Are You Living a Life Wasted?

Motivation 81 Comments

“You’re always saying you’re too weak to be strong.”
– Life Wasted by Pearl Jam

Another summer weekend just came and went and now here we are yet again, on a Monday morning…

With yet another opportunity to change things for the better; to make the dramatic improvements that you have been planning to make for so long.

Maybe you thought about it over the weekend when you drank too many beers or ate too many hot dogs at your neighbors’ barbeque.

Or maybe you were ashamed to take your shirt off at the beach or your friends pool party and you promised yourself that life would be different come Monday morning. That you would finally step up and make the changes you have thought about for so long.

While some of you were nursing your hangover with coffee and a greasy, fried sausage biscuit yesterday morning, the dedicated were doing some early morning hill sprints.

Others slept off the booze lying around on the couch all day while the driven were out training or playing in the hot sun.

Just like every Monday, you have a choice today. You can realize that weakness is a sin and you must now repent for a life wasted.

Or you can continue on the path of mediocrity and continue to let others pass you by.

“I have faced it… a life wasted…
I’m never going back again.”

Sure it sounds good. Who wouldn’t want to be strong , jacked, fit and healthy?

But the question is do you have what it takes to commit to one goal and see it through to the end? Because most people don’t. Those people are the 95%. The disciplined make up the 5%.

Only 5% of all the people on the entire planet have what it takes to achieve greatness in any realm of life.

Be it in their job, their personal lives or a physical endeavor of any sort. Think that’s an exaggeration? Take a look around you. Go to Major League ballpark tonight. Tell me I’m lying.

The 5% are on the field (and are represented in the pictures in this post) while the others are sitting in the stands stuffing their faces. After observing closely you may even think I’m giving more people more credit than they deserve. Maybe it’s one percent.

Where do you fall?

Each and every Monday morning represents a new beginning and a chance to turn things around and finally join the 5%.

erika prezerakou pole vault 02 Are You Living a Life Wasted? We all know that only the strong survive.

We know that to get bigger or leaner or to become a better athlete or stave off illness and disease we need to get stronger.

But what steps are you taking to get stronger every day?

What are you doing to escape your life wasted?

“I escaped it…a life wasted…
I’m never going back again.”

Did you get enough sleep last night? Or is late night TV more important than high testosterone levels, improved insulin sensitivity and enhanced overall health?

Did you avoid inflammatory foods this weekend? Or is the taste of sugar, wheat, soy, corn and dairy worth a life of pain, disease and incredibly slow recovery?

Did you order a foam roller or at least use the one at your gym religiously several times last week?

Did you get a massage recently? Ah, what’s a little scar tissue, right? Let it keep building up. Moving freely and without pain is overrated anyway.

Did you throw out your posture destroying, injury causing Nike Shox and get a pair of New Balance Minimus or Vibram Five Fingers?

Did you trash your fancy Italian loafers and replace them with something like a Sanuk? Or maybe your knees, hips and spine just aren’t that important.

Have you been taking 3-5 grams of high quality fish oil every day? Or maybe it’s too expensive. Besides you need money for beer on Friday nights.

Did you eat enough fruits and/or vegetables this week?

Have you been doing mobility work every day? It’s probably the most important factor in musculoskeletal health and you’ll miss it when it’s gone; replaced by arthritis medicine and a walker.

What about cardio/conditioning? Did you do sled work or run hill sprints this week? Being big and strong is great but not if your cardiovascular health and conditioning has to suffer.

Did you order a jump rope to use at home on your off days?

What about a band to help you stretch with at home? Stretching is boring and tedious and nobody likes to do it. But without it many of you will never get out of pain or even be able to perform a single rep of squats or deadlifts properly.

Who needs those lifts anyway, right?

Let me know how those leg extensions and leg curls work out for you.

Have you been eating nothing but high quality organic, grass fed meats, fertile eggs, wild caught fish, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and rice and potatoes?

If you’re trying to gain weight have you been choking down tablespoons of olive oil at the end of every meal to get more healthy calories?

Drinking half your bodyweight in ounces of water per day religiously? Restricting carbs to the most crucial times of the day?

Have you been taking advantage of the nice weather and walking several mornings per week while everyone else is still asleep? And if you have what will you do in a few months when the winter rolls around? Put your fitness on hold until the spring or put on a few layers and brave the cold weather while everyone else gets an extra half hour of sleep?

Did you throw out all the junk food in your house yet?

Have you started meditating on a regular basis?

Bo certainly never wasted his life.

The 23 hours per day that you spend outside of the gym are just as important, if not more so, than the hour you spend in the gym.

Dedication is a 24 hour a day commitment.

There are 168 hours in a week.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, has ever gotten even remotely decent results from being dedicated for only three to four hours per week.

But those three to four hours are crucially important.

You need to train with a purpose. Train like your life or your livelihood depends on it.

Train with goals in mind, don’t just go through the motions.

You need to constantly strive to get stronger, get better, improve in some small way. If you train with partners your job is to crush them and be the top dog at each and every workout. Competition is a healthy part of life and without it you are an organism that is not truly living, but slowly dying.

Do you have what it takes to get under a bar loaded with so many plates that it actually scares you? A weight that could crush you with one wrong move? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to move that weight and make it your bitch?

Do you have what it takes to really fully commit to that goal? To stop questioning what you’re doing and wondering if there’s a faster, easier way? To realize that brutally hard fucking work is the only way to achieve greatness?

Because if you don’t you will never be among the 5% and you will be the one who has to live with your regrets.

I know I have mine, and they eat away at me. I have made many mistakes over the years and know I could be a lot further along in my training then I am.

I could have made better strength gains than I have but I slipped up and made mistakes along the way. But I take full responsibility for that. And I know I have to accept those mistakes, move on and promise myself that I will never make the same mistakes again.

It’s up to you to do the same. Don’t wait til tomorrow because it will be too late.

“Having tasted… a life wasted…
I’m never going back again.”

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