Are You Willing to Embrace the Suck When No One Else is Watching?
Hey guys, so I just had to, I just got back from the gym and this week I know I’ve kind of been focusing on friendship and I want to talk to you guys, I was thinking about something today in the gym. First of all, let me preface this, I don’t want any sympathy on this. I don’t want anybody saying I’m sorry, this sucks, I’m praying for you. No. Everything that I did today was my choice and I’m good with it. I don’t want anybody feeling sorry for me, number one, but what I want to talk about is this. Today sucked in the gym. I had a headache, I didn’t want to be there. It was leg day.
Now for those of you who don’t know much about me I’m going to tell you something about me that, what the heck, I’ll just say it, I’ve been called chicken legs since the time I was a young boy. Chicken legs because I’ve got tiny legs. For whatever reason genetically if I lift weights, my chest, my arms, my back blows up like a balloon. My legs, I can do squats until I puke and it’s like nothing happens. Couple that with the extremely bad genetics in my joints, where I’ve had four knee surgeries and yeah, you get the idea. The legs are not my favorite thing to do.
Well, I made a decision that no matter what I’m pushing through on legs and with a headache, anybody that’s ever done dead lifts with like a borderline migraine, you know how that feels. You know, everybody says, those people that say working out is so fun, sorry for the language but I call bullshit. No, it sucks. If you’re pushing hard, the feeling I get when I’m done, that I’ve accomplished something, that I did what I wanted to do, yeah that’s great. I like that, I’m happy about that but the process of doing it, dude, it sucks.
There’s so many things I’d rather be doing. I’d rather be washing my motorcycle. I’d rather be in the shop. I’d rather be going out for biscuits and gravy with thick cut bacon and a nice hot, big, tall, hot cup of black coffee. Yeah, playing golf, exactly. There’s so many things I’d rather be doing but here’s the thing, if I want to grow, if I want to get better, and I think the reason I thought about this today as I was lifting is this applies to every aspect of our life. Whether it’s trying to be better as a friend, whether it’s trying to be better as a husband, whether it’s trying to be better in business.
It doesn’t matter if you’re in the same business that I’m in or not or if you own your own business or whatever that looks like, as a father, where it really counts is when you’re doing something and no one else is watching. There’s nobody that I had to be accountable to today. Absolutely nobody except the most important person, which is myself. The one that knows that if I let myself get away with it, I’m going to be easier on myself because I let myself get away with it. I’m going to challenge each and every one of you, I want to hear, I want you to post below where you are embracing the suck when nobody else is watching.
I’d love to hear, I’d love for this to be more than just a place where I ramble. I’d love it to be a place where other guys can support other guys in whatever it is they’re trying to push through. That’s the whole point of this is we don’t have to do this alone, we don’t have to only worry about, to only think that we’re the only one watching. If we want there’s plenty of people around us that will watch with us and hold us accountable but the real goal is to get to a point where you hold yourself accountable.
You hold yourself, that you place enough value on improving in the area that you’re lacking or weak in that you will embrace the suck and you will go get it today. What did you do today or what do you plan on doing today, not what do you plan on doing, once you’ve accomplished it, what have you done today to embrace the suck, to improve in an area that you are weak in or you want to improve in. That’s what I want to hear. I want to hear that I’m not the only one out here doing this. I want to be able to support you guys and give you some kudos and say hey, nice job and agree with you that yes, some of this really sucks.
Tell you what though, as much as today sucked, as much as my head felt like it was going to blow off my shoulders when I was doing dead lifts, the fact that I’m done, I’m home in my shop with my truck, I’m going to go inside, take a shower and I’m going to make a great breakfast with some good protein and eggs and you know what? It was worth it. At the end of the day I’m glad I did it. Doing it in the midst of it sucked, but I’m glad I did it and that’s what I’m going to challenge you guys to do. Find out where you feel good after doing something that sucks.
All right guys. Short one today but I just had to share because it applies to everything. It applies to every aspect of our lives. Hold yourself accountable you guys. Catch you later.