False Motivation

“You are not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis.” (Tyler Durden in "Fight Club").

There is no correlation between success and product ownership. Not a bit. How many times, however, did you try to compensate your lack of motivation with consumerism? How many times did you buy state-of-the-art equipment before you even got started with whatever you wanted to do? Products provide us with the illusion of accomplishment, the illusion of belonging. They send the message that we are part of something bigger, that we live a certain lifestyle; they offer us a pillar to hide behind. They are the easiest way to show the world what we want to represent without actually doing something or being good at it.  

That of course is what advertisement tries to make us believe. You want to be a photographer? You simply need to have a state-of-the-art camera. You want to be a hip bohemian artist? Rent a trendy loft-studio in a chic neighborhood. You want to be a martial artist? Buy a fancy hoody made by a MMA apparel company. You want to gain some muscles? Just get the most expensive protein powder from your local supplement dealer. No work required.

Enjoy the Ride

“Smile, breathe and go slowly.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

In a key scene of the 1982 science fiction movie “Blade Runner”, Roy Batty, a genetically engineered robot with super-human power but a fixed lifespan, faces his creator and demands more life. His maker tells him that it is impossible to enhance his operating-time and thus rejects Roy’s request with the words: “The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long and you have burned so very, very brightly.” Subsequently, Roy kills him ...but that’s not the point.

Be  a light that burns for twice as long.

The point is: don’t be the light that burns twice as bright. Don’t be Roy Batty in your training approach. If you are not making a living from your sport then your first aim should always be to enjoy what you do. Joy in terms of sports and training comes from having fun, making progress, feeling better, improving your health and keeping an aesthetic body (whatever that means to you). How you prioritize these goals is up to you but you will enjoy neither of those for a long lapse of time if you always enter the gym with a “go hard or go home” attitude. The goal should be to enjoy your passion for a lifetime. I, for my part, want to be able to step on the mat in my seventies, I want to be able to hit the gym and do chin-ups, deadlifts and squats while my contemporaries attend information events for the retirement home, and I want to be able to kick some youngster’s ass and leave them staggered with a smile on my wrinkled face. Steady, healthy and sane progress is key. I don’t want to burn twice as bright. I don’t want to be Roy Batty.