Did you ever read the book by Lance Armstrong, It’s Not About the Bike?
I read that years ago and loved it. Such a great story of an American icon overcoming crazy adversity and becoming one of the greatest athletes in history. It also goes into his background and his life as he was growing up.
For Lance it was about the bike, but it wasn’t. The bike was what he did but it wasn’t why.
The bike was simply the mode in which things happened. The bike was success, determination, stress, anger, joy, life’s struggles. It was love, hate, adrenaline during a good ride, sluggish legs during a tough ride. It was everything that defined Lance, but it didn’t define him.
I was recently listening to an audio interview with Dean Jackson, one of the foremost experts in sales and marketing. The interview was about something totally not related to Lance Armstrong, but he was speaking about how everyone has “the bike” in their life.
Everyone has that thing that represents them and all of their life adventures, successes and failures. But that thing doesn’t define them.
I started thinking about this for me. Obviously the first thing that comes to mind is the gym. For Lance Armstrong it’s not about the bike. For me, it’s not about the gym.
The gym is my place. It really does represent all of those success moments, failure moments, dreams of owning my own business, playing by my own rules and being around only the people that I want to be around.
It also represents conquering obstacles. That’s where it becomes about you.
Are you showing up every day for your workouts with a purpose?
Are you looking to get better- physically and mentally, every day?
Are you looking to push yourself to be just a little bit better than you were yesterday?
If not then you’ve got some work to do. I’m not blaming you for this because most people don’t even think about that.
I think about it because I can’t stand to waste time. I can’t stand to go through the motions. I won’t let anyone or anything prevent me from having the lifestyle that I want and that includes having the body that I want.
Life is too short. I know that sounds cliche but it’s true. Why go into the gym and screw around for an hour and not get any better?
I’m all for having fun, and we certainly do that in our training groups….but you better be working your ass off in between dancing and laughing 🙂
I hope for you some day it’s NOT about the gym. The gym is not the act of working out to just work out, to sculpt your muscles a little bit that day.
Nope, it’s bigger than that. It’s the physical challenge of getting better. It’s the mental challenge of pushing yourself to do more, to lift heavier weight, to sprint faster. It’s the scary-as-hell challenge to walk into that studio and sign up for a training program when you haven’t exercised in 3 years.
Those things are all scary. But people do them. And once they do that they realize it’s really NOT about the gym. It’s about changing your life. Being a better person. Being more caring to the people around you because you care more about yourself now.
So what are you going to do today, tomorrow or the next day to make yourself better? To make the gym simply the vehicle to a better life?
Leave me a comment below or on Facebook telling me what you’re going to change. Go ahead and click “Like” above this post, I’d really appreciate it.