Tough Guy Nearly Breaks

Meant to post this on Tuesday. It's been a busy week. Enjoy.

Tuesday: Tough Guy Nearly Breaks.

                “I don’t think I’ve been this sore and sweat this much since I stopped wrestling.” Those were some of my less explicit thoughts as I walked out of…wait for it…yoga class. What?! Yoga?! Are you kidding me?! Yeah I know what yawl are all saying out there. Yoga isn’t hard. You’re supposed to feel good and calm and one with nature and all that jazz. Maybe you’re thinking that I went to a Power Yoga class. Or maybe you’re just thinking, “Wow, that blind mountain climbing dude is really out of shape.” Now I’ll admit that I’d like to have a little less body fat and a bit more muscle. I’d love to jump on my bike and ride the Tour de France route without breaking a sweat. And I’d love to be a Navy Seal as well. (Maybe I can pass the eye test this time around…Hmm…)

                Ok. So why did I have some rather more colorful thoughts about a yoga class? For the last two nights, Kailee and I attended Bikram’s Yoga with her Dad. It’s not you’re normal yoga with stretching and meditation. It’s not power yoga where you powerfully flow from move to move and never take a break. Bikram’s Yoga is a series of 26 different yoga poses and the room is at 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

www.bikramyoga.com

I like to think that I’m pretty athletic and in fairly decent shape. But I will say that out of any group exercise/mind body class that I’ve taken, this was the hardest one.

                So why am I writing about it. Well, it just so happens to flow nicely into what I wanted to talk about today regarding reaching our goals. What good is a goal if we don’t try to reach it. If we’ve set our goals right, then we should be striving for something that isn’t easily attainable. In other words, it’s hard to reach our goals. So how do we do it?

                Hate to break it to you folks, but there’s no magic formula. I watch infomercials for fun. And sometimes I just laugh outloud at the variety of “get rich quick,” and “get six pack abs in less than six weeks,” stuff that I see. Sure anyone can be wealthy, and I can draw up a training plan that will give you six pack abs no problem. But first you have to make a decision/choice.

                Ask yourself this question. How badly do I want to reach my goals? On a scale of 1-10, if you answer 7 or lower, set yourself some new goals and do some soul searching. 7/10=70% That’s barely passing in school. That’s average. If you want to be average then be my guest.

                You reach your goals by being above average. You reach your goals by “hard work and pain,”—to quote Filch from the first Harry Potter book.

                Maybe we don’t want to be in pain. But reaching your goals is going to take some sacrifice. I wrote down on my Monday blog post that my goals are to be employed by September, to ride 25 miles in 1 hour on the bike, and to eventually compete in a time trial. That’s not easy stuff.

                For my fellow recent college grads. You feel my pain on the first goal. So far I’ve submitted 60 plus applications and have had three interviews. I just passed my Earth/Space Science teacher’s examination, but I still have to apply to the state of Florida and wait to hear back from them until I can start applying for teaching jobs. Every morning I wake up, drink my coffee, have a little breakfast, sit down at my computer and start job searching. Right now career searching is my full-time job.

                Maybe in the afternoon Kailee and I will go to the gym, take Tyrone (my Seeing Eye dog) to the dog park to let him run, or even go to the torcher chamber known as Bikram’s Yoga Studio. (Ok it’s not a torcher chamber, but it is extremely tough.)

                The point is that I’m sacrificing time and effort to reach my goals. And if that means that Kailee and I can’t go to our favorite steakhouse or restaurant because we can’t afford it, or I have to suffer through 90 minutes of stifling heat and sweat, then I’ll do it if it means accomplishing my goals.

                My Dad always used to tell me, when I was younger, “Short term sacrifice for long term results.” I hated making sacrifices as a kid. But now I realize that the sacrifices I make will be way worth it in the long run.

                So my younger readers. You may hate doing homework, but—one day--trust me, you will thank your parents and teachers for giving it to you. I do every day. My competitive sports readers, I know that going to practice and off season conditioning really sucks. Trust me. I’ve been there. But I’ve also been at the point where I’ve seen the results from all that hard work. And finally, my readers that are older and wiser than me, keep trucking on. If you think you’re too old and it’s too late for you, or you’re set in your ways and you’re not changing, well you can change and you too can exceed your own expectations.

                So I’ll leave with this today. Can you reach your goals? Yes. Are you willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary to reach them? On your own piece of paper, white board, smart phone, IPad--or whatever devices people use nowadays—write down how much you want to reach your goals. Write down the sacrifices you’ll need to make it to the top.

                As my old tenth grade chemistry teacher, Vic Sciullo, used to say, “There’s no path of least resistance.”

 

Climb High.

 

Kyle