Showing posts with label Lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lessons. Show all posts

Monday, July 11, 2022

I've Failed And The Lesson I'm Learning From It

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life...And that is why I succeed."- Michael Jordan

Failing is a powerful teacher that comes often in our lives. I've failed to do 100 Burpees in a row, I've failed to keep a program going for more than 6 weeks and most importantly, I've failed myself for believing that certain things whether from a fitness standpoint or personally would make me happier or fall in love with because others have told me to. One of the biggest things I've ever had to deal with in my life was letting others down because I didn't live up to the hype or the expectations. Most of the time, very few people give a shit what you do and the rest just don't care but want to spew how much of a failure you are. 

I've said it over and over again that when I talk about what I'm going to do or what my goals are and end up failing because I've talked about it just puts me in a dark state yet I've repeated it time and time again. Many get it, but many also just want to tear you a part for it because you're not what you're expected to be. I'm no fitness god or some perfect specimen, I'm just a guy, one of 7 1/2 billion on this planet who's had some success but plenty of failures like anybody else. Just a speck in the universe. If you don't like what I write or have an issue with what I say, than walk away. Don't read my stuff, no need to make asshole comments just so you can be noticed, the more you hassle somebody because you can't stand them, the more it says about you than the person writing. 

That's easier said than done because I've gotten caught up in the web of making snarky and negative comments towards people and have failed over and over to just walk away. I need to take my own advice on many things and learn to take things for what they are and pay attention more to who I really trust in this world. Very few in my life I trust and one of them isn't here anymore that I can talk to. I understand this article comes off as a pity party and I'm just begging for attention when the truth is; this is just me being human and sharing with you a side of me that is about as real as you can get until you've actually been around me and not just go by what I've written.

There is this fear people have of being open about their failures. I'm no exception but I also know who will tell me the truth, the real truth because they know me best. If you don't know me outside of the web, you have no reason to tell me the truth or have the faintest idea of what the truth is with me. So if you plan on making any comments good or bad, think twice about what you plan on saying.

Being happy in reality, is a mindset. I know this and it's a constant learning thing for me. Exercise and fitness makes me happy but very few methods I'm in love with. The type of love for exercise where I know regardless of how I do it, I never will have a movie star body or have heads turn from every other person walking down the street but I will bust my ass for the thing that I love and gives me joy. There's always going to be someone stronger, faster and far better looking than I'll ever be but that's ok. My expectations are from myself, not from somebody else and how I do things is not perfect, never will be and the way I train is what makes me happy. 

You'll never see me do the best looking pullup or the most awesome pushup, I don't have the patience to do 1000 or even 500 Squats anymore, I don't have a great looking set of Core Muscles but I know how strong they are, I move weird in certain animal exercises but that's what the universe gave me. I know what I can do and constantly learning what I'm capable of. What I can do has kept me strong and durable for the longest time, what I can do, helps others and what I can do, inspires a lot. I've also failed at doing things that weren't meant for me in the first place and tried to live up to others' ideas. 

I'm not meant to do someone else's program to the "T", I wasn't meant to live up to those who don't really matter and I'm damn sure I wasn't meant to be affiliated with a company that by all accounts, has a guy who thinks he's hot shit and acts like he's god's gift to fitness when he looks like Twiggy and can't properly set up a camera to get a good angle for exercises. If you feel the need to film yourself being in a dark ass room and nobody can see you but you want everyone to listen to you, you might want to just put out an audio. Anyway, the real lesson here is, failure is a part of life, the real success is how we break through it and keep fighting to get what makes us successful. 

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

What Wrestling Taught Me & What You Can Learn From It


 When I was a senior in high school back in 2002, around this time during the year I wanted to join up the wrestling team. I knew some knowledge about wrestling but never understood the training of it as only seeing glimpses of wrestling training. I was in a rude awakening, up until then I didn't have any credentials on conditioning and how to do it and I’m here to tell you here and now I got the crapped kicked out of me, technique drills, push-ups, squats, sprinting, running up and down stairs, it got to the point where in my 2nd or third workout I had to tape up my hand because of the beating I put on it. My training lasted three days because I ended up hurting my knee in a training match and once the adrenalin wore off I was in bad shape. One of my friends at the time named Jesse who was an assistant coach told me to keep trying and not quit. I wish I had listened to him but I was way too stubborn and a bit of a wimp back then and just quit the team. If I had any regrets in sports it would be this but it gave me a lifelong lesson later on in my later years.

 If you’re not use to be being in that environment, you better learn quickly or are like me at the time and quit. It gives you a reason to be tough but if you’re not tough enough you won’t get very far, I now know that and have been through training sessions that I could used back then and might be in way better shape now. I’m happy with where I’m at and I continue to improve and because of this lesson I've increased my toughness by 100 fold. Being tough is not who’s the strongest, the most agile or who has better guns, being tough is taking that extra crawl from taking all the torture and still willing to keep going and its about making your limits go beyond your capabilities.

 The one thing about wrestling that I've learned was that even though in school and teams you rely on points and having a bit of a team effort, in reality when you’re on the mat, no ones there to help you or fight your battles and the only person you can rely on is yourself. It’s like this in life, if you want to make something happen you do it, people can show you a few things but after that you’re on your own and you win some, you lose some and when you lose you can’t blame anybody but yourself. You don’t need to be a wrestler to understand this, this happens not just in sports but business, relationships, life and it’s up to you to get the things done for yourself. Even after 10 years I’m still learning this and it continues to improve but not easier, actually the opposite but that’s the beauty of it.

 Respect is one of the biggest things you can have not just for yourself but those who were around you. Even to this day I have high respect for wrestlers and other world-class athletes, they get the job done and they take the torture with a grain of salt. That assistant coach I mentioned earlier, me and him grew up together and were still friends to this day and I consider him one of my brothers. Another guy I have found respect for what he accomplished in his life is Luke Rockhold of MMA fame who is I believe still or was the Strikeforce Middleweight Champion and why am I saying this, I wrestled in the same exact gym with him back in High School. I don’t know him much and never really had a chance to get to know him and hope one day I will but I’m proud I got to be in the same room with a world-class champion for a short period of time.

 Whenever you win at something it’s awesome and you learn certain strategies or keep that same strategy to run that winning formula but it’s the losing that makes the big difference. Losing makes you think about what you did wrong an what you can do to correct or just quit but in this case quitting is not an option, make it a habit to learn your mistakes and turn them into strengths and later on understand your winning ways when you find that formula. Hating to lose means you can’t stand it and you want to find out what you can do to prevent it, losing with pride is a whole different ball game and this goes one of two ways, being cocky when you lose or you understand what the mistakes were and handle them OK  Overtime I've come to hating losing because I want to be the best at what I do, I want to be stronger and more conditioned, be a better writer and learn more to do better business and bring in money and when I lose at times its frustrating but you learn your mistakes and make them your strengths by working smarter, harder at times and push it the way you want it to be.

 Life in general is a wrestling match, it’s a game of Physical Chess, you win or lose, you have good matches, bad matches, certain things work and some don’t and it’s usually unpredictable. The key is to keep fighting, keep driving to get better and make adjustments, be adaptable and learn to use your intuition. Find what works and stick with it and throw out what doesn't  Bruce Lee even knew this and now he’s one of the biggest Icons in history. Be consistent, make it happen and who knows, you might find yourself being a winner but even as a winner, you want to remain who you are and not lose sight of what’s important. Believe in yourself and trust in who you are because no one knows you more than that person you see in the mirror every day. 

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