The holidays let me have a breather by slowing life down. It almost makes me yearn for a life where there isn’t much going on. I always think of the movie “Hot Fuzz” where Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are cops, and they get off work and literally don’t have anything to do. Their primary options are to go to the pub or go home alone and do nothing. What a life! To never have a care or a worry beyond the 9 to 5.
But that’s not what makes success.
“Great” isn’t a 9 to 5 gig. Trying to achieve your potential in life is a round-the-clock deal. The easy part is when you’re clocked in for work or class; the other hours of the day are where you acquire, develop, and perfect your ideas, knowledge, and skills.
Not having anything to do at the end of the day is coasting. It means you either don’t have something you’re working towards, or whatever it is you think you’re working for isn’t terribly important to you. Do something about it.
You can think of this in terms of training: when you leave the barbell, your real work begins. Your sleep, your consistent, quality food intake, and your mobility work will lead you to be strong, capable, and jacked.
But, I don’t want you to be limited in just worrying about training; it’s an important part of life, but if you don’t implement the lessons from under the bar, it’s all for naught.
If you’re someone who has a clear goal with an end state, do you have a consistent and quality attack plan to achieve it? When you get home from work, are you studying, practicing, organizing, or developing? You don’t need to stay up late and burn the midnight oil, but you should actively work to improve in your spare time.
Caption for pic: But then if we do not ever take time, how can we ever have time?
Do you have that 9 to 5, yet you pretty much chill out when you clock out? Then you’re under performing. You will never be in a steady state of accomplishment. “Achievement” is a moment in time, not a constant. People think success is a thing, but instead it’s a process. If you want to get strong, you must squat multiple times a week for a long time. If you want to do great things in life, you work on it every day. Do not settle for the minimum; the great never do.
Do you not have anything to pour your spirit into? It’s about time to figure it out. What do you want to have? What do you want to be? What do you want to do? Our society spends so much time observing other people doing great or fascinating things. Instead, decide to be one of those people instead of watching them. Go out and DO. Figure it out, make a plan, and start taking steps each day to achieve it.
Look, if life is easy, you’re doing it wrong. Test your mettle by putting yourself in positions that require consistent, hard work. Go beyond the realm of normalcy and possibility. Don’t stay locked into your specific job or social circle. Go, learn, do, and think.
Think big. Be big. Be 70’s Big.
I’m sure many people have said it, but I first read it, in this sort of reference, on John Welbourn’s blog; FUCK AVERAGE.
That one spoke straight to my soul!! I’m gonna make it a goal to finally compete this year. No more lackadaisical BS!!
Thank you!!
In the past year, my wife and I have made three choices that have gone a long way towards reducing the distractions that come with our modern life of relative comfort. Doing away with these things forced me to think about what I had been doing with all my non-work time since suddenly I found myself with “more” time. At best, I have about an hour a day to exercise, and, as it turns out, a workout that takes longer than that is probably filled with inefficiency. That leaves 23 hours a day to account for. As you point out, it’s the other 23 hours where real progress is made.
– canceling cable – I’m still shocked at how little I miss it.
– going to the Dave Ramsey system of cash in envelopes – for both of us, we realized how much internet shopping is nothing more than a cheap high that filled our house with shit we didn’t need. Actual cash is harder to spend and I assure you that your financial choices will become more thoughtful. Yes, you miss out on a lot of the convenience of using a card, but the quest for convenience has reduced the modern man to a veal calf with a uselessly short attention span.
– putting a phone drop off station by the front door – I love my smart phone because of the flexibility to provides me. Being able to send an email late at night or access a document in a pinch has saved my ass a couple of times. However, once you get passed the phone, email, text, e-book reader and dropbox functions, my phone is just a time waster. And I’m not even on Facebook. None of that shit is important. It is just a distraction. Plus, I looked up and, not only were my wife and I glued to our phones, my small children were staring at screens also. I was pretty horrified at myself. So, when we come home after work, we have to put our phones in a little basket by the front door. If it chirps, I definitely go answer it, but after the call or text, it goes back in the basket.
These were not my ideas, but I’m glad we implemented them. If nothing else, it has given me the awareness to stop and think about what I’m doing at any moment and why I’m doing it, instead of just doing whatever is easiest so I can get back to shopping on my phone with some dumb ass TV show blaring in the background.
My wife and I also like the Dave Ramsey envelope system. We have to work better at using it.
I love the idea of the phone drop of station as well! Going to start doing it, don’t want the children to emulate us and think electronics are ok to stare at all the time.
Arnold’s biography does a great job of explaining this concept. He worked as a brick layer/mason and started a mail order supplement business while training to keep his title of top bodybuilder.
Great article! Really puts things into perspective, a good reminder that we need to get out and live our lives, not live other peoples lives thru multiple social media outlets. I have a goal of where I want to be in my life and now no more wasting time, I’m going to create a plan to get my family and I there.
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