Are You Really Dedicated?

Are you really dedicated?

There was a time, over a decade ago, where I was an incredibly “hardcore”, focused, and silently judgmental young bodybuilder. I was completely intent on winning my pro card and one day winning a natural bodybuilding pro world title. I saw my ability to push myself through the process of contest prep as a badge of honor and while I wouldn’t have said it to your face, if you called yourself a bodybuilder, but didn’t compete, I would smile and nod, but think “you’re not a bodybuilder if you don’t get on stage, you have no idea”. As a young man I was so intent on my goal of winning at the highest level, that I remember literally saying out loud to my wife “I don’t think I would train if I didn’t think I could become the best in the world.”

Obviously, I have come a long way since then, but what I didn’t see, was that the recreational “bodybuilder” I looked down on was more committed to the Iron than I was. If I had a time machine and went back to 2007, and I dropped the bomb on the me of 12 years ago that I wouldn’t become a world champion, the old me wouldn’t have gone to train the next day. But do you know where that recreational “bodybuilder” I silently judged would be? In the gym, with the iron, grinding his or her heart out doing what he or she loved. So, who was really dedicated back then? More importantly, what have I learned from my shifts in perspective as an athlete, and how has that impacted my coaching and life? Watch the most recent episode of A.O. to hopefully start an inner dialogue that takes you to a new, more committed stage of your relationship with the iron.