Training Tip #10 – A perspective to keep you honest

The inspiration for this week’s training tip is from a podcast and a book. This subject has been a source that I’ve used to get out of bed, delay social activities, and push myself when I don’t know if I can go any further.

It’s easy to get caught up in this world and not be able to see past your immediate situation. Even with all the terrible news about happenings in the world, it’s easy to believe that you have it bad.

I’m not into endurance/obstacle races and have always been dumbfounded by what the point it. This was until I was listening to a podcast, which I almost skipped over, with the founder of Spartan Races. Joe De Sena was on ‘Bulletproof Executive’ and he started to talk about how Spartan Races came into being. The premise behind it is to push people to places they have never been before, and open their eyes up to what they are capable of. When he was talking about these activities, I couldn’t help but think that they sounded impossible and to accomplish and to do so you would really have to torture your body. What’s weird is that I started relating it to my past experiences with wrestling and what was deemed normal in our high school wrestling room. A culture where the norm is a 3 hour practice, 2 hour wrestling sessions with no breaks, no water, takedowns only, and trying to break the will of your teammate and friend. It really was a special place when I reflect on it, and has impacted greatly who I am today. For those of us who have wrestled a tough 5 minute go or 6 match and felt exhausted afterwards, it would seem unfathomable to wrestle for a full 2 hours of live in neutral. What’s crazier was, my freshman year, we would usually go another 15-30 minutes after practice when our coach was wrestling my brother. Our coach usually wouldn’t call practice until he got the last takedown and as soon as he did, then practice would be over.

Currently, I am reading a book called the Lost Highlander. It is a story about a POW who survived the Japanese prison camps. To hear some of the things that he went through all while keeping his will to live intact and setting small goals to get through 5 minutes, a couple of hours, or the day. It’s unbelievable that some people can do such terrible things to another human being. Whatever your situation, it can always be worse and understand that you can always do more. When you’re tired waking up and want to go back to sleep, people have done much more and had less sleep. When you’re in practice and you don’t want to get back up to your feet, get back up, someone has always been down and had less energy. When you think you’re hungry… and so on. This perspective will keep you honest and help serve you throughout life. Set a schedule and keep it. Go to practice when you don’t want. Deny yourself the candy bar or extra sandwich when you don’t really need it. It opens up your eyes to what could be possible if your mind tells your body what to do, and not the other way around.