As I sit here and ponder daily the many issues that have crossed my plate over the past few months, the past year, and decades that I have spent in the gym as a coach, athlete, mentor and student, I thought it might be fun to write down just a few of the lessons learned. Lessons many coaches, athletes, training partners and facility owners miss the boat on. This is by no means a list that’s has any rhyme or reason to it. It has no order of importance or chronology. It is not all inclusive, and certainly just because I write more on one part doesn’t mean it’s more important of a point, some things are better left unsaid or in minimal. These are just a few things I have seen, and dealt with close enough in the past year that they stick in my head now at this moment as I go to peck this out.
Live life to the beat of your own drum.
Yes we should all use and borrow the footsteps of others to guide us. There is not much that hasn’t been done, but only the path of those who trekked the journey you are meant to before you. Dont get side tracked down trials meant for others. Walk in the footsteps of those that have been there done that, but don’t fear or delay when it’s time for you to go on that part of the path that is all you, and you alone.
Separate is not equal Easy enough I don’t need to explain this just
read here, Don’t judge a book by its cover. 
This one is deeper than any of you might think, but oh so true on so many levels. I am not talking only about a subject I have written extensively on, that of not judging a person’s worth not by what they look like, but what they can do or have done. Though sadly like no other time in the past that’s what our sick shallow world has come to. I am talking about not judging anyone by how they look on the outside. The way they appear, or the persona they portray to the world. Sadly many times that is a false façade. This has come back to bite me more than once. A person puts out this projection to the world of being this upstanding respected person, only to find out when you dig deeper and get closer they are nothing they appear or project. Keep your doors open to new friends, relations, and mentors, but don’t judge the worth of the house by its paint job, paint can hide a lot of flaws you don’t want a part of.
JoyPlain and simple it should be first and foremost in all you do. If you don’t enjoy what your doing stop and find something you enjoy. This means all things in life. Relationships, work, and yes training. This was a huge one for me this year on many fronts. I often do see this in training. People trudge away doing what they feel they should in fitness, usually endurance based activity, all the while hating every minute of it. It takes a level of maturity even in fitness to accept and pick what you enjoy. For me that was accepting and enjoying getting stupid strong even if that meant not being uber lean. What happened when I accepted this? I was sure not as lean as prior but for once I was happy, I was proud, I was self confident, and I find passion, progress and joy each and every time I walk in the gym to train. I am training for me, my passion, and my joy, not for what someone says I should do. Find your joy in training, find your one in life, find the things that make you tick and don’t worry so much about what others think. None of their thoughts really effect you and will all not matter one bit when you feel the joys of someone or something your truly passionate about. Start living your life by some I wants and I loves, not I should.
Perfection
Strive for perfection but also have the maturity and humility to realize and admit you are not perfect. I started to learn this and love this in art graduate school as I worked toward and attained my masters degree in oil painting and then found it as well in training. A love for striving for perfection and an equal joy in knowing I would never reach it. No matter what in art, in training and life there is always more we can do, it’s never perfect. If it were truly perfect we might as well stop as we would never do better. There is always a better painting we can do no matter how good our last was, and there is always one more pound to add to the bar that will trump that perfect lift.
I’ll stop there. I think even those few lessons if learned and lived by all can help to form a great 2011 and life to follow. Don’t continue to miss the boat on such lessons one can learn in the gym but relate so well to the rest of life
