“What are you doing here, shouldn’t you be in the aerobics class twiglet?”
At 19 years old that charming comment was levelled at me by what can only be described as ‘bigger boys’ when I joined David Lloyd (my first *proper* gym – aka it had free weights – as a skinny young man)
After being quite a chubby teenager, I went through (I wasn’t happy and knew no better) a phase where I only ate dinner, and ran 6 miles a night to get rid of the weight
Resulting in this 154lb physique, at 6ft tall as looked ill, as you can see
So, as a young man who was quite say and rather rubbish with girls did, I joined the gym
Which is where on my SECOND day, I heard that when I ventured, timidly, into the weights room.
I diligently went 3 times a week, **thought** I was giving it my all, and after a year of solid, hard work I had gained all of 10lbs
Thats it
Now as someone who truly hated how he looked, and didn’t enjoy confrontation I spent most of my nights out on the town in fear, worried if anything kicked off? I would be battered
Scared
Shy
Araid
ZERO confidence
Great way to hit 20 eh?
Do you have ANY idea how many times I wanted to give up thinking I’m always going to be skinny?
A lot
Daily in fact
Now I can’t explain to you how disheartened I was to look essentially like a stick man, and after I managed to secure an amazing but utterly cut-throat corporate job – I knew something had to change
Do you know what I did?
I bought 200k’s of weights
Bribed my parents to let me turn their garage into a gym
That, and told my friends I had left town
For just over 7 months I didn’t go out, didn’t see anyone (I was always ‘away’ working) and forced down 6500-7000 calories every day.
I ate until I was sick, was sick, and then kept eating
I woke up in the night (twice!!) to eat
That, and every single evening I did heavy assed basic as balls lifiting to the one tape that was stuck in the machine (cassette tape, showing my age…), which was Linkin Parks first album
6 days a week
Never missed a workout
Never missed a session
And the result?
I went from around 165 to 240lbs in 8 months
No supplements
No drugs
Just consistent, hard, boring, daily work
That’s it
So when people (and stuff gets back to me, it’s all good – people are entitled to their opinions) throw the ‘overnight success’ at me?
Go back through my feed
Everything, EVERYTHING I have done since I went ‘online’ has been pushing me towards where I am now
When it comes to ‘success’, or achieving ANYTHING the simple fact of the matter is nothing, NOTHING beats consistent, forward momentum towards your goals
You are not going to get there in a few months!
Sure, you can make some quick cash (if we are talking business here), but I guarantee you will be spending your life between feasts and famine
Building something, a business, a movement, a legacy
Takes a combination of time, relentless action, thick skin, sacrifice and constant, constant forward motion
Was it fun essentially putting my life on hold for 8 months to gain the muscle and strength I craved since I first saw ‘Arnie’ in Running Man?
No
Am I glad I did it?
Totally
And the same goes for your business, career, physique, health – whatever it is
If you want ‘it’, and I mean TRULY want it, you are going to have to put in the hard yards
But I’ll tell you this
You will look back on the journey FONDLY when you get there
That, and I don’t want to be on my death bed thinking ‘what if’
Would you?