WHEN things seem impossible or insurmountable, what do you do? How do you respond?
For some the reaction is to dig in deeper and fight. For others it’s to abandon ship.
It’s easy to quit or not get started. The only guaranteed way to fail at anything is to give up. And the best way to not achieve anything is to not attempt it in the first place.
If you stay in or enter the race, you always have a chance, so to speak. When people quit at something, quite often it’s at a critical time – when they are about to reach an important turning point. They just don’t know it. So always hang in there.
The next time things feel or get hard, ask yourself why you started in the first place.
A great example is David Goggins, an ultra distance runner I have mentioned in previous blogs. He posted a story on his Instagram feed this week that made me think about Reg and Catriona, now at the end of week 2 of an 8-week Amazing 12 Chichester program at Core Results.
Goggins used to be a huge, heavy guy and was recalling the day when he decided he was going to become a Navy Seal. But first he had to lose the extra weight he was carrying (106lbs in two months).
With all the will in the world, he stepped out of his house to go for a three-mile run at 6am. He made it a quarter of a mile down the road and then, with his head hung low, lungs aching and feeling like a failure, walked back home.
If you know anything about Goggins, he’s a man who embraces every challenge in life and uses it to create a stronger version of himself. He’s one of the greatest competitors on the planet. He doesn’t quit at anything. But he wasn’t born that way.
When I see Reg walk into the gym each day, he’s practically shuffling. Part of the reason for that this week was down to the soreness in his legs from our first squat and deadlift workout (pretty common response when you’ve not worked a particular body part for a while).
But it’s also because Reg is carrying a lot of baggage he needs to lose. The extra bodyweight tires him out quickly, especially with any kind of aerobic activity. Even walking upstairs. But it will get better.
What’s great to see in Reg is that he shows up every day (well, nearly, as he had to skip a session this week to play in a golf tournament), gives his best and, little by little, is making improvements in a very short time.
It’s when you see someone perform an action or movement more easily, with better form and a greater load that you know they are making progress.
I’m seeing the changes in Catriona, too. She’s someone who once never believed she’d be able to run far. Until she was 30, she did no training at all. And when she first started running, she, like Goggins, only made it halfway down the road before being out of puff.
In eight weeks, she lost 2st.
She went from a deconditioned starter to someone who (before the Amazing 12) was training every day and sometimes twice daily. She has energy to burn.
Taking that step into the world of lifting weights, though, was also a scary proposition, particularly for someone who generally avoided what she’s not good at.
“I’m loving the training,” she told me. “I can’t believe we’re already at the end of two weeks. I still get frustrated with myself [Catriona is impatient and a perfectionist], but I’m seeing and feeling the progress, which is nice.”
When working with Catriona, I’m often reminded of a film clip of a guy I once saw who used to be a paratrooper and badly damaged his legs following a jump. He was told he’d never walk again because he was wheelchair-bound.
But he refused to accept defeat. Every day, mostly through yoga to begin with, he tried to get moving. Every day, he would fail and fall flat on his face, literally. But he kept going. And then, as he began to lose the weight he had gained through inactivity, he regained strength and defied what all the experts had said.
His mantra was: “Just because you can’t do it today doesn’t mean you can’t do it tomorrow.”
That phrase has always stuck with me and I’m reminded of it when I see Catriona getting frustrated at her inability to nail a particular movement first time and Reg gasping for breath or straining to bend down to pick something off the ground.
I know the breakthrough is down the road. It’s a matter of time. Experience gives you patience.
I know if Reg keeps showing up, working hard and following the eating advice I have given him, he will see results.
Reg and Catriona are already getting stronger and fitter. They are both determined and successful people. Next week they will be joined by two new starters doing a 12-week program.
What was hard for Reg in the first week is less difficult now. But they are at opposite ends of the spectrum: Catriona is aerobically super-charged and Reg isn’t…yet; Catriona is discovering her strength, while Reg, who used to play lots of sports when he was younger, is uncovering his.
The message for the week is…give it time and cultivate patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a strong, healthy body.