I have a terrible habit and I’m not proud of it.
As any meathead can understand, there’s two things we love, a nice smedium t-shirt, and protein shakes.
As a drinker of shakes I have a tendency to drink them and forget about them.
In my car.
In my bedroom.
They accumulate and after a couple days they begin to smell — Really, really bad.
Before long, I become terrified to open shaker cup and become consumed with the rancid stench that punches my gag reflex in the face.
Now, if you’ve been there –and I’m pretty sure you have– you know that there’s two ways to go about getting rid of the smell.
1) You Scrub.
Grab a sponge and with furious vigor, hold your breath and throw as much hot water, soap, and muscle into the problem and do it over and over again until you can somehow banish the odor.
That NEVER works.
The other way is..
2) You fill the cup with warm water and soap, close the lid and Let it Soak.
Walk away for a few hours. Without any effort on your part you let the soap do its thing.
When you return, the foul odor is gone. Without “Trying” to force it, the cleaning happens.
As you might have guessed, there’s a lesson in that…
When you want to Change, you have two options; you can Scrub, or you can Soak.
Some problems need to be attacked. They need immediate action. They require you to DO something.
But others, are trickier. You can just WORK your way out of it.
The problem, sometimes, runs so deep that sheer will alone won’t get you out of it. You have to let it Soak.
As a person who takes their training seriously, who really wants to improve, who wants to conquer self-sabotage, and bust out of the deep dark ruts that we can all find ourselves in, ask yourself what are you soaking in now?
Have you ever been around someone that never had to force anything on you but somehow, just being around them, made you a better person?
I do it everyday at the gym. My constant exposure to people who are positive, encouraging and determined…. who push you *just* by their commitment to push themselves….makes me better just by soaking it all in.
Soon it begins to affect everything. You improve because their influence has helped you rise to a whole other level when alone, you’d have just given up by now.
And obviously, the opposite has the same effect. There are people that drain you and bring you down and if you let ’em, sabotage every effort you make to be better. They keep you small so you never challenge their comfort zone.
So, think about it.
Whatever you struggle with, ask yourself if all the scrubbing is working and if what you’re surrounded with is moving your forward…or not.
And decide… what are you going to do the rest of the year?
Take it a week, month, and quarter at a time.
Let that soak.
~Ricky
P.S. If you’re reading this and feel like you need coaching and a community that’s going to hold YOU accountable to whip your butt in to shape, ring me up (310 692 4439) and I’ll tell it to you how you can get started with our program.
Workout of the Day:
4 Rounds for Time
40 min Cut Off
10 Alt Turkish Get-Ups (24/16)
20 KB Goblet Squats
30 Alt KB Cleans
40 Russian KBS
50 Sit Ups
500 Row
**If athlete sets KB down during goblet squats or RKBs a 10 burpee penalty is assessed at that time.