Happy Vs. Satisfied

 Merry Xmas Eve everyone. I trust you're going to have a fun time today with family/friends or happen to be on your own. Get any training in to build up that appetite for later? Here's some things for today's post....

When it comes to building or maintaining a physique, for some it comes easy and they build muscle easier, for others not so much. It may require more time, a different approach to a regimen and it can be daunting when things don't come our way. Trust me, I've had years of being self conscious with my own body. There are bodybuilders, models and some rugged mother fuckers that would make you give up just by the site of them. Even in my early days of training every day, I knew I was rebuilding and getting in good shape but I kept comparing myself to the other guys, even the old timers that I studied. It took time and by the time I was about between 28 and 30, I made the choice to let go of that bullshit.

It's one thing to admire someone and what they accomplished when it comes to building muscle and having solid conditioning, it's another to compare yourself to someone who's either had more experience than you or in the early stages of their fitness journey. You're never going to see the good in what you have done for yourself when you try to be just as good or better than someone else. It's not going to happen. It's like trying to compare George Hackenschmidt to a Ronnie Coleman. They both are iconic in the world of Muscle and both are strong as shit but their strengths are very different. Hack was also a well conditioned athlete that wrestled, lifted, rode bikes on the hills and had a physique that had no equal in his prime. Ronnie was a cartoonish looking Bodybuilder that was the most massive Mr. Olympia that looked like an enhanced version of John Henry with strength even by today's standards in the world of bodybuilding. 

When I stopped comparing myself, I found a new light in what I was able to accomplish from bodyweight training to hammers, sandbags, bands, Isometrics and even barbells and dumbbells. I felt happier, but I wasn't satisfied. Happy vs. Satisfied are two very different aspects. One is an emotion, the other is leading to an outcome. I wanted to continue to see what I can do and how my body would turn out with the way I did things. Always experimenting but have made mistakes and did what I thought was best to correct them. 

A time came where I bit off more than I can chew and had to refocus on rebuilding myself. Limited the amount of training I was doing and used one or two methods to self rehab again. I came back with a vengeance and gears shifted to being leaner, focus on things that matter more than just being physical with my workouts. My physique is far better now than it was a couple years ago and my intentions to work on controlling my movements more than ever was a choice I'm glad I made. I'm happy with what I've done but I'm not satisfied with it. I have talked about me never going to a level of muscle even remotely close to someone like a Sandow or even Bill Pearl, I don't have aspirations to be a model or go after some title in a physique contest. I will never be the strongest, the fastest or the biggest because quite frankly, no matter what I do, there will be someone better than me. What I can choose to do however, is be in better condition than I was yesterday, get leaner but rugged like an old school Full Back and be able to keep up with folks younger than me as best as possible with lesser risks of getting injured. That's more important to me than trying to kill myself or wear myself out to the point I'm no good to anybody. 

I will never be satisfied, my journey is continuous and will always find things to do to better myself. I have succeeded in a lot of ways but I've also failed too and need to take those failures and create something better from them. It's not going to be easy but it is very much going to be interesting. If you're satisfied, you don't have anything left, use that fire in your own journey and find ways to be better little by little each day. Keep killing it and be amazingly awesome. 

Training Under Stressful Times

    At this moment in my life something unexpected has come up. I have the "pleasure" of moving. Notice came around the day before Independence Day and it was just one of those "what the f*ck" moments and I'm leaving for California sooner. For those that know, moving can be extremely stressful, it was for me back in '11 when I moved up to Idaho and had to adjust quickly to the seasons and surroundings of a new state and town. However as stressful it can be now, I believe something awesome will come out of it, a better place, better surroundings and fun will be much greater.

 
    Despite helping move very heavy boxes (and one day doing 5 hours of moving those boxes into storage) I still train everyday even for a few minutes. Why do I do it; it makes me happy and distresses me. Although I'm having slight shoulder issues on my right side in the front deltoid, I still manage to have great workouts and recently it's because of DDP Yoga. I've been raving about this crazy Yoga thing for a while and I will get more on it in a later article but I will say this, it is challenging as hell but it's also fun and interesting. I'm not fond of doing someone else's workouts although I will from time to time to ease up creating a workout from the exercises but still I'm happy and I don't like being frustrated otherwise I can't get stuff done.

