Quick message today before I go coach people on squats.
I just got back from hiking the Grand Canyon.
First off – lovely.
Highly recommend.
It’s difficult.
And hot.
There’s a lot of climbing.
And you should probably carry more water than you think.
But it truly is an amazing experience.
Hiking for 12 hours through an absolute marvel of nature also gives you time to reflect on a lot of things.
One thing that I was pondering as I was moving through the canyon was the idea of “success” and what commonalities I see in people who achieve their goals.
Now to be fair, there are a lot of shared qualities in successful people.
Dedication.
Grit.
Luck.
Support.
But one thing that we often undervalue is “desire.”
Do you even want to do the thing in the first place?
If the answer is no, then it’s a lot less likely you’re going to be successful.
I see this a lot when it comes to training.
Someone gets talked into doing a race because their friend told them it would be a good idea.
Or they read some book about running and immediately decide they’re going to sign up to run their first ultramarathon.
And while all of that’s fine, it often leads them to pursuing a goal that never really mattered to them in the first place.
Then they wonder why training is such a struggle.
They wonder why they can’t seem to get themselves out the door.
And they start to blame themselves and get down on themselves for a lack of discipline or laziness or whatever else.
When the big problem was that they never really wanted to do the thing.
If we pursue things we actually want, then we tend to stick with them a lot longer.
When we fill our days with activities we actually enjoy, then we tend to want to do them.
That doesn’t mean that every little part of training is going to be your favorite thing.
For example, I like climbing.
I hate doing direct bicep training.
When I don’t do a little bit of direct bicep training, I end up with elbow tendon problems.
So almost every week, I do some bicep curls.
I still don’t like them… but I like climbing enough that I’m willing to do it.
Life is short and there are a lot of things to do.
So do something that inspires you.
If you pursue something that actually calls to you, you’re more likely to succeed.
If for no other reason than you probably won’t hate the process – and we all know consistency is what truly creates change.
Hope you had a great weekend.
I’m going to go coach someone through Bulgarian split squats.
And for the record, she hates them, but she keeps showing up because they help her run better.