Demanding the best of yourself
Complacency and wastefulness.
Exercise
Since being back in New Zealand I’ve really tried to be more intentional with my exercise. I have never found it difficult to be consistent in the gym, but sometimes I slip into autopilot, going through the motions without ever really challenging myself. Staying regimented with my gym or running splits is a great way to systematically improve, and I hope to continue it this year.
Something I’ve really noticed is how much I love to see people getting after it. I went for a morning walk with my partner recently, and we managed to get stuck in the middle of a park run on the harbour. So many people of different shapes and sizes, age and walks of life, united over a common goal: being a better person.
This is in part what makes the gym so great. Whether you’re trying to get bigger, stronger, leaner or quicker, we are all in part striving for the same thing.
I saw something at the gym recently that triggered this feeling in a pretty deep way. There was an older guy in the gym doing some light leg exercises, when I noticed something about him which I thought was quite surprising. He had no arms. Well, this isn’t technically true, but there’s no obvious way to describe it. His right arm was effectively a partially formed hand protruding from where your shoulder should be, and his left arm was as long as your elbow but as thin as your wrist (this arm also had a partially formed hand).
I was literally staring from across the room. Not out of pity, or sadness, but out of amazement. Here is someone who born with severe defects to both of his arms, and he’s completely unbothered in the gym, (somehow) picking up light dumbbells and doing some lunges.
Demanding the best of yourself
Seeing someone carrying such significant physical limitations, with every valid excuse to not be in the gym, getting after it. It puts every excuse I have ever tried to use, to justify skipping the gym to shame. Having been blessed with the tools through which I can access and interact with life I can’t help but feel like I have been wasteful. Perhaps I have taken what I have been given for granted.
Unfortunately for us, there too will come a time when we must carry physical burdens of our own. Where our access to life is cut off. There will come a time when our body will fail us, and the decisions we make each day can either speed this up, or slow this down. We have only been given one body, and the window to use it is closing. Don’t wait for some injury or disease to start valuing the tools you have been given, cause there are millions of people who would do anything to have what you have right now.
How long until you begin to demand the best of yourself?
Just Something To Consider.