Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Be proud!

Every week I get e-mails and testimonials from men and women thanking me for what I write, my programs, my honesty about struggles in life, so forth and so on. They tell me about the improvements that they made in their training from those things, and then almost without fail, they follow that up with something to the effect of "I know my numbers aren't elite" or "I know it's not superhuman level".

Listen, the numbers you work for and the progress you made, you should always be proud of.

ALWAYS!

They are YOUR numbers. It is your progress, and your journey. You put in the time and effort to achieve it, so be proud of that. There's not a damn thing in the world wrong with being proud of the fruits of your labor. No one gave it to you. It wasn't found on the side of the road. You didn't run down to Wal-Mart and purchase it.

You worked for it.

Never downplay those accomplishments. If you went from a 95 pound bench to a 135 pound bench, then HELL YEAH! Stop comparing yourself to what others do. I've written this countless times. It doesn't matter what they do! It has no bearing on your own journey. Understand and grok the shit out of that.

If you fall short of your goals, sulk about it for a bit, then get back on your war horse and do work.

But NEVER EVER downplay the results of the work that YOU put in. Always be proud of your accomplishments when you achieve them, and then set new goals that you can be proud of when you arrive there as well.

4 comments:

  1. Agreed. I learn more from your attitude and mentality than from your programming but i enjoy your blog plenty. Thanks.

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  2. Thanks for reminding me of why I keep on lifting Paul. Gonna sign up for that meet even if i'm several pounds shy of 1000lb.

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  3. I also have a saying: Never speak badly of yourself.
    Now that is does not mean you have to be oblivious to your own weaknesses or shortcomings, but there is a difference of being aware of a shortcoming and punishing yourself for having it.

    An example with math:
    "Why do I have to be so bad at math? I'm useless." vs "I am not very good at math, so it would be better if someone else took care of this./I am not very good at math, so I might need a little extra time to read up on this topic."

    The latter is constructive, the former is not.
    You should be aware of your weakness and then propose a solution - To let someone else handle it who have skills in the department you do not or to obtain those skills yourself, even if it may be harder for you than someone else.

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  4. Thanks for this post.

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