Life has evolved into a world of participation trophies, anti-bullying, and an undeserved sense of entitlement.
Don't get me wrong.I fully support removing toxic people and events from your path. However, I don't recommend getting rid of hard times.
Building a world that is nerfed and safe sounds great, except most of the people we look up to have had to overcome adversity to be who they are.
Tough times make strong, resilient people.
Instead of trying to remove roadblocks and confrontations from people's lives, I wish we would teach more of the skills needed to stand up for yourself. Skills that show you how to handle life and the barrage of uppercuts it is going to throw at you.
Training has always been something I used to grow personally. Mentally more than anything else. Just like life, training is indifferent to your path and your goals. You have to earn every bit of progress you will ever achieve.
Make no mistake, bad times are going to come. Tragedy will happen. People you love will die. Jobs will get lost for reasons beyond your control. Relationships will end.
This is part of the journey, the same as the good times are.
Instead of trying to protect people from these normal occurrences, I believe people should be given better tools to deal with it.
You are allowed to feel any way you want. I want you to get focused on using any negativity as a motivator to grow and learn.
These same principles apply to strength training.
No matter what you do to try to prevent it, eventually, the iron is going to bite back hard. Strains, stresses, and soreness are a natural part of progress. But so are injuries that take months or years to heal from. These things aren't bad luck. They're just a part of the journey.
This is where champions shine.
Real champions never abandon ship. They hunker down and embrace the new challenge. They listen to feedback. They grow from it and take a different, smarter approach based on their unique insight.
I want you to use these tools every day to deal with people, things, stress, and negativity. Not avoidance.
Understand and own the fact that sticking your head in the sand will never bring progress. You have to want to be happy, strong, and successful way more than anyone else can want it for you.
Own your failures.
Learn from them.
Success and happiness are not something you're entitled to. You have to be willing to fight for it every day.
How hard do you want to fight?
