I will not say happy new year, as it cannot explain my absence
for the last few months nor will I say compliments of the season as I don’t
know how you are feeling right now! I will however apologize for the title of
today’s post as the second part sounds like a Nike commercial!
RESOLUTION! I
have never liked the word, when I hear it what comes to mind is a radical change,
ill-conceived and ill executed and doomed to fail. Personally I prefer the word COMMITMENT which brings to mind actions
based on well thought out plans with perfection as the final destination. Now
perfection is almost impossible to achieve so with commitment you keep on
chasing it, with resolutions, especially the “new year” ones you are liable to
give up when adversity strikes.
There is a wonderful story I stumbled across recently that
illustrates what commitment can do for you.
In ancient Greece around 550 BC there lived a wrestler named
Milo of Croton who aspired to be the greatest wrestler ever as well as the
strongest man in the world, so what did Milo do? He bought a young calf and committed
himself to lifting this calf on his shoulders and walking with it every day for
the next four years( till the next Olympic games). Milo did this day in and day
out for four years, come rain or snow.
As you can guess
within four years Milo was lifting and carrying a massive Bull on his
shoulders! The result? Milo won 5 Olympic
titles in wrestling as well as countless other titles. He was arguably the
strongest man in the world of his era, now that’s commitment!
Though he didn't know it at the time, Milo was using a
training principle called “progressive overload” the calf he was lifting grew heavier
by the day and his efforts made him stronger as long as he stayed committed to
lifting it every day. Now don’t go looking for a cow to lift (aboki go fight
you oh!) but you can apply the same principle to whatever you want to achieve.
Instead of saying I want to lose 10 kg by March 31st, say I want to
be able to run 8 km in 50 minutes by March 31st I assure you that in
the process of training hard to run that distance you will end up dropping even
more weight than you planned. I know this because I have done this before!
Whatever your goal this year; weight loss, muscle gain or
just to kick you bad eating or drinking habits just remember that you will only
win this battle one day at a time. You will have setbacks but don’t let them deter you. The keywords are patience
and persistence, just like Milo of Croton and that’s no Bull!
P.S : Below are
pictures of some guys who have lifted a lot of bulls to get to where they want
to be, hope you find them inspiring! Thanks and have a lovely weekend!
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