Overcoming Discouragement and Disappointment
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Can’t wait to see what resolutions I have for this pair of revolting predicaments? Eat a bowl of ice cream, order a pizza, eat another bowl of ice cream, have a beer, order another pizza, have a six-pack and have a smoke. Order a pizza. Have a smoke and a beer while ordering a pizza. I’m running out of original ideas, bombers. Perhaps I’ll call upon the IOL forum for some straightforward advice. They know everything and they’re very nice.
Discouragement and disappointment affect everyone in every area of life in large or small degrees. These negative conditions, if they are severe and recurrent, can lead to depression. And depression can be more than a temporary discomfort; it can become a chronic and crushing disease.
The three undesirable conditions are states of mind and facts of life, and we have control over them, more control than we think. And where we have control we must apply it, or it is not control at all. It’s submission... they control us.
As weightlifters and musclebuilders our hearty practices diminish or eliminate many of the causes of these debilitating emotional assaults. We set uplifting goals and, engaging our talents, desires and potentials, strive to achieve them. We fight, we fall, we pick ourselves up, wipe ourselves off and press on, developing always as we go. It works every time, all the time.
Yet, discouragement and disappointment are unavoidable. The fact that we are alive and self-directed makes us vulnerable to discouragement. The fundamental need to put one foot before the other leaves us wide open for disappointment. Any of our high hopes, ordinary mistakes, everyday accidents, accumulated malfunctions, misunderstandings or misinterpretations, trials and tribulations can set off the downward assaults.
"It’s always somethin'," said Gilda Radner with natural resignation to her universal, sympathetic and howling audience. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
Today we are specifically talking about situations relating to musclebuilding and fat loss, weight training and getting in shape. Examination of the associated efforts to improve in these areas would indicate many of us experience more disappointment and discouragement than fulfillment and success. This disproportion is insufferable, and deadly to the cause. It can lead to quitting and can cause depression. And failure in one area of life contaminates the entire life.
I suggest we’re dealing with two natures of a beastly predicament: there’s disappointment and discouragement that we bring upon ourselves, and there’s the discouragement and disappointment that broadsides us while we’re innocently occupying our space. Both are nasty, the former requiring preemptive action in the form of thought, caution and discipline, and the latter, control and finesse from the heart and soul as the conditions envelop us.
Allow me to offer a couple of general examples, a field upon which we might study the wild beasts in their habitat and render them harmless... or, at least, less harmful.
Foremost, the disappointment and discouragement that result from the idiotic things we do by our own hands -- the things we have immediate control over:
1) Sitting on the couch watching television and eating pizza and drinking beer -- or something as common and hideous (other variations include ice cream and cookies while reading Flex, cola and fries and watching Pumping Iron, chocolates and cell phones, chips and video games).
I don’t care if it’s your birthday or the Broncos are playing or it’s Thursday night with the goils or you’re just hungry and pooped. It’s dumb. This is a large problem and it’s gonna cost you big time... later, tomorrow, the next day and the next. The fall of the dominoes has begun.
You have just set yourself up for hardcore discouragement and disappointment. Are you willing to pay that price? Think about it. There’s no forgiveness. At some point you are going to feel weak, fat and stupid. There will be times alone when you pinch the skin around your waist... oh, crap... and notice how tight your underwear fits... rats... and say in disgust, "Why did I do that?" Burp, gurgle! This is to say nothing about the bloat and indigestion you’ll experience, sure signs of disrespect for your health and well-being. Guilt is a mean companion, unrelenting, almost sadistic.
And where’s the vein you saw crossing your biceps? Did it get to the other side and keep on going?
Anger accompanies this self-cast disappointment. I’ll do what I want, when and where I want, you’ll say, I’m free. Of course, that lie is as old as the hills, you won’t buy it and you’ll continue to hate and beat yourself instead.
Sugar and alcohol nibble and bite. Trans-fatty acids clog and blight.
Right about now an intelligent advocate might say, "Avoid such weak behavior and avoid the consequences." Intelligent, but not smart. That’s like saying, "Be a good boy, Johnny. Don’t do that anymore, Jane. Okay? Promise? Pinky promise. There you go, you cute rascals." Yeah, right! See ya later.
You want to get in shape, you want to build muscle, and you want to be strong. Swell! But you can’t follow a simple diet, you’re unable to deny yourself for an evening and you lack the remotest discipline. Well, then, you don’t have a chance, do you? Or it’s going to take forever, with a mountain of cliff-hanging discouragements and unhealthy disappointments along the way. But you don’t understand, some of you say, it’s my mother, my father, the kids, the stress, the habits, the culture, the career... yeah, yeah, yeah. A society of tolerance will give you a hundred reasons why you’re in the predicament you’re in. Fact is, you ate pizza and drank beer while you sat on the couch and watched the tube, period. You did it before and you’ll do it again and that’s the way it works.
Excuses have no place in the life of a bomber.
The answers I offer are 10 short, two-word commands, uncomplicated, unequivocal, indisputable and almost hallowed: Stop it. Right now. Don’t submit. Train hard. Eat right. Be strong. Know thyself. Love thyself. Be happy. Be wise.
Take heart. We’ll break these commands, experience them, and break them again before we can know them and keep them... kinda like other commands we know and live by according to our own authority, and the authority of powers mightier than us.
Some folks have real problems. To them I offer my heartfelt understanding and best wishes and prayers.
2) Skipping a workout, because... I feel icky, there’s a nip in the air, I have knot in my shoelace, I’m snoozy, it’s President’s Day... the list of excuses is endless, and some are almost valid.