 
    This is where you have a choice. Even under great stress you still have a choice to find something that makes you happy (not easy but it's possible) or you can choose to mope and just be miserable. Being miserable is easy and many people rather just rather let go of everything and end up feeling like shit. You have a choice. I choose to hold my head up high because I've been in far worse situations. When I couldn't walk at the age of 20/21 years old there were times where I felt I could never walk or run the same way again but I chose to do something about it and ended up rehabbing myself with no doctors or physical therapists because I wanted to fight for my body and make it stronger on my own terms and in doing so, I learned many things about training especially on an emotional level. I chose to be happy and yes I do have my moments of frustration and anxiety but I'm human it happens but to balance it out I do things that keep me smiling and loving what I do. It's a choice.

 
    Although moving is a real pain in the ass and there is someone who you live with is looking for places to live and it's stressing them out it can divert back at you, you can make the best of things and make moving an interesting adventure even if you have to down the road. Do things that give you hope and something that brings joy to your life; for me its training, writing and reading a few books. It may not be the same for everyone but you get my point. Use that part of you that gives off radiant energy and love so when things later on occur it was meant to be, everything happens for a reason. Be awesome and do the best you can to be happy even in tough situations because being miserable is a disease and it causes too much crap in your life like depression, sadness, grief, not letting anyone you love help you; it's a bitch I've been there believe me. Take it up a notch and use what you love to help you bring joy into a stressful situation. It's a hell of an experience.

 
Be awesome everyone and do what you love.

Creating Your Own Story

 Ever since we were children, we were always fascinated by stories of courage, fearlessness, worthy battles and the power love overcomes. Young girls wanted to be princesses and fair maidens, guys wanted to be a superhero or a prince that saves the day. Many of us grew up watching our fantasies, even when I was little I had books read to me, mostly Disney stuff and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We love these stories because they show us what a world would be like of exotic creatures, powerful men, beautiful women and sights that only imagination can with hold. Why not build your own story later on in life or even at a young age?

 A lot of parents go through a lot for their children; it’s a fact and no matter how hard your parents get to you, just remember what they sacrificed to get you going somewhere. Some parents just put too much on their kids and way too soon too, hate to burst your bubble but I've seen kids my age back in the day either being too spoiled or gotten nothing at all. Even certain children are destined to do something because it’s written out for them. To me if you want to learn anything on your own, it’d building your own destiny. Not saying you should defy your family but for the most part, not one person knows you better than yourself. What is your true destiny? It’s a matter of what you learned growing up and finding your true calling.

 Some kids get so spoiled that on one side of the coin, they take it for granted and just feel like life is given to them and don’t have to take on any real responsibilities, on the flip side, they hate being like that and want to learn what it’s like to not have everything on a silver platter and look to things that make them happy. Being happy is about being who you are and no matter what life throws at you; you’re at peace at what you do. It’s difficult to find true happiness but it’s not impossible. It takes practice but with the right resources and environment you can create your own happiness and look to people to share it with.

 I've fought all my life to be strong, be smarter, learn to use my own disabilities as strengths instead of weaknesses and learned to educate myself later on in life. For years I've had issues mentally, physically and very much emotionally that after so long it’s come down to how I create what I want for myself. I've been helped many times and still do on certain things but instead of taking them for granted, I’m thankful and take advantage of what I've learned to create what I always wanted to do. Being helped is never a bad thing, it’s the right time to be helped is when it gets complicated at times but in those moments, you know who the right people are who have helped you succeed.

 The real fight is not battling who’s the better man, it’s a pleasurable struggle to find what’s best for YOU!!!  We have belief systems, laws, rules and many other things in between but when you fight for the right reasons you are a stronger person for it. Certain people follow others either because they’re so into what they believe that they lost track of themselves or follow because they’re desperate and nothing has worked for them or they’re the rare ones who follow to learn to become a leader themselves. I don’t follow any one person that sparks my interests but I learn from how they do things and create ideals from their influence. Fighting is another look at rebelling but fighting with the right intentions builds a foundation to how you build your own destiny.

 Do Fairy Tales exist? In some ways I’d like to believe so. It doesn't matter if you believe in Dragons or true love’s first kiss or even marching into battle to save a kingdom from annihilation, the real fairy tales are the ones that fight to find happiness and get it when it was at its peak of ending and triumphed over darkness. No matter how you look at fictionalized stories, it’s your story that makes everything worthwhile and who knows, true love could be right around the corner or it’ll take you a few years one way or another you will find it and it will make your life the way you always dreamed of.

 Every one of us has a story. We are born, we live, we die simple as that or is it? Your life has many beginnings and part of many eras but it’s how you write it in your mind and your actions that build that dark or light void that we all come to grips with but it isn't your destiny to have your story written out by someone else, you write it yourself and take action with it than you’ll learn to true meaning of your own ending. How do you want your story to end? Think about it.