Today’s session with my personal trainer was the the last session of my prepaid workouts and I must say that today was the most rewarding. It wasn’t rewarding in the way that you may think. It was actually the lesson I learned that I’m able to take home with me and apply it to every aspect of my life.
My session was at 5am. I’m no early bird, and never have been. But with the lesson I learned today, I have a feeling that I will be from now on. During our session, my trainer called me out, like usual, about my lack of consistency with coming in on my own. I have spurts of where I’m really good about hitting the gym before I hop on the train for work, then “life” happens and I fall off. After this morning, I don’t think it will happen again.
As she was calling me out about my inconsistency, she called over another gym member, this handsome and muscular gentleman who is always there, faithfully, at 5am. She then asked him what it takes to get your butt in the gym and all I heard was COMMITMENT and having a strong desire of wanting to succeed.
Folks out here in Chicago do not play! Back home (Detroit), only a select few are the ambitious type back; but here, ambition, drive, and commitment is everywhere. Thinking that I would be cut some kind of slack because I work full time with a 3-4hr daily commute, and run my consulting business part-time, slack was nowhere to be found.
I asked this dude what his life was like and here’s what he rattled off to me:
- A wife who is on disability
- 3 kids (yes, T-H-R-E-E!)
- Full time job
- 2-3hr daily commute
- Bed at 10:30pm, up at 3:30am (Geesh!)
- AND a 25-min midday nap
Mind you, he looks about early 40 (and thats because his short hair had sprinkles of gray) with a body of a 25-year old and very handsome.
After he gave his take on being committed, my trainer then tells me that he lives in Indiana!!! YES! He lives in Indiana, and works in the Northwest Suburbs of Illinois. He hits the gym BEFORE he goes to work. My jaw literally fell to the floor! At that moment, I declared to myself that the days of making excuses were over.
It was also amazing to see the level of dedication and focus displayed on the faces of those who work out at 5:00am religiously. Their time is limited and valuable, so they come in, do what they need to do, and are out of there. Now those are the folks I need to be around to kick things into gear.
I’m sharing my story to say this, we will not accomplish anything if we’re not committed to the journey of reaching our goals. Whether it is building a better physique, getting a promotion, building your clientele, or even having a long-lasting romantic relationship, it takes a large amount of commitment for success.
“We live in a time when people give up too easily.” – Denzel Washington
Denzel sure did hit the nail on the head with that quote. When things get too hard, people are ready to throw all of their hard work away rather than shedding a few blood drops, sweat and tears to success. I’ve read many books and articles on what it takes to succeed and what I found to be pretty consistent in these writings is that you must surround yourself with people who are either on the same journey as you or have reached the level of success you wish to attain. So for that reason, I’m going to force myself out of the bed at 4:30am to get to the gym by 5:00am. You gotta do what you gotta do.
If your goal is to run a successful business, surround yourself with those who are on the same journey or have already succeeded in entrepreneurship.
If your goal is to have a long-lasting relationship/marriage, then surround yourself around people who have accomplished the same.
We are only as big and powerful as the company we keep.
Lets make sure that those around us align with the people that we are or are striving to become..
STAY FOCUSED. STAY CONSISTENT. STAY COMMITTED.