It's March 24, 2020. Since I made the decision to temporarily close the gym due to the pandemic, I lent out barbells, plates, bands, etc. to make sure our team can continue lifting in some capacity. Some of our lifters are having to turn to training at home with the things they have around their living room and some are fortunate enough to have quickly built equipment so they can continue their attack on the competition lifts. This has been an awesome opportunity to see how badly my lifters want to grow and an awesome challenge for me to separate myself from the gym I've put thousands of hours into growing.
If you lift, you know what it's like to have to fight harder than you've ever fought before for just one more kilo on the bar. You know what it's like having to face adversity and still stay on the attack to achieve your goals. But no matter how far you get, you will ALWAYS be met with adversity. Truly, the world does not want you to have it. Every now and then, you might get rewarded for your efforts, but things out of your control will happen and it will be up to you to decide how you respond. Now more than ever, our lifters are going to have to rise to the occasion from their own living rooms and get the job done. You see, when the going gets tough, when you don't "feel" like pushing yourself, and it would be so easy to place the blame on not having a gym and just stop for a while - CHAMPIONS KEEP GOING. They wake up everyday with a clean slate - ready to kick ass. They maintain their schedule and attack the day. They decide to stick to the script in their work outs and continue communicating even though it would be very easy for them to let their work outs suffer and start taking time off from lifting.
Quite frankly, this has been a lot for me. I've contemplated often how to continue paying business rent, help with the mortgage, stay fed, continue providing quality coaching from afar, and not let my own lifting suffer depending on how long the pandemic lasts. And honestly, this is how it is for just about every business across our country right now. I keep hearing about lay offs, people I know losing their jobs, and companies I love being forced to close shop. At this point, there's a small chance you might know someone who this has affected but in the coming weeks it will become more and more rampant if we don't do what we should and attack the virus head on. You already know how we can do that - we take 3 weeks to ourselves and avoid other people by cutting off the spread. But this article isn't about the virus, it's about how we win our lives during this time. The same would be true for any sort of natural disaster or personal struggles we're going through. How are you going to spend your day? Are you going to do something that helps move you forward or are you going to get bogged down by inactivity and laziness? Put ferocity into your at home lifts and give MAXIMAL INTENT. In months, when we get to the other side of this thing, will you emerge from your cave with excuses or will you emerge from your cave YOKED with 2 new streams of revenue and a stronger bond with your family and friends? The world doesn't want you to have it, so you'll have to do it all on your own.