And the truth shall set you free.

“I LEARNED THIS, AT LEAST, BY MY EXPERIMENT: THAT IF ONE ADVANCES CONFIDENTLY IN THE DIRECTION OF HIS DREAMS, AND ENDEAVORS TO LIVE THE LIFE WHICH HE HAS IMAGINED, HE WILL MEET WITH A SUCCESS UNEXPECTED IN COMMON HOURS.”

― Henry David Thoreau

Two themes converged nicely for me last week - I was doing some promo work for the upcoming NoLimits2020 speakers event and also had a podcast with Chris Desmond from UncomfortableisOK on why you should never be ‘complete’ (you can grab it here). On the one hand here I am about to encourage people to abandon self imposed limits and go forth and have a great ‘adventure’ whatever that means for them, but during the podcast the host Chris questioned me on why I don’t call myself an athlete - surely with an adventure and racing resume like mine at some point I have to accept that label. Surely these ‘great adventures’ require you to be an athlete?

This all lead me into two of my favourite topics - why labels are dangerous and why motivation ≠ discipline

“People use labels to cover-off a deficiency…if I say you’re an athlete, that allows me to say well you must be better at that than me. If I can’t do that it’s ok because you’re an athlete and I’m not, which makes me feel much more comfortable about me.

And that can be dangerous.”

- Paul Watkins (yes I just quoted myself…haha)

BUT I’M NOT AN ATHLETE…

I love the fact that there is often a disconnect for people when they read or hear my bio and then suddenly meet me in person. They read or hear the list of mountains and races and adventures and expect some kind of Bear Grylls/Chuck Norris character to appear - and then I turn up, looking much more like I’ve just stepped off the Harry Potter set after a busy day of being Daniel Radcliffe’s body double. Less with the Chuck Norris, more with the boy-wizard. It’s my hope that that disconnect immediately opens a mental door for people - I want people to not look at the list of things I’ve done but to look at me and realise that I look a lot like them. I’m not an Olympian, I’m not an astronaut, I haven’t had to overcome some epic personal tragedy. I’m just a nerdy Dad from a regional country town….who happens to have done some crazy stuff in crazy places. It gives them an opportunity to immediately bury the excuse of “well I couldn’t do anything like what he has done because he’s special/unique/talented/gifted”. What they are left with is, “he looks and sounds alot like me, how did he do all that stuff?”. And that opens a huge doorway for people - that’s the opportunity for them to take the first step ‘outside’ and maybe, just maybe, start to think about what they, as a ‘normal’ person might be capable of. That’s where I come in to start to show them the possibilities.

So why don’t I consider myself an athlete? Well if you went through high school with me you’d already know the first reason, and probably be laughing at the concept of me as an ‘athlete’..I often joke that my ‘chosen’ sport during those years was cross-country running - you didn’t have to be picked for a team and the co-ordination requirements were one foot in front of the other, repeat, repeat, repeat, don’t fall over. I was (am) a nerd and sporting endeavours during those years were more something to be suffered through rather than excelled at. Ironically, decades later I would not only become a high qualified CrossFit Trainer but also a nationally certified weightlifting coach. Hell I ended up owning and running my own CrossFit affiliate for almost a decade. Was it because I magically became an athlete…no it was because I continued being a student, a student of human movement, of cause and effect as it related to people being a functional (or non-functional) human being. And then I turned that love and knowledge towards the improvement of others, specifically normal, everyday people who just wanted to get off the couch and chase their kids, run their first fun-run, have their own adventure. I think part of our success was the very fact that I don’t look like an intimidating trainer, yes I’m fit and can move some weight around, but remember - more boy wizard, less Hulk.

To me real ‘athletes’ do have the capacity to be truly the best in field, the 0.1%, they have a genetic head start and have then leveraged that through hard graft, the hours of training, sacrifice and dedication.

Ok Mr ‘Non-Athlete’ - that still sounds a lot like you, you’ve climbed it, trekked it, raced it, oh and dare we mentioned even won the ‘odd tough race’.

True, but I’ve achieved those milestones and climbed those mountains not through being athletically gifted - I’ve done it through hard graft, discipline and the knowledge that as a ‘nerdy Dad’ I may not have your VO2 max, or supercharged mitochondria, but I will outwork you and I will remain mentally and emotionally steadfast despite all that the mountains and races can throw at me. AND THAT IS NOT A UNIQUE SKILLSET. To some degree I believe that the fact that I don’t label myself as an athlete has been liberating - I have no expectations of what I should or shouldn’t be able to achieve - all I can do is go out and see what I can do. Find that limit, whatever it is, place a stake in the ground and then see if we can move it a little further tomorrow.

So step one - stop giving a shit about the labels. Want to do something? Then let’s commit and do it - you don’t have to be an athlete or an adventurer or Bear Grylls or anything. All you need is the desire to tick that box, or do ‘that thing’ because it’s important to you - then we get to work.

MOTIVATION ≠ DISCIPLINE.

Here’s what happens next - by the time the early morning alarms goes off for the third day in a row, the the little voice creeps in. Another few minutes, then we’ll get up and go. How about we do it tonight? We can just do double tomorrow. And so it begins.

Motivation is great for posters. It sounds awesome at the end of the conference or team-building event when we are all ‘rah-rah’ and dreaming big and high-fiving our new found statuses as future ‘successful’ people. The ‘socials’ are full of this stuff - twee motivational quotes, stock images with tags about finding passion and chasing dreams.

Here’s the truth.

Do.

The.

Work.

Motivation makes great posters and sells tickets.

Discipline puts you on the podium.

Now stunningly uplifting as that may be (sarcasm) the good news is - this is a game that anyone can play. You don’t need special skills, expensive equipment or the latest app. All you need is you - and the force of will to the work. To do what needs to be done.

“THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE”

- KARL MARX

“IT’S THE VIGILANCE DEFICIT THAT CRYSTALIZES THE ERRORS,

THAT LEAD TO A CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE”

- HOWARD MARKS

The reality is that when it comes time to deliver - to do the run, to be the active parent, to have the adventure - the real world will not test the level of motivation you had at the start, when you put the picture on the goal board or posted the pic to Insta - the real world will test the vigilance and discipline you had every single day from then until now. Did you do the work, the hard yards, the sacrifices. Because that is what changes you - not the end point, not the success or failure - it’s the work. Doing the actual work - that is what carves away the excess and leaves only the lean and functional, the strong and capable, that fire that comes with the knowledge that you have done the work and can now face anything that comes in pursuit of the goal. This goal, that goal, the next goal - doesn’t matter. You are ready. As Henry would put it - you have carved yourself out of stone.

And the best part is - there is nothing between you and achieving all of this, except…you. You have complete control, get up…or don’t. Do the work…or don’t.

It is all on you - which means absolutely nothing stands in the way of you having that adventure - nothing at all.

If that is what you decide.