Quicksand and Strength: Today’s the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

Hey there fellow strength enthusiasts. It’s been a while since we’ve met. That’s my fault. It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here. I’d like to say that it was because I didn’t have much to say, but that’s not true. I just didn’t have the ability to. No, I wasn’t kidnapped by a terrorist group or anything exciting like that, I was kidnapped by myself.

It took me three days to work up the courage to write this post. Hell, it’s realistically probably taken me a year.

For those of you who know me personally, you know that I’ve been battling a deep depression for the past year and in some form or another for the past four years or so. I’ve had fits and starts of progress, and when I have been about to get some success, I stumbled again.

It would be great to blame someone else. Sure, I’ve had some horrible bosses. I’ve had some friends turn on me. I’ve had a relationship that didn’t work out well. I could blame any and all of those people for my problems. I could, but I’d be lying. Did they facilitate some of my issues? Oh, sure. But who’s ultimately responsible? Me. That’s who. Me. I let it happen. When I had opportunities to change it, I usually didn’t. I did a lot of things that I shouldn’t have. I did things that went against my character, and things that I quite frankly could never have imagined myself doing. I did things that literally made no logical sense. Over the past few years, I’ve let myself become a person at times that just wasn’t me, and never should have been.

Please watch the above video. There are some comedic elements, and (of course) it is from a cheesy football movie, but it speaks the truth. I’ve been living my life in the quicksand, and let me tell you, it’s hard to breathe under that shit.

In the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot. I’ve thought about life, where I am now, my mistakes, and where I am/could/should be going. Most of all what I’ve been thinking about is strength. See, strength is always something I’ve admired, searched for, and felt an affinity to. When I was a kid, I always wanted to be strong. I’d read muscle magazines and imagine being strong like those guys. Of course, now I realize that professional bodybuilders aren’t ideal examples of strength, but that’s beside the point.

I was always drawn to the comic book characters that were brutally strong. When some hippy tests my totem animals, they always come up as the bear or the bull. I’m a Taurus, if you believe in that crap. You get the point.

Now I work in a field devoted to strength and getting stronger. I’ve made gains in my own strength that seem impressive to most people, although I know they’re far below my actual potential. I’ve helped other people do tremendous things with their own strength, and that is unbelievably satisfying. However, the more I think about strength, the bigger and bigger the thoughts become.

I’ve come to a few conclusions about strength. Strength is more than just throwing more weight on the bar. Strength pervades all aspects of life. Strength is the ability to cut through the bullshit. Strength is the act of doing what needs to be done.

So here’s where things go from here. How do you get out of the quicksand? You stop thrashing around. You eliminate any unnecessary baggage. Then you start moving in a straight line to the way out. One step after another and one hand over the other.

The first step was posting this, even though I have to tell all of you that I really don’t want to. I know it’s not a big deal to you guys, and you could probably care less about my droning, but it’s something that I feel like I had to put forth if I’m going to climb out of that pit.

The next step is to dispose of the clutter. You’re going to see some changes from here on out. There will be more clarity to this blog. I’m going back to what I love and what matters most to me, and that’s strength. There’ll be fewer posts on generic fitness stuff and that type of thing. While that’s a perfectly good subject I feel that I need to focus on my love instead of on what I think everyone else might want. There is no more appealing to everybody, because I feel that in that end you eventually appeal to nobody and especially not yourself.

There will be posts on how to get strong in life and what I’ve learned in my pursuit of strength. I don’t care who you are, strength matters. If you’re a high school wrestler, then you need to get strong mentally and physically. If you’re a 30 year-old powerlifter, I’m talking to you about strength. If you’re a growing athlete, I’m talking to you, too. I don’t care if you’re a 200 pound mom who’s just trying to lose some weight and get healthy; I’m talking to you when I talk about strength.

From now on the vast majority of posts will focus on:

-Strong Bodies. Get strong. Get fit. Stop being a pussy and make it happen.

-Strong Heart. Like I said, strength is more than just throwing a barbell. Do you have heart? If not, then get the heck off of my website. This is now a No Bullshit Zone. I don’t care if there’s an angry pit-bull standing right between you and your goal. Bite that fucker in the face and bring the fight to it.

-Strong Tribe. The word “tribe” is getting thrown around a lot thanks to Seth Godin and some other marketers/speakers. Hell, I’ll hop on that bandwagon. Your tribe is you and your “family”. That could be your actual family, or not. Your tribe is those who care about you and think like you.

Build your tribe. Guide them. Promote them. Develop kinship. The more powerful your tribe is, the more powerful you will be. If these words are ringing true with you, then we’re probably in the same tribe.

-Strong Food. Your body is the temple, man. Fuel it with the best sources possible. Feed it with the nutrients it needs to grow and improve.

-Strong Mind. Every day is a day to grow and improve. If you’re trudging through the day, sinking like quicksand, making bad decisions, then you know that you’re not getting strong. Learn, test, and improve your mind daily. Challenge your mind and body. Find further levels of growth through these intense challenges. There’s nothing like the fire of pain and discomfort to provide clarity and burn away the useless crap.

If this stuff doesn’t appeal to you, then that’s totally cool. I’ll see you around the way. If it does, then I’m glad you’re here. Let’s do this.