Be Strong. Be Courageous.
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Today, and most days, the only thing of significance I have to offer you is an insistence on persistence. Those who want straight talk about broad-scope weight training and the everyday muscle building menu should look elsewhere. However, simple plus basic does not equal easy.
Add the variable of long-term performance compounded by a focused and undying spirit to the above constants, and most folks have a tough problem. Yet it is within the energy of these prime factors that the solution to the problem is discovered.
Commonly, the difficulty is not in exercise or smart eating. It's not the all-too-familiar scapegoats of time and priorities, although we're getting close. Can we intelligently argue that our daily obligations are more important than our health? It is, more precisely, the failure of application of the two obvious prerequisites for a sufficient length of time.
It eludes us that practice is the most direct way to establish this inspiring and self-perpetuating habit, this marvelous life-giving, life-sustaining practice -- a thing of substance as alive and endearing as a best friend, a discipline that builds momentum like a roller-blader in San Francisco.
Sadly, the high road to freedom takes our breath away before the fragrance of the fresh air is enjoyed.
What is it that prevents physical culture from taking off? Fact is, it shouldn't have to take off because it shouldn't have crash-landed in the first place. This is a scary topic that can be inflammatory to those who think we're meant to only think, and the body is to obediently carry on and willingly serve us. Are we lazy, are we glutinous, are we spoiled rotten, are we just plain dumb?
I think we're scared.
Scared to go to the gym, to meet the challenge, to expose our self to ourselves and others, to work hard, to compromise, to instinctively listen to our needs, to stray from the societal norm, to be alone without numbing sight-and-sound distraction, to be alone... at all, to trust ourselves, to trust... at all, to stand tall without conceit, to admit shortcoming without self-destruction, to accept help without submission, to hope.
Been there, still am there -- the human condition, ever-ready for service and repair.
Take the gym away from people like you and the road is tough. Can't make it up the hills, handle the curves, the stop and go and the speed and the heat and the endless stretch ahead.
A good gym is a way-station, a refuge, a place of your own to lick your wounds or prepare you for the good race tomorrow. The field, the track, your garage or the gym down the road, the gym is where you cleanse, restructure, restore inside and out… no miracles, no magic, no kidding. You forgive, you forget, you remove the thorns, you ease the pain, you count your blessings like reps and sets.
You become reunited with yourself as a friend who's worthy. And, silently, those around you know you better and enjoy you more and life is good for a long time.
You need motivation to work out? It's your privilege.
Be strong. Be courageous.
DD
*****
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