The gym was empty this morning.
No surprise, as it's the 4th of July.
I only had 1 client scheduled to train with me but I still wanted to get up early to get in some hard physical training.
As I was dragging the sled I got to thinking about the men in my family who have gone before me...
Especially my dad, and my two grandfathers.
They worked their tails off so we could have a "better" life..
They wanted us to have vacations.. less hard work..more relaxation and enjoying life.
I get where they were coming from and I appreciate all their sweat and hard-work.
Funny thing about this idea about a "better" life is that we also NEED the hard work..
We NEED to sweat. Men are no good without hard physical labor. Sweat. Exertion. Pushing past the pain. Straining the muscles and the mind in the elements...
Yes, we should enjoy life, take vacations, do all the things we are free to do and love to do.. but we also have to EARN it.
Work for it.
These days there are no steel mill jobs like there were when my grandfathers were young men.
We have plenty of modern comfort, a life of ease compared to what that generation (and previous ones) had to endure.
That's not to say we are a bunch of lazy weak men, but we need to be on guard against that happening.
Weakness creeps in. It's slick and sneaky.
Same for comfort and complacency.
As I loaded up the sled to pull another round, I acknowledged the men who came before me and paved the way for us to have what we do..
I also made a point to reinforce the idea that we don't need to compare ourselves and our struggles with those generations..
We have our reality HERE. NOW. That's all we have to work with, and that's OK.
Every day I need to push myself to grow. To get stronger in body AND mind.
Some of the ways I do this are simple to implement.
Remember simple DOES NOT equal EASY.
Anything worth doing that will CHANGE you, will NOT be easy.
Waking up early when you don't HAVE to.
Saying no to happy hour.
Getting to bed early and reading something powerful that will expand your mind.
Training your body with weights and sleds and sprints.
Doing what you said you would do.
Being a man of your word.
Creating BIG goals that are scary and force you to GROW.
We need to keep on driving ourselves each and every day.
To get better. To lift ourselves up so we can lift OTHERS up too.
Wherever you are in the world, I hope you are getting after it today.
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