Fitness Is...
Potential.
Everybody has it. Few reach
it.
It’s easy to assume that
people despise mediocrity because the world is littered with evidence of
humanity’s desire to excel—our obsession with talent, our reverence for heroes,
even our love of money. It’s easy to assume that everyone wants to
be his or her physical best because everywhere there are those wishing for a
better body type or a better lifestyle. They fill our virgin ears with a
symphony of sincerity and aspiration, but listen closer. They clamor with empty
voices.
The truth is that 90% of
people just want to get by. We pretend our ultimate goal is to be the best
version of ourselves, reading the right literature, quoting the right sources,
joining the right gyms; but the reality is far less compelling. If we are truly
honest we will admit that the level to which we might possibly rise is rarely
our chief concern. More important is reaching the level where we can merely
survive or, at the very least, mock survival. Getting there is much easier.
Getting there requires less time, less pain, and less effort. Getting there is
too often there enough.
I was speaking with my father
the other day about a friend of ours whose son wanted to be a college football
player. He had good size and natural talent, but he was a little slow and lacked
the explosive quality most big programs look for in an athlete. One evening
while having dinner with this family my dad suggested that the kid hang a bell
at the top of the hill abutting their property and ring it every morning before
going to school. Not only would sprinting up the hill begin to build the
explosive power needed for speed and acceleration but the sound of the bell
would become a symbol of his dedication to the goal. I wish I could say the kid
went out and rang that bell every day, or committed himself to some other
program in its place, but this isn’t that kind of story. He, like many others
like him, chose instead to remain a card-carrying member of that mediocre
90%.
Why? Because greatness is
HARD. Our bodies don’t care about potential. They were built to survive, not to
excel, and survival has gotten pretty easy as of late. Our bodies don’t know
that by being stronger and faster and leaner the likelihood of illness, disease,
and injury drop dramatically. Our bodies only know that it hurts like hell
getting there. It takes supreme physical and mental fortitude and an
unflinching, genuine ambition to overcome these hurdles. Most of us lack this
and it shows.
In this story his ability
wasn’t being measured against theirs or any others, only against his own
potential as an individual. He claimed that he wanted to be the best that he
could be, to give himself the best chance to be a college football player. But
when faced with the reality of what it would take to reach that goal he balked,
exposing his ambitions as half-hearted and insincere, and his athletic future to
be one ridden along the tired road to the middle. This is an all too common
tragedy.
After hearing this story, I
sat for a minute and observed my father. He was visibly disappointed by the
kid’s inability to commit himself to his goal. Yet I knew for a fact that my dad
had wanted to lose weight for years and failed to commit himself to doing so in
much the same way. This struck me as a prevailing irony, not just in this
conversation but in our culture in general, so I decided to ask him when was the
last time he “rang the bell.” He was lost for a second, then
smiled wryly as he got my meaning. “Too long,” he replied.
Sadly, it seems that our
praise of greatness and our distaste for mediocrity is an appreciation and
expectation reserved for others. We expect Jordan or Tiger or Ronaldo to reach
their potential every time they compete and we shake our heads when they fall
short. But we shrug off our love handles and that occasional chocolate cake as
acceptable losses. We cry for the children growing up without physical
opportunities, yet lie on the couch and amicably waste ours away. We claim we’re
too old, too fat, too injured, or too tired. The truth is we’re too obsessed
with getting by.
The good news is that
physical potential does not expire. It has no shelf life. Whatever state you’re
in at whatever moment, you can always be better. SO BE BETTER. Too often people
try to do this by setting a number to hit, a person to beat, or a mirror to
impress, implicitly attaching a finite quality to the process. This focus is
flawed. As you change and improve, so too should your potential grow and your
ambition swell. Remember that fitness is a goal inadvertently attained through
the systematic overestimation of yourself in all fields. It’s a
byproduct of setting the bar too high, of striving for perfection and falling
just short. It’s knowing that you’ll never get there but trying your damndest
nonetheless. It’s constantly pushing your limits in every direction regardless
of your skill. It’s finding a way to keep ringing the bell.
For this weeks blog, you need to leave two comments. First comment on what the essay means to you and then you have to comment on another students comment. Remember that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and to keep disscussion civil and appropriate as this is a school assignment.
