JUST SHOW UP
WEEK OF 4/7/25
Quick one for you this week, mostly because I’m exhausted from the past week and I also ran sprints this morning with the crew (by the way, you are all invited, Sundays @ 9:30am at the Roxborough High School track.. just sayin’!).
Often, we try to pre-qualify our experience when deciding on whether we’ll participate in something. For example: sprints aren’t important because my cardio is already pretty good, I’m not gonna miss out on much. And so on.
But the truth is, sprints are more than sprints. Training is more than training.
You will get tired, but you also might gain something else. Consider:
When you are doing something positive, you are also, at the very same time, not doing something negative. We tend to only focus on what we will be doing without necessarily thinking about all the things we might not be doing. A healthy diet is not just what you consume, but also what you deny.
You may be having a bad day of performance, but your presence might be what helps someone else have their best day — or vice versa. It is days like these that build reliability. There is nothing more valuable than a reliable and capable training partner. Nothing.
Something might finally click into place for you because it was taught or explained in the very specific way you’ve needed to hear it. We all carry around ourselves an atmosphere of ignorance, and it takes great effort for something to pierce that veil. You have to be present in order to be impacted.
You may build a stronger relationship with someone that provides some great value for you down the road, whether that’s on or off the mat. Marriages, job opportunities, and more have come from training dynamics. These are all important life milestones that can have a massive positive impact on the trajectory of your life!
You renew your daily vow to yourself that you are going to finally stick to something. And yes, this vow must be made daily! It’s not made on days we skip, that’s for sure.
And so on.
Now, of course, it’s not sustainable to train seven days a week. I get it. Recovery must be prioritized. However, there are plenty of opportunities to do more than what we take every week. Be bold, and try to maximize your development.
Sprints are more than sprints and training is more than training. However, you don’t know what you might gain from a Sunday run or a Tuesday night roll, and you’ll never find out either if you don’t just show up! It’s that simple.