First off, sorry for the serious delay between writing. There has been a lot going on, but that is really a bullshit excuse. Truth is, the motivation hasn’t been there. It’s back now, though, so I will be publishing regularly until it goes away again.
My fitness journey, much like my writing this blog, has stopped and started many times throughout the years. From mega-gym member to Crossfit to HIIT to garage gym to, well you get the picture. Most recently, in a fight to keep the old man out, I have been working out with a trainer. He programs workouts, I do one of them with him each week, and then spend the rest of the week failing at the diet portion.
Had you asked me at the start of 2024 if I would be not only competing in, but winning my class at a powerlifting meet, I would have laughed at you. I would have had to ask you what a powerlifting meet was because I had no idea. I was clueless. Yet, because I am not great at peer pressure, I found myself signed up for a powerlifting meet at the ripe old age of 47 and training like I had never trained before. Little did I know how much I would like it or how many lessons for life and business came from it.
Without a Plan, Nothing Matters
I went into this with some knowledge of lifting. I wasn’t completely blind. I had also, within the previous year, been following a program (here is the book) that is all about incremental progress. But to put myself in a position to compete, I needed a plan.
I think that there are three elements to a good plan. The first is that it is very simple. The second is that it can overcome all your excuses to not be successful. This is difficult for people because it requires real honesty. For example, I know myself well enough to know that I am not going to go out of my way to go to a gym. It needs to be on my normal travel route to and from the office. Third, it has to be important to you. You actually have to want to follow it.
In this case, the lifting plan was simple. In fact, it was so simple that it became a little boring, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Although I have a home gym, I needed more weight and specialized equipment to train for this meet. There was a gym that had exactly what I needed right on the way to work. The only other obstacle to overcome was the ridiculous onesie you have to wear during the competition. Finally, I wanted to see what I could do. It was really a competition with myself more than anything. It became important to me to know that I could really lift some seriously heavy shit.
Having the Right Coach Makes a Huge Difference
My lifting coach is the perfect combination of take zero bullshit while understanding that not every day is going to be the best. As I write this, I am three weeks post having a stent placed in my heart. This was my first real week back in the gym and it was a struggle. Matt was encouraging when I needed it, but part of that encouragement was suggesting ways to do things that would better fit my tolerance at this point in my recovery. He didn’t just let me slide.
Bridget Moore and I recorded an episode of Top 5 where we talked about coaching. The secret sauce to coaching, whether for athletics or business, is that the coach be able to meet you where you are right now. Too often, people want to jump ahead of where they are and go do the fun and sexy stuff when they haven’t done the foundational work to set them up for success. The result is often an injury that sets you back even further than where you started.
Yes, you need to have good rapport with your coach. Yes, you need accountability from your coach. Yes, you need to feel that your coach is invested in you. More than all those things, as important as they are, is that you need a coach who can tell you when you are getting a little too big for your britches and risking a setback. They need to know where you are, where you want to go, and help you formulate the plan to get you there that follows the three steps we talked about earlier.
Being Better at Boring Wins
I am, at some point, going to write solely on this subject. For salespeople, in particular, it is the key to success. Be as consistently boring as you can be. It is ridiculously difficult for me to write that sentence because, like most salespeople, I am not good at consistency. My wife likes to joke that I am really good at consistency for 6 months and then I am off to the next thing. I get bored easily. But, those who are the very best at doing the boring things almost always win.
There were days, especially as the competition got close, where I did not want to go into the gym and do the same damn workout I had already done again and again. I did though because, through tracking, I could see that I was making progress (most of the time). That progress gave me the motivation to do those same exercises even when I was so bored with them.
Make the phone calls. Update the CRM. Send the notes. Stay in flow. Make the phone calls. Update the CRM. Send the notes. Stay in flow. Make the phone calls. Update the CRM. Send the notes. Stay in flow. Make the phone calls. Update the CRM. Send the notes. Stay in flow.
Avoid the new tech or marketing or social media or whatever takes you away from the boring shit that actually works. Just be the best at being boring.
A Lot of Your Limitations Are in Your Head
There are two sides to this coin. The first is setting yourself up for failure with unrealistic expectations because of ego, comparison, or dishonesty with yourself. The second is fear, plain and simple.
When I started my plan for this meet, I would get frustrated because I couldn’t do certain things. I was comparing myself to my coach and getting pissed that I couldn’t do what he was doing. What the actual f*&k was I thinking? I first met Matt about 15 years ago. He is the epitome of doing boring shit better than anyone else. His consistency is mind-blowing to someone like me. How could I possibly think, 18 days into this, that I was going to compare to him? Yet there my dumb ass was doing it. More on this in a minute.
Fear. It’s a killer. In the powerlifting universe there is a thing called “meet strength”. Whether it is adrenaline or the spirit of competition, you can usually lift more at a meet than in the gym. Deadlift is/was my enemy. I had some lower back pain over the years prior to this training (which actually cured the pain). I was afraid that I was going to hurt myself deadlifting that much weight. My deadlift suffered because of it. On two separate occasions prior to the meet, I failed at 405 lbs. I just could not break that barrier. At the meet, with my meet strength, I lifted 430, a full 25 pounds heavier. It’s all in your head.
Failure is a Step in the Right Direction
In the end, I had a really successful meet. I beat my goal. I came in second in my class for the whole competition and first in my class for Masters (the old folks division). What may sound like a success was, in fact, wrought with failure every step of the way.
The first day of training, the actual first workout, I called my wife after I crawled out of the gym and told her I was 80% sure I was going to die. I wasn’t joking. I actually thought I might perish. I went up and down on weight more than I can count, both in the gym and my actual body weight. I hurt my elbow and had to do PT all the way up to the competition and my bench press suffered at the meet because of it. Every time I failed I thought every eye in the gym was on me. I would get embarrassed. Then I would get mad.
Here’s the deal: progress isn’t a straight line. Progress is a series of setbacks that we learn from and get better. If we gave up every time we hit an obstacle, nothing would ever get accomplished. The key is taking a step back and understanding that failure isn’t fatal, to quote Churchill, and it is the courage to continue that counts.
You Are the Competition
My industry is wrought with an absurd need to compare or measure or make a list or win an award. None of that really matters. Does it make you feel good? Sure. Does it validate your efforts? Maybe. Personally, I think it does more harm than good.
The only person that matters is you. Are you happy with the effort you put in? Did you learn from today to be better tomorrow? What direction is your measure of progress going? Do what you can do with what you have and be happy with the knowledge that, whatever the result, it is just a step on the path. Forget about everyone else.
The Cool Down
Every good workout needs a cool down. This being my first time behind the keyboard in a while, I will take it. I am probably missing a few things in here, but it is strange how something you accidentally stumbled into can teach you so much. Now, onto the next one…
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