Work on your weakness

Welcome back.

I know I mentioned this last time, but today I want to spend some time talking about one of the key ways to get better: working on your weaknesses.

We all have strengths and weaknesses. For a long time, I lacked coordination and upper body strength. The tendency for most of us is to avoid doing things that we don't do well. If I am a bad swimmer than I choose not to go swimming. If doubt my coordination then I avoid doing things that require coordination. You get the idea. You would be amazed how many times I've heard someone say "I'm not in good enough shape to work out." Does anyone else think that logic is a little fuzzy?

The truth is that nobody is born with skill. Sure, some things might come easier to a few people, but one thing that holds true for anyone who ever got better is that they worked hard at something. Jordan went home after missing the cut for his high school basketball team and said "I guess I'm not good enough to play basketball." Not true. He worked his tail off making his weaknesses into strengths. My point is, don't give up just because something doesn't come naturally. If you are overweight, do something about it. If you don't know how to swim, take lessons. If you can't do one pull up, buy a $20 pull up bar and put it in a door frame in your house that sees a lot of traffic. Make a pledge to yourself that every time you pass the bar you will do x number of pull ups (or jumping pull ups, or negatives, or just hang from the bar for 5 seconds.) Whatever your level is, challenge yourself.

I want you to try a little activity. Write down three things that you would consider weaknesses. (push ups, pull ups, running, jumping, juggling, whatever) Once a day for the next week, perform one of those activities at a level that you find challenging. Don't let failure get you down. My high school basketball coach had us do a drill one time where we were told to dribble two basketballs with both hands as fast and as low as we could for one minute. Some guys maintained control for the whole minute, others did not. After the minute, he asked us to raise our hand if we kept control the whole time. I raised my hand. He then explained that if we didn't lose control, or fail, than we were not pushing ourselves hard enough. In other words, failure is just a symptom of trying hard. If we fear failure than we are crippled and will ultimately never get better at anything. You'd be amazed how gratifying it is to overcome something that you previously though you could not do.

I'm working on doing a free standing hand stand. So far I've managed a 5 second hold before I come toppling down. But I am getting better. So, what are you working on? Please post your efforts.

Get some,

Jack

PS - Safety note: make sure that when you fail, you don't do so in a particularly spectacular fashion. For example, if you are bad at cliff diving, I would not recommend jumping off a cliff once a day for the next week. Maybe find a pool somewhere and utilize their diving board, you crazy mofo.

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