Today, we build a band of brothers.
This post seems appropriate considering yesterday marked 68 years since the D-Day invasion.
Some of you may know, from experience, the importance of having a band of brothers, and some of you have never experienced such a thing. Now, ladies, I don’t mean to exclude you by any means. You can call it your band of sisters.
You can’t expect to make progress in fitness, or in life, if you surround yourself with counterproductive people, ideas or situations. It is hard to be fully dedicated to anything if you have people who are lazy, negative and quite frankly just not on the same page as you.
Who should be in your band of brothers?
Developing a band of brothers in not an easy task, and not something you want to force. But it is time to start looking at your surroundings to see what may work for you. Here are some qualities you may want to keep in mind when selecting your crew.
1.) Great minds think alike. I am all for diversity and challenging thoughts and opinions. This is even great within your band of brothers, but you must have a common purpose. There needs to be an overall goal or some sort of like-mindedness that brings you all together.
2.) Genuine people go a long way. People who genuinely care about you and what you are trying to achieve are rare. It is hard to find someone who isn’t just waiting for their turn to talk about themselves. If you know someone who asks about you, and truly listens, keep this person around.
3.) Hungry like the wolves. Ambition is golden. I would rather associate myself with someone who has a crazy amount of ambition as opposed to someone with a ton of resources and know-how. Ambition is contagious and will take average people to extraordinary places.
4.) The intellectuals cannot be overlooked. Some may refer to these people geeks or nerds, and I can even throw myself in this boat. Their resourcefulness is astounding and will help you in ways you never even thought of.
What, exactly, is a band of brothers?
Now, I am not trying to insult your intelligence, you obviously know what a band of brothers is. I just want to explain how a band of brothers doesn’t have to be a group of people who meets at your house on Thursdays at 8 p.m. The way I see it, you can form a band of brothers in two ways – or both ways (best option)
1.) The actual in person band of brothers. If you can find a support group that you can meet with regularly, that is awesome. However, for me, I have found it hard to juggle my fitness, my blog, my job and now my wife and I have a brand new baby. I have a lot of great friends and people whom I consider my band of brothers, but I don’t get to spend near as much time with them as I would like.
2.) The reference crew band of brothers. Now this one is a little bit different. This crew will not hold you as accountable as people you see everyday, but there are a lot of great people out there who can help. A reference crew band of brothers is where you will get your information.
- Books
- Websites
Where to establish a band of brothers?
You can get a band of brothers together just about anywhere. Here are a few common places…I swear option #3 is not a biased opinion at all 🙂
- Work…
- Gym…
- End of Three Fitness – If you are in need of a virtual crew to kick your ass and keep you in line just let me know. If you challenge me to hold you accountable in the community…I’ll do it! Shoot me an email or drop me a message and I will make sure you get on the right track ASAP.
My band of brothers
So who comprises my band of brothers?
My wife Emily – My wife is my biggest supporter. She supports my rigorous training schedule, hours spent running this website and the fact that I can really only talk about fitness. She is amazing and I could not imagine my life without her.
Greg – Pretty much my best friend and neighbor. He has a great way of making me look at things in a positive light and he is always making me push myself harder. We will have the hardest workouts together and he will never lay down on his back and rarely hunches over. He is an inspiration and reminds me that pain in only temporary.
Barrett Bruce – Long, long, long time training partner. We no longer even live in the same city but we are always communicating and making each other better. We have been through a lot of different phases of fitness in our life and we are the only ones who truly understand each other in that regard.
The End of Three Fitness Community – That’s right! All of you guys! You all keep me motivated on a daily basis. I email back and forth with a lot of you and it really keeps me motivated. You all have a lot of cool stories and I would love to share some of them, but I should probably get your permission first 🙂 Thanks for everything guys!!
You need a band of brothers! Things will get tough and challenging. Going at things alone is hard and not a good plan for the long-term.
P.S.
There have been quite a few Eo3 t-shirts picked up by you guys lately 🙂 and remember 20% of the profits go to the Wounded Warrior Project.
Anyway…I am doing a blog post in the next week or so to give an update on how the revolution is going. I would like to include a few pics of people with their shirts. So if you have a shirt email me a picture of you in it at jerred@endofthreefitness.com!!
Thanks!
-Jerred