There are times when we are absolutely compelled to miss a workout -- worldwide floods, plagues, earthquakes, the fiery end of civilization as we know it, we’re out of... gasp... Bomber Blend -- and times when we don’t need an excuse, rhyme or reason. We are liberated souls, after all. I’m talking about those times that indicate the development of chronic misbehavior, neglect and irresponsibility. Several times a year deserves notice, once a week and we’re in trouble.
A weightlifting musclebuilder does not skip workouts. A true seeker of muscle and might cannot omit a training session. A bodybuilder would rather die. Unmotivated imposters miss workouts. Fraud, fakes and puffy pretenders miss workouts. Hapless wimps and doodlers let their workouts slide, sure, but not men and women of steel. To decline his training, the lifter foregoes his purpose, joy and respect.
Think of life without oxygen, water, light and love. Now you understand.
Next time the occasion to skip a workout arises, ask yourself if it’s an opportunity or a catastrophe? Will you submit to the moment or fight it with all your heart, mind and strength? If you choose the former, you will lose. You are the catastrophe.
A workout neglected is an opportunity lost. It weakens the structure. Worse yet, it indicates a structure already weak.
Go to the gym, train hard and grow. Every bad gym-day becomes a great gym-day, once you pass the front door. The cold ugly weights melt in your hands and become as sculptures to the lover of art. Soreness dissipates like the morning dew, and the strength of the hot sun fills your veins. What was lifeless or hopeless is revived by the renewed power of inspired hands. The gym enables, enlightens and inspires. The workout creates, restores and fulfills. And you receive, respond and progress.
I’m almost done, bombers. Some of you are ready to fly -- I hear the rumble and feel the vibrations.
The disappointment and discouragement that result from circumstances beyond our control -- natural disaster, illness, accident and injury -- must be met straight on and handled with courage. These are the dreadful incidents of which, it seems, half of life is comprised. Where there is happiness, so is there misery. We know pleasure to the degree we know pain. Joy and sorrow are doled out in unpredictable proportions. One thing I know; the backbone and spunk needed to lift weights develop as do the muscles, and these collective attributes are essential in countering enemies of all sorts, shapes and sizes.
The disciplined characters who work out, eat right and meet the tests regularly are the ones who survive the thrusts of disappointment and discouragement, and are seldom depressed. You see, like osmosis, the iron and steel has a way of entering the body and lining it with strength and durability. The sets and reps provide resilience and internal energy. And their combined application heightens the spirits. The three Ds -- disappointment, discouragement and depression -- enter the ranks of the bombers, do their dastardly deeds and are exhausted like hot air. We regard them as fuel to propel us.
Beyond personal courage, fortitude and mettle there’s something to be said of Western Medicine in diminishing depression and its unlikable precursors, disappointment and discouragement.
Authentic encouragement is the antidote to all three.
Prayer is priceless... God’s strength.
We have too much to live for to be grounded. Fight for height... DD
DO YOU REMEMBER…
Last July we held a seminar at the Santa Cruz Bomber Bash with Bill Pearl as our guest and Eddie Corney making a surprise visit. We recorded the 2-hour QnA talk with three cameras from different angles and points of view... 6-to-8 hours of recorded material. Swell. The following month Laree and I visited Bill and Judy at their home in Oregon and recorded Bill and me in another two hours of compelling (cool word, compelling) conversation.
This stuff is priceless, we're thinking: Now to throw it all together and offer it to our internet participants, a small army of authentic musclebuilders, and fans of the golden era. They’ll be jazzed.
No problemo; a dozen editing-specific computer programs later and a hundred hours on the how-to-edit help line and Laree is ready for action. The roar of trucks driving by, hums of overhead fans, the clattering of ladders to turn off overhead fans, periodic jingles of incoming phone calls and my persistent coughing and sniveling had to be removed from the soundtrack to make it comprehensible. The junk, redundancy, lengthy questions and extensive answers, and embarrassing moments had to be cut. Order to the disorder that comes from random conversations among 225 enthusiastic and hungry bodybuilders had to be explored and sensibly arranged. Entertainment and substance and professional presentation were the elements pursued. Good luck. Add music where it works, add stills where they work and throw in a couple of slide shows for the fun of it. Presto!
One day a month ago Laree emerged from her hellish computer station in the lonely loft for food, water and human contact. The production was complete. I tried to be sensitive as she was given to outbursts of tears and incoherent babbling. Still cute, I pat her on the head, assured her a shower would help, some Bomber Blend... she nodded helplessly.
The finished product was sent off to the pros to be duplicated -- stamped, printed and encased... whatever -- and will be in our hands in a week.
The Package includes a one-hour-and-fifteen-minute tape of the July seminar, two muscular slide shows, plus a 32-page booklet outlining the subsequent interview between the mighty one, Bill Pearl, and me in which we discuss some favorite subjects untouched by the seminar.
Be the first one on the block to own this indescribable entertainment and informational extravaganza starring Oscar-winning performers from around the world
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We just got word of shipments coming in from both the dvd replicator and the booklet printer; the Bash 05 Seminar dvd with Dave and Bill Pearl is D O N E. Hey, man, I've got *stuff* to do!
Now, I know you've heard this before, but that was all a prelude to the real thing… today's announcement. I put up an order link -- above -- we'll ship the DVDs immediately upon receipt early next week. And guess what? It was worth the wait!
Grab your copy Brother Iron Sister Steel here
Click here to order Iron On My Mind
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