Seek discomfort.
Seek pain.
Seek soreness.
Seek stress.
Seek that will make you stronger as your journey takes you to bigger and better places.
The picture above is from a CrossFit competition at CrossFit The Tracks in June 2017. From 2010 to 2020 I would put my body through some tough tests. I was doing CrossFit, Olympic Lifting and Running every week. And I had people pushing me all the time to become better. Back then it was a hobby, but now it’s a life choice. You see, then I was just doing it as a part of my free time and as a way to stay in shape. I didn’t really understand the idea behind putting yourself in tough spots for the sole purpose of becoming better.
Then around 2020 I put it on coast. This wasn’t due to the pandemic, it was a combination of my business growing and CrossFit as a hobby taking a backseat. I still worked out, but I stopped with the extra stuff I was doing like lifting sessions and races. Over the next 4 years I’d go from 175 pounds to 201. I reasoned with myself that it was OK because during those tough CrossFit hobby years I was sore all of the time. To me not being sore, was a sign I was in a better place.
WRONG!
It turned out it was simply an excuse to not work my ass off. On December 25th 2023 I looked in the mirror and saw what personal neglect had created. I was the heaviest I’d been since 2010 weighing in at 201 pounds. I looked in the mirror and said enough is enough, and as I type this I’m aprox 178 6 months later. The weight loss has been a combo of nutrition (75%) and higher intensity workouts more often. And guess what, I’m sore again!
SORE is what I now realize what was missing.
And at the same time, I look back at the Summer of 2023 as my company saw losses for the year mount to over $1 million and stress me out of my freaking mind! I can’t start to tell you how tough last Summer and Fall was for me mentally, but I smile now. I realized that I had to make those mistakes and learn those lessons to get to the next level as a CEO. At the end of the day, if you don’t learn how to lose, you can’t learn how to win the RIGHT WAY!
All of this hit me this spring. I realized the more I accepted the shit was going to hit the fan often, that I was going to be SORE all over, not just my body, but my mind too. When I accepted this reality and realized the only way I was going to become the CEO I was destined to be was to embrace the suck things became clear.
This is also when it hit me about working out, EMBRACE, screw it, FIND muscle soreness. Otherwise, it simply means you’re not doing enough.
Check out todays podcast on this topic, episode 649 of Restaurant Marketing Secrets by yours truly…CLICK HERE to listen.
MP OUT!
P.S. Someone told me long ago…
