"Do what it takes"

People like to romanticize the idea of sacrifice and hard work. Motivational pictures and quotes are great, but how hard do you really work? Hard work isn’t going into the gym once and busting ass, it’s going into the gym and busting ass day after day, week after week, year after year.


I had a conversation with Jessica while I was training with Jon up in Oregon. And she was telling me about lifters in the past who had trained with Jon and talked a big game about what they were prepared to do, but fell short. If you don't know, Jon and Jessica lived their his car for a few months so they could train at Cal Strength. They didn't want to live in a car, they obviously don't still live in a car, but they did what needed to be done to get to where he wanted to be. And if you ask Jon, he would tell you he wouldn't change a thing. People always talk about they're ready to do, but would you live in a car? Would you scrape change together to eat off the dollar menu? Sure maybe for a day, maybe for a week, but would you do it for months?


I had a similar experience as some of the people Jessica was talking about. When I first moved up to train with Jon I though I was sacrificing. I quit my job, took what little money I had, and moved. I though I was special, and I wanted to be noticed for being special. For the first few months I had a hard time up there. I was expecting to be treated like I was doing something noble, and Jon barely gave me the time of day. To be completely honest, there was a time when I almost called it quits. I was so close to tucking tail and returning home.


Luckily I got a reality check, and realized that until I put my head down and worked as hard as I possibly could, no one was gonna give me anything. I moved out of the room I was living in to sleep on a couch, and I put my head down and trained. As much as I could. There were days when Jon wouldn't even say a word to me in the gym, but I came back every day, and worked. And slowly but surely I started gaining respect from Jon, Jessica, and the gym.


If you go into the gym every day and give 100% to achieve your goal, you are not special. You’re just doing what needs to be done.


I hear a lot of people talk about sacrifice. Most of the time it's people talking about sacrificing their social lives to go to the gym. Skipping parties, or not going out drinking so they can hit the gym the next day, etc.


I have a little insight for those people. If you want to go to the gym and you skip something else you also would like to do, you’re not sacrificing anything, you’re just making a choice. You’re still doing what you want.


I am now in a position where I can do what I love. I bust my ass in the gym, and I coach lifters. I have to make very little sacrifices. Now part of that is me previously making sacrifices to put myself in the position I am today, but I make no qualms about how lucky I am to be where I am.


There's this idea that people who lift are somehow better than those who don't because they're more dedicated or mentally strong. If you are doing what you love day in and day out you are not better than anyone else who does the same, no matter what it is you're doing.


I hope someone somewhere will read this and it will help them come to the same realization I did. There is nothing special about hard work, or sacrifice, it's just part of what needs to be done to get to where you want to go.