The other day, I sat down to write a blog and 30 minutes later had written two lousy sentences. That’s frustrating.
Frustration is part of progress. I get frustrated every day. With myself, with others. But frustration isn’t bad. Frustration shows that you care. As long as you learn from your frustrations and don’t hang on to them, they can be productive.
I was told that if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all. But frustrations need to be aired out. On that note, here are 20 frustrated fitness thoughts. I hope you learn something from reading them because I’m sure I’ll learn something from writing them.
1. “Work smarter, not harder” doesn’t apply if you’re not working hard in the first place.
2. Keeping things simple is great, unless you’re using simplicity as an excuse for mediocrity.
3. You can’t make progress if you abandon your strategy every time you hit a rough patch. Durability is more important than ability.
4. Don’t confuse efficiency with a lack of attention to detail.
5. I just can’t get excited about your hip thrust and Turkish get-up PRs.
6. If you had a bank account that filled up with $86,400 every day but magically dropped to $0 at 11:59 p.m., how would you spend those dollars? Well, there are 86,400 seconds in every single day. Are you spending those seconds or investing them?
7. Humility goes a long, long way. Every time I need to feel humbled, I just watch an Eric Lilliebridge squat video.
8. Skill trumps passion, but you need both. Luckily, it’s easy to be passionate about something you’re good at, so get to work.
9. Your “bastardized” training program sucks. A “Westside-5/3/1-Smolov” hybrid isn’t clever, it’s just stupid. Pick one plan and stick to that plan for a LONG time.
10. If you “eat SO much” but still can’t gain weight, prove it. Write down everything you eat for 3 days and when you look back, you’ll probably realize you’re eating less in a day than The Rock eats in a single sitting.
11. “Let me pick your brain” is code for “let me take up your precious time so you can give and I can take.” There are more productive ways to ask for help. I’m all for paying it forward, but learning is best done by observing and doing. Surround yourself with successful people and do as they do. And if someone is kind enough to share advice, don’t let it sit idle. Put it into action.
12. Success can be summed up in two separate 4-word phrases: “Do more than expected” and “Make it about others.”
13. There’s rarely ever a good excuse to drop the bar from hip height on deadlifts. Wanting attention is not a good excuse.
14. Comparing yourself to others is very different than competing with others. The first is damaging to progress, the second is integral to progress.
15. Admitting one’s faults but failing to act upon correcting those faults is a nasty habit. I was guilty of this with my deadlift technique. It wasn’t until I swallowed my pride and asked for help from other coaches that I started to make progress.
16. Take note of how many times you say “I know” during a given day and work to reduce that number as much as possible.
17. Commiserating with others over negativity is easy and comforting, but it doesn’t mean we should do it. I’m being somewhat hypocritical because this is a largely negative post to make myself feel better, but challenge yourself to find other talking points besides the crappy weather or how tired you are.
18. The notion that you have to “earn the right” to do certain exercises is overblown. Pick up heavy things, adjust as needed. If you’re unsure of what you’re doing, get a coach.
19. #DoYouEvenLift? is a much more important question than #DoYouEvenScience?
20. Don’t take yourself so damn seriously. This was a tough lesson for me to learn, but I’m a much better coach, lifter and person because of it.