Realistically, training can be tough as hell depending on what you do but at the same time, it's important to understand the value of the work you put in along with finding the best ways to train suited to you and your goals. Learning new exercises can be exciting and with the way some ads like to appeal to a certain crowd whether they're everyday joes, athletes or training for specific feats, excitement can also be blinding. Remember Yoda's saying "adventure, excitement, a jedi craves not these things." Now, that shouldn't mean you don't look forward to them. I enjoy loaded carries, step ups, animal movements, sprints and Isometrics but it's not so much a craving to be excited or be adventurous, it's because they provide simplicity along with natural excitement or stimulus.
If you're interested in something or learning something that appeals to you, it first becomes a curiosity and than it becomes something you're either going to continue doing or do something else that comes along. It has to naturally spark something in you that makes you want to continue on and if it doesn't create some form of natural stimulus, it's not going to keep you from continuing on. Some of the simplest exercises are tough but they're tough for a reason. If you'd rather just follow what the next shiny thing is, you're only going to leave your individuality behind and not learn the value of what it means to really train.
Pushing ourselves is human nature, it's either going to be that fight or flight mode and doing something beyond our own reasoning to reach a certain level. We can't match everyone and not everyone can workout the same exact way, if that were the case, nobody would be different. We have certain strengths and weaknesses, we can surpass others and we may never reach a certain level but if you generate consistency with the idea of developing that stimulus whether physically or mentally, it leaves you wanting to learn more and create something for yourself.
I've pushed my body at times where it ended hurt or had close encounters of blacking out but also pushed myself to other levels of strength from bending steel to doing more than 1000 Squats in a workout. I don't like the idea of pushing that hard and quite frankly, unless you're in a dire situation, training yourself to the brink of death is not the ideal way to consistently stay strong, it's a death sentence that will end up either faster or slower in the form of long term effects. It's important to find out what you're capable of and what you'll have to do at times to know what will be the determining factor of life or death but there's a difference between what your ego will do and what you can realistically do. I've pushed myself at times without being aware of it and that is another thing, we don't always know how far we go and when you're in that zone, it's like time stands still.
Goals are great to have and to achieve but at the same time, we have to be aware of the goals we are trying to achieve and what it will do to us later on. We can't 100% know the outcome of the goals we go after cause life will at times throw you curveballs and there might be days where everything just isn't there and we either push on anyway or back off a bit. We fail our goals at times, it happens but that doesn't mean we stay down and bury our heads in the sand, we get back up and try different approaches. When we achieve our goals, it's exciting and we celebrate the victory but more often than not, even if a goal is achieved, you still feel defeated somehow, the toll took everything out of you and you're mentally and/or physically drained. What is the sacrifice you're willing to make to achieve a goal, what's the endgame? What are the long term side effects? Was it worth the heartache and pain? Was it worth all the time and effort to only have it be something that lasts a few moments and then life moves on? Many don't look at these questions, some do don't get wrong but we don't always seem to be aware of the ratio of the consequences to achievement.
Train to what suits you, be efficient in how you achieve your goals and handle the hits when they unexpectedly hit you the best way you can. Be strong and do what's possible. Times change, things that seemed impossible yesterday become possibilities today but we are still here doing the best we can even if it's so damn tiny a microscope can't even see it. Not everyone will celebrate your victories, most of the time nobody gives a shit or will criticize you. Most of the time, validation is just a thing to boost the ego and it can be intoxicating but remember to still be a human being and take your victories in as lessons and if something needs to change, do what you can to make it better. Keep being amazingly awesome everyone.
