Planting a seed of an inconsequential flower?
Use your hands.
Want to build an underground bomb shelter that will survive the apocalypse?
Get a bulldozer.
The size of your goal will determine the size of discipline and focus needed.
Want to lose 5 lbs and get in better shape?
Stop drinking calories, walk three times per week, and learn how to set bigger goals.
Want to lose 50 lb, get faster, and stronger in the process?
Your margin for error is tiny.
You cannot go through the motions and see continued progress.
Initial progress? Yes.
Continued progress? No.
This isn’t that selfie you take of yourself at the beach where you pretend like your life is amazing. Actually achieving a goal is more like all the time in between your perfect-life selfies where things are challenging, rarely perfect, and take a lot of work.
If you are like most people, you probably type on a keyboard at some point during your day. Whether you liken yourself to a caveman playing whack-a-mole on the keys, or you find yourself at the stenographer level; the fact is you probably stopped trying at some point.
You’ve probably typed close to a million words over the years. So why aren’t you one of the best damn typists in the world?
You got to a level of proficiency you felt comfortable with and then you stopped trying.
Initial progress? Yes.
Continued progress? No.
In my work, I see this in two cases.
Case #1 – We will get an athlete who wants to lose some weight and get stronger. Well, they haven’t trained that much recently, so the initial results come fast. Then they can start to slow. As we press on them specific meal plans, macros, training, etc. they realize what they thought they wanted to achieve is going to be harder than that initial progress. Some push past this, others don’t.
Case #2 – Unknowingly complacent advanced athletes. These athletes are already at a pretty high level but they try and “coast” for a 12-week cycle and don’t put the level of focus, intention, or intensity into the reps. They don’t skip workouts but they aren’t fully “in it” when they train. It’s very uncomfortable for these athletes to put as much into their training as they need to, but it’s necessary. Some push past this, others don’t.
None of this matters if you are happy with where you are at and with what you have achieved.
For instance, I do not expect to set a PR on my deadlift every time I test it. If I never failed to PR, after a few years, I would be the strongest man in the world.
So where do you draw the line?
Is there a point where you should become complacent?
No.
You should set a standard for yourself then…
…now pay attention as this part is important…
HOLD THE STANDARD!!
Set the standard and hold the standard.
That’s why we have standards for our training. That way our athletes have a standard to hold themselves to.
So if you are meeting your standard, you are CONTENT but not complacent.
Contentment and complacency are two very different animals.
With contentment comes happiness, awareness, and gratitude.
Complacency involves ignorance and laziness.
The reason this is not complacency is that it should not be easy to hold the standard.
Simple? Yes.
Easy? No.
And that is my challenge to you:
- Set a standard
- Hold the standard
To becoming better!
Jerred
