Try harder

Two posts in two days?!  Preposterous!  This post was actually spurred on after tonight's speed workout and reading my friend's blog post.  His is titled "Break Your Kettles and Burn Your Boats" and it's all about fully committing yourself to whatever business or life endeavor that you deem important. (You should read it here) I love this because it definitely hits home.  I've been running into some challenges at work with clients and trainers.  Some people look at an outcome that they wish to obtain, but they don't want to do anything to get the results they're hoping to get.  All they are doing is hoping, wishing, praying, and thinking about something.  Occasionally, there is some action, but typically people just go through the motions of acting like they are trying hard, when really it's just a ruse.  I even had a fellow trainer tell me to my face today that he "didn't want to put in 5 to 10 hours of work on programs" because all he wants to do is "build his business and make a lot of money".  I'm sorry, last I checked you had to actually do work to get money, which would be how you make a lot of money.  The same thing applies to clients who think the mere action of paying for a trainer and signing into the club will magically make them lose weight, gain speed, or increase any kind of physical endurance.  The problem is that these people are not committed.  They either don't want to try, or they don't want to tell anyone they're trying in case they fail.

Earlier this year I confessed that I wanted to qualify for Worlds at Muncie.  Yeah it was scary because then it was out there and there was no turning back.  Some people don't want to commit to a task because if they fail then they think people will think less of them for not succeeding.  If your entire self worth is based solely on what people think of you, then your life must be beyond stressful and not remotely fulfilling.  The best option is to not give yourself anyway out.  With the idea of "break your kettles and burn your boats" the idea was that the army had two options when they went to their battle (seriously, read the link).  They could either fight and win quickly, or fight and die.  There was no true middle ground because they didn't have an escape route.  I know a lot of clients who have "excuses", which I call "back up plans" or "reasons why it's ok to fail".  They half ass their workouts, or training programs, then complain because they don't see results.  They are too afraid to actually hurt and move forward, or to see what would happen if they did.  Trainers work the same way.  They don't want to put themselves too far out there just in case all of their hard effort gave them zero yield.  It would still yield something, results to say "yep, that didn't work".  Then you figure out the why.  Once you know why something doesn't work you are one step closer to figure out what you need to do to make it work for the next time.  Sitting back and letting someone else figure it out or push harder in a workout doesn't make you better.  It makes them better because they put in the effort and weren't afraid to push themselves a bit harder than the average bear so that they see the results that they want to see instead of dreaming of results they are making unobtainable.

I'm going to break my kettles and burn my boats as I go into Rev3 Cedar Point September 7th.  I won't get to qualify for their championship because you have to come in top 3 in 2 of their races instead of just one, but I can still set my own goal of 5:30 and not back off just because the workouts look like they suck.  What would you push yourself to do if you knew you had to succeed, no other option?

(Again, go to Adam and Caroline's site)