Why go through all of that...

"Why do you go through all of that?"

One idle Friday morning in a hotel room, with 3 boys and one other father on the school trip, I was asked by the father why I did what I did.  Why did I choose to wake up 45 minutes early, do push ups, sit ups, and stretch, and then pop enough pills and vitamins to put a drug dealer to shame?  I guess to me, this is like being asked why you have a certain religion, or a certain belief.  Chad touched on that on this post so I figured I would share my side of why I do what I do every day.

It's the internal reward I seek.  I don't need others to see how strong I am.  Yes, I compete among other lifters, yes this is frequently in public hotel banquet rooms open to everyone, and yeah, there are videos on the internet featuring some of my lifts, but without all of that, I would still get up early, stay up late, eat my vittles and make sure my protein content was high, fat content was moderate and carbs were scheduled around my lifting sessions.  I do it so that when I put that bar down, or come out of the hole in a personal best squat, I get to feel that feeling of satisfaction, of accomplishment, of success.  Realize there are some people who only experience this once in a while in their lives.  To me, that's just not enough.  I want to feel accomplished, I want to feel that I woke up today, and I did something awesome and I made my physical and mental being better.

My kids have taught me something very, very special. They taught me how to care and how to show others that they can accomplish more than they once thought possible if the proper amount of time and work is put in to achieve the goal.  It's imperative to have a little bit of ego, and a lot of self confidence when getting under the bar.  Last week, I was on my final set of squats, which I had for 3 reps.  I sat at the bar, took my grip, and placed the bar on my back.  I had a moment of quick doubt, so at this point everything stops for me.  I walk away. I take a moment and collect myself, get my mind right and prepare for war once again.  No negative thoughts permitted.  If you think you may fail, or you may get buried under the weight, you've already lost.  Even on lifts where I failed my attempt, I went in to it thinking I was the strongest person on the platform that day.  This lesson has taught our kids to strive for success, and that if they don't succeed at first, you get up, wipe yourself off and keep busting your rear to get what you want.  I used to want to bench 225, then I wanted to bench 275, 315, 365, 405, and each time I achieved my goal, I kept reaching.  The pursuit never stops.  My kids lift, they love it, and they've grown more in the past 6 months doing so than they have in a very long time.  They're a part of our group.  They're social, they're active, and they're learning to watch what they eat.  My youngest is so fascinated with his little bicep peaks, that he works HARD to get them bigger and bigger.  He's also cautious of his waist line.  He wants that V taper and he wants to have abs, so he eats healthy lean meats and proteins, and well...he's at least eating some veggies now with his dinner.

Sure, I'll probably have arthritis when I'm 50 or 60.  Sure there's a chance I may buckle under a 800 pound squat, but what if I don't?   This could relate to anything in our lives.  Relationships, religion, our career, anything.  Do we want to go in to something half committed?  Do we want to only skim the surface of excellence or should we strive to be the absolute best we can be?  I choose to push myself to the limit, really try to get everything out of life I can.  I love my life, and I love my self, that's why I choose to get up every day and push myself as far and as hard as I can.