There are very few guarantees in this life, there is the famous line about taxes and death, but I would also add in the shit storms too, because no matter how perfect your life is, shit will go wrong, people will die, jobs will be lost, economic down turns will happen and your car will break down.
Dealing with family tragedies, money issues, being busy, etc etc will happen to all of us. There will be things that will blindside you and hit you harder than you could have imagined, even if you knew it was coming, you just didn’t know when.
And when that day happens, I normally get the email I dread;
Hey Guys,
I am after been hit with a (insert life issue here) and I am so sorry but wish to cancel my membership.
I hope to be back soon.
Signed
Sad Sally
These set backs in life are inevitable, but how you react to them will determine your health for life.
I am not going to stand here and say when your mum dies, to just get over it and you should be at the gym or when you lose your job you should be paying €120+ a month when your family needs food on the table etc.
But what I will tell you is that those who succeed long term, those who have the physical capacity and ability to run a marathon if they wanted, those who can lift heavy weights and seem to be just naturally super fit are the same as everyone else, they just didn’t quit training all together every time something blindsided them.
The type of people who when the shit hits the fan maybe didn’t hit the gym 3 x weekly, but maybe they hit it 4 x a month and just did enough to maintain their movement capacity and maybe they did this for a few months and when they get back on their feet they are able to kick on from where they left off.
And they repeat this cycle for years, making progress and then maintaining it when life deals them a cruel blow, unlike those who over the course of time can deal with similar blows but don’t prioritise their health as much and quit the gym at every hurdle. These are the people who make progress but never enough or least not nearly consistently enough and always end up back down at the bottom of the hill having to start the climb to the top again.
And that’s my metaphor for this sermon, climbing Everest. You can either be the person who maintains their place half way up, makes camp and continues to move forward when the storm passes or you can be the person who goes back down to safety and has to start the climb all over again and expecting to summit, from the bottom without ever meeting a storm. Its impossible.
If you want to reach your goals you need to be able to maintain what you have even when life gives you shit.
Making progress sometimes means, just staying exactly where you are !!
