You Must Own IT – pt 1
“A diamond is a piece of coal that stuck to the job.” – Michael Larsen
Theme of the week: You Must Own IT.
What is it? It is anything that you want, from financial freedom to the body you desire.
What does “Owning” it mean? It means the responsibility lies in your hands. The responsibility is yours and no one else’s.
It moves beyond excuses. It moves beyond your “feelings” and certainly moves past your weak points.
I remember when I was younger and started working out, I had an internal drive to reach for more and as I started working out, I wanted to be the best I could be. I went to a small high school and since I’m naturally competitive in nature, I wanted to be one of the strongest people there. In college, although I went to a school that was 100 times larger than my high school, I still wanted to be one of the best.
Then I started taking exercise physiology courses and my game plan to get there became skewed. Instead of consistency, hard work (albeit, probably not nearly as effective) and internal drive to be the best I could, I started to rely on “The Best” methods. Consistency got replaced by what was “most efficient,” aka, I could work out twice a week and “maintain” (On a side note, I must say, I despise maintaining…what’s the quote, “You’re either moving forward or going backwards”). Good old hard work was replaced with excuses why doing that work was stupid, because it wasn’t “The Best” methods and my internal drive to be the best got replaced with justifications for not working as hard.
Throughout the process though, I had a desire to do the work. I simply loved working out. There were definitely obstacles that held me back and I’ve had to experiment with a lot of different methods just to keep working out, but the ability to “Own It” was definitely lacking.
I placed the responsibility of my drive to actually work out, and of my actual actions of getting to the gym on my “feelings.” I didn’t work out because, “I didn’t feel like it.” Which is straight up bullshit.
Nothing I’ve ever achieved, I have intrinsically wanted to do before I actually started doing the work. If I got into a relationship, it was because we started dating and then one day I realized, “You know what? I like this person. Let’s do more of this.” It was never, I like that girl over there, who I don’t know, and want HER to be my girl friend. That’s not how I work.
I’ve been at my job for nearly 5 years now, and only at the beginning of this year have I finally started accepting that, maybe I’ll work in fitness, instead of trying to get into other fields (Like Psychology). And since that time, I’ve purchased over 200 books, spent $4000 on programs and have spent nearly all of my free time learning as much as I possibly could. (For reference, I was still a “nerd” before this, but not nearly to this extent). You can say this year, I’ve finally starting “Owning the Responsibility” of working in fitness. As such, that naturally competitive side is coming out and I want to be one of the best.
With working out, or really any other endeavor, there will ALWAYS come a point where if you want to be better than average, if you want to see how far YOU can go, you will decide that you will do absolutely what it takes to be YOUR best. It’s not being the best in comparison to someone else simply for the sake being “better” than that person, but because you have not yet reached your potential and you want to see how far that potential goes. If you end up being better than someone else, great…and if not, “F’ it,” because it’s about YOU and not them.
So what is “Owning It?” It’s where you finally jump over that fence you’ve been straddling and fully commit to that road of endeavor –whether that be with a move you’ve wanted to make, a job you’ve wanted to quit, a relationship you don’t want to be in or a body you don’t want any more. It’s at that place where transformations and personal turning points start. It’s at the crossroads of 100% commitment, internal and burning desire and personal responsibility, that your life shifts. It is at this point, where exercise stops being about “general fitness” and instead becomes about becoming your best. It’s when you stop blaming “not knowing what to do” and buy the books, dvd’s or personal training sessions to learn. It’s when you stop not going to the gym because you’re “tired” and push through the feeling until you get there, stretch and feel revived after your work out. That is “Owning It” and as the title of the post says, “You Must Own IT.”
I have a lot more to say about this week’s topic and this week, I will be doing things a bit differently. Instead of posting only on Monday, I will be putting up posts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights. Each one will be about You “Owning It. Whereas this was an introduction to the topic, Wednesday will be the first in a two-part post about the process someone goes through in order to get to the crossroads of 100% commitment, burning desire and personal responsibility. Until then, Do You!

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