Be Humble. Do Work.

Do you have a goal or dream?  Do you have the desire to achieve something you’ve never done?

How bad do you want to achieve this goal?

Now that you’ve asked yourself this question, I ask you this:

How much humility do you have to slow down and do it right?

How much patience do you have to methodically work from scratch to learn and perfect a skill or craft that is currently a weakness or non-existent?  Do you have the patience and due diligence to improve upon a blaring weakness?  Can you be humble enough, swallow your pride, and put in the necessary work and effort it is going to take to build solid fundamentals?  Are you hungry enough for this goal that you accept the fact that mastery will not come overnight, and in fact may take many months…possibly years to develop?

Don’t get trapped in the mentality that doing something once means you can do it again with ease…or at least get lost in the thought that you should be able to do it again.

Wouldn’t it be awesome If this approach to life was true?

Practice, training, practice, training and more practice and training is the only way to true mastery and victory.  When you learned basic arithmetic…you know, 2+2=4…did you say “okay, now I’m ready for trigonometry!”  I’m going to take a wild guess and say, you did not. 

The same concept goes with fitness and athletic performance.  The good enough mentality does not work.   Just because you got one double under yesterday, does not mean you will get 60 tomorrow. You cannot force a skill.  You cannot rush strength.  You cannot speed up the process just because you want the result now.  Sorry.  It does not work that way. 

Do you want to know what works?

Simple.  Work.

Do you want to be great or good enough?  

CrossFit founder, Greg Glassman believes that “good enough never is.”  I think many elite level athletes and performers from every sport and career would agree 100% with this wise man’s statement.  In truth, humility means nothing other than learning to be completely honest with yourself and owning it.  Once you can accept the reality of your current situation then, and only then, can true change begin to transpire.

To be good is to be average. 

We all have greatness inside.  Really, I am serious.

It may be difficult to see now, but trust me, greatness is there.  Our job is to tap into and find our greatness, and we can only accomplish greatness by constantly seeking to better ourselves.  I could go on for hours about this concept and topic, but by seeking physical mastery…we find greatness in the rest of our lives.  If you really want to find out what you are made of…you must work for it.  You must put effort into the goals that you have set for yourself. 

The price of greatness is falling along the way.  You will get knocked down a bit.  You will fumble.  You will bleed a bit.  You may get a scar or two.  Your ego will take a hit.  But that is the cost for anything worth having.  It will not come easy.  It shouldn’t or you won’t respect it or feel true accomplishment in the end.  Charles Barkley once stated that “if you’re afraid of failure you don’t deserve to be successful.”  He has never been known to feed anyone sugar, and his words can sting a bit…but it is the truth. 

I agree with Sir Charles 100% , and this truth was a hard pill to swallow myself...trust me.  The truth stings sometimes.  I am sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but if you don’t practice and work for something…and it doesn’t happen…you probably don’t deserve it.  It doesn’t matter whether we are talking athletic performance, professional career, or personal relationships…if you truly want something to work, you must work.

Expect that in order to succeed…you will fail at first.  When you were a baby learning to walk, you failed at hundreds…possibly thousands of attempts.  And look at you now…walking.  You succeeded!

Don’t give up because something is difficult.  Step up!  Work hard, put some effort in…and see just how great you can be.