If you have been practicing any skill set, you get it when I tell you how there are peak performance days and just average days.
For instance if you are into body building, you know how some days you can beat the shit out of that iron, while there are days where you can’t move that iron.
I have been working out ever since I got back home from the unfinished India tour. I was barely 63kgs. I have never been that light. I was thin. Too thin to look good.
This was my first trip to the gym to gain mass as opposed to losing it, so the rules were different. I was told to eat 6 full meals a day and workouts were short and intense. When I got interested in fitness back in 2012, all my focus was in understanding how to lose weight. As it turns out, bulking up is just as hard, if not harder than losing it.
In the months that followed I ate eggs and chicken and 6 full means and 2 mini meals everyday. My body started growing, so did my overall strength.
I kept track of my peak weights. Week after week I tried to beat them and I kept beating them easily at first, then it got a bit slower. Right now it seems that I have hit a plateau, both in terms of my peak performance and body weight. Since work is my top priority right now and my body is at its best physique ever, I am not complaining.
I am no where near my goal weight or physique, so I know I have a long way to go.
Now that you are wondering whats the point of this brag post, let me get to it.
What Body Building Taught Me..
is that you work on your averages and not on your peaks.
When I started out, I struggled with 50kg on the squat bar. These days I can go up to 110kg.
Can I do 110kg any day? Probably not. Can I do 50kg any day? Heck yes! My averages have improved.
That’s my point. My peak performance for any given day varies depending on my nutrition, my mood and the amount of rest I had since the previous workout. But my average performance today is WAY better than my average performance 2 months back.
And this is true for every skill that needs practice. There are good days and bad days and that’s okay. But if you keep your course, you will eventually be better than how you were 6 months back.
Peak performance isn’t guaranteed. Your average is.
And over time your average performance will be so much better than the peak performance of your competition. That is when you know you can beat him any day of the week.
Related Read: My Trained Ass Can Kick Your Natural Ass Any Day Of the Week.
Almost exactly an year ago, I watched the movie, The Wolf Of Wall Street. I was amazed by his kind of success and I was talking to my good friend Sumit about it. He said, ‘It Takes Time To Build An Empire. If It Is Built In A Day, It Crumbles In Another’.
That stuck with me. Over the following months I found something where I fit in and something that suits my ambitions. I have been working at it day and night and it is treating me well so far. More on that later.
- If you want to be good at something, do it day after day.
- Compete with yourselves and most importantly, track your progress.
- Focus on the process and not the goal. If you want to be good at playing piano, focus on practicing 30 minutes every day. If you want to lose weight, focus on doing cardio for 45 minutes every day. Results will come.
- Analyze your progress weekly / monthly and adapt.
Remember that if it was easy, everyone would do it. Remember that all adventures are exhausting and that’s what makes it an adventure in the first place.
Grind on.
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