support behind you, then you will fail. That was my story for years and years and years. I didn’t truly believe I could do it…so guess what – I never did.
That story will play over and over and over again if you fail to fix the problem – it’s all in your dome.
So you have a choice.
You have a choice in everything you do to make a greater effort because you know you can or to give up. You start to get really good at what you are doing when you view mediocre efforts as not even an effort at all.
Nothing short of your best becomes the standard. You’re going to feel rocked every single time you do it, but trust me, you will get stronger and faster and better at your skill. Then, you gain confidence.
Then, you start pushing yourself ever more. More confidence will arrive. You will go even harder.
And WHEN ADVERSITY HITS….because it will…I guarantee it, you will be ready. You’ll be ready to roll right through it because you have a foundation that you have built.
No one can take that away from you. No one can strip the pride and courage you have built into your bones from the endless work you put into something. Don’t you dare let them try either.
This is yours. No one else’s.
You’ve earned it.
So fly.
Evan Sanders
The Better Man Project