The adventure is the journey, not the destination

By Pete Ryan

Many people have dreams, goals and desires that they wish to achieve. You may want to be Mr Olympia, become a champion powerlifter or have 6-pack abs. Whatever the goal or dream, remember this fact. It is not the goal that is the important feature of this idea, it is the journey to that goal that will decide if you achieve it or not. In fact you may or may not actually succeed in that goal, so deciding on a goal becomes “Is the journey itself worth the sacrifice and effort”. Suppose I said you will go to the gym, drive yourself hard for over a decade and you will not become a pro bodybuilder, is the journey itself enough to drive you? If you say it is not, then I would not pick that journey. To succeed the journey needs to be enough to sustain you, you need to love the process that leads to that goal. We are not being simplistic, obviously some aspects of any goal may be dull, scary or even unpleasant, but overall you need to enjoy the process to succeed.  Winning a medal is a fleeting moment in time, a blip in your life, but the journey to that goal can take years or even decades to complete, so consider the process before you decide on a goal.  If you want 6-pack abs, but love fatty food and exciting dining adventures, then giving that all up may not be the best journey choice you could make.  Maybe just staying trim and in decent shape while still enjoying regular culinary adventures is a thing that would add depth and appreciation to your life? If you want to be the strongest man in the world, but hate the gym, then maybe you’d be better finding a goal that didn’t involve so much of life in a gym situation? You have one life, spending the majority of it doing something you do not want to do seems very wasteful of your time.

It is surprising how many people do not think of the process when they begin to choose a goal. They think of college in terms of what will give them the highest paid career, they think of jobs in terms of what will be the most financially successful. In both of these outcomes they have not thought if they will enjoy those courses or the job that follows. Let me offer you two job examples; One pays a lot, you will have a fabulous home, nice cars and all the luxuries imaginable, but you will hate the job, every workday will be long hours and you will rarely feel happiness in the job. By 50 you will begin to suffer serious stress related issues, your family life will be terrible, you will potentially suffer issues with alcohol or other abuse just to cope with the work. Or our second scenario where you find a job you enjoy a lot, it is challenging and sometimes you fail, but generally you do well, you improve. Again, you might have to work long hours, but these are productive hours with results you care about. It is a mid-income job, you are not exactly poor, but your car is a few years old, you have a small property, but you have few luxuries. By 50 you are still in good health and have a happy life generally. The first guy might retire with immense wealth and the second guy may retire with much less, but if we look back on their journey was it really worth all those decades unhappy to achieve the goal of immense wealth? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to do what made them happy for decades, but end up with less?

Before you think I am suggesting you always limit yourself, let me reverse the scenario.  Suppose you love exercise, the process of muscle growth. Now you could settle for a job or follow your dream of becoming a bodybuilder.  If the training is what makes you happy, then maybe the right goal for you to aim at is to see how far you can go in the bodybuilding field. You may just be a Mr Olympia one day, or if starting businesses is what you love to do, then maybe developing multimillion pound businesses might be the way forward for you. What I am saying is pick a process that you mainly enjoy, then consider how to make a goal from that journey.  You are more likely to be happy if you plan things that way. 

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Knowledge doesn’t matter

By Pete Ryan 

People can spend years accumulating every detail of a practice and yet this does not lead to success. How can the army of armchair experts on the internet know so much, and yet accomplish so little?

To answer this question we need to learn the difference between knowing and doing, also how to translate knowledge from the theoretical into the practical. Let’s take a simple example. Suppose you know you waste all your time scrolling the internet, you have things to do, but you will ‘get it done’ when you get around to it. Alternately, maybe you start something, but get distracted and so no job is ever finished. If this sounds like you, then maybe you have read about ‘block time’? That is putting aside a chunk of time so you do one task within that time frame. It may look something like this: 

You may know this, you may also know that structuring your day this way may help you get everything done that needs to be done, but if you do not apply this knowledge, then knowing it is useless baggage! What you need to do is not just gather knowledge, the plan has to be to increase what you know, AND find ways to put those insights into practice.

I use a similar idea to making any change. I do not try to completely overhaul your lifestyle, simply start by making one change. In this case, if incorporating a complete block time system would be too overwhelming, why not pick one or 2 times and block them out, between 10-12 you will workout and between 1-5 you will do work. Leave the rest clear, but stick to those two times. Set an alarm or use a similar way to remind you that those times are blocked out. From there you make changes, you can change those times if one or the other is not enough, or you could add in a new block of some other vital activity.

I have given you just one example, you can equally include this to anything, let me give you an example with myself. I have had an ongoing back issue.  I trapped myself in an ‘injury cycle’, so I would train up to a certain strength level, get an injury, recover and repeat, so my maximum strength stagnated.  I knew… KNEW I had to include some core stability movements, to increase ‘core stiffness’ during lifts (if you allow me use of Dr Stuart McGill’s term of ‘stiffness’ for maintaining correct posture during heavy lifting).  These exercises, like bird dog, planks, side planks are boring and time consuming, and what I really enjoy are deadlifts, squats etc, not dull movements like planks. So, I would do enough so the symptoms would go away and then I would begin a new training cycle, starting light, but at a similar weight disaster would strike again, the cycle went on for way too long. The thing is I knew better, any client coming to me would receive very different treatment, but somehow I thought I was special, or with me it would be different...but it isn’t and I am not special.  I need what you would need in this situation. A few months of backing off, relearning how to engage my core and then bringing those new skills to the table. I know that, but even knowing that isn’t enough, you have little incentive to train if the goal is sets of 10 second bird dog holds, but you have to get into a delayed gratification mindset. Do I have the right to expect a heavy lift if I haven’t earned it doing those exercises?

That is one example, but now think of your own goals and your own actions that are limiting or even stopping those goals. Now think of what would remedy that issue? I bet you have the solution. I suspect you already have the answer to that dilemma, but for one reason or another you are avoiding taking that action. The first step will be to decide why, once the why is discerned that we can move on to solving the dilemma. You have several courses of action:

1. You know the problem and see the solution to implementing it.
2. The problem is not currently soluble, so a new solution must be discovered.
3. The solution is too large to implement, so break the solution into smaller steps and work towards the solution.

Those are the big 3 answers to virtually all your current issues. If you use that as a guide you will reach results. Let’s quickly look at these 3 option. The first is self evident, you have a solution and you can implement it.  The second is the most difficult as it means you need to find a new way to fix the problem. The third answer means that you need to break the problem into bite sized pieces. So, say your goal is exercising 4 days a week, start the first month simply doing once a week consistently, once there add days slowly until you are achieving your goal.

Most issues you ever encounter will involve a solution you already have the answer to so just knowing that you need to apply your current knowledge means that half the battle is already won. Just consider the solution.  Whether the problem is you do not eat enough fresh vegetables, you do not sleep enough, or you have weak legs, you know the answer, just put in the time to implement some changes and the results will come.

 Come join us on our social media:

Website http://www.veganbodybuilding.org/

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orders by post, online or phone

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(Supplements)

15% off using code VEGANHEALTH

https://www.revolution-foods.com

(Superfoods)

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http://veggie-style.com

(Proteins and supplements)

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(Exercise clothing)

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