The Clock Looks Faster than it really is

This story starts off in the middle of the night. As I scrolled through Facebook I noticed my memory had tagged me in a Facebook post which contained pictures from the previous day. I scrolled through each photo of my friend and me shirtless at the beach, I didn’t like what I saw. My dad bod was on point that day but it made me realize that it was time for a change. So I got up from my bed in the middle of the night to go over to my bathroom and take a hard look at myself and reflect on what I want my future to look like and do I want to keep going down this path. That weekend came and I had talked to my friend, Ausborn, we had agreed to get up and get to the gym by 5:30 A.M every morning exception of weekends. As I got up for the first time that following up Monday I had realized that staying up until 11 was not the brightest thing to do, so I swore that throughout this journey of a lifestyle change I will have to go to bed around 8ish-9ish.

As the first month went by Ausborn had made much more progress than what I made: he had the bicep vain, he had a nice six-pack, he definitely looked slimmer. Then we would look at me and it looked like I barely made any progress compared to him. That had me in a giving up mentality. “Maybe this isn’t for me” I would think to myself but I kept going down at 5:30 despite that mentality of not wanting to go down because I wasn’t making the gains I had thought I would make. As another month passed I started to notice that my core was shaping up, my strength was getting much better, I had a slightly noticeable bicep vain which sparked hope in my eyes that I can actually get in a good shape. After noticing my bicep vain and my core I decided to have a much more positive mentality and decide to stay positive and push through the soreness, pain, injuries, nothing will stop me from shaping myself into a better person mentally and physically. As months flew by, Ausborn and I was making amazing progress but basketball season had hit so Ausborn decided to not lift so he can keep his energy for his practices and his games. Which had me on my toes because I never once lifted without a lifting partner so it was a brand new experience to me.

A handful of months passed and lifting by myself was definitely something different but I slowly started to like it a lot because I did not have to wait for him to get done his set for me to do mine. Once summer hit I told myself not to stop lifting even if I can get up at 10 AM now, but keep pushing for that perfect mindset and that is exactly what I spent my whole summer mornings doing: wake up at 5AM, lift, protein shake and breakfast, hang out with the boys then back to an early rest. The progress I have made takes time I hardly realized. Having your ideal body takes time and dedication, most importantly you have to have discipline. Discipline is the key factor to reaching any goals in life, I had to discipline myself to get up at 5AM, go to bed at 8-9PM, train hard and push my limits, I had to learn that if you discipline yourself you can really achieve just about anything you want to chose to desire. Another thing I had taken from my journey is that patience is also key to have because if you rush something it will be sloppy, it won’t be perfected and you’ll give up. If you have patience you’ll be able to think longer, make fewer mistakes, learn and become someone better. A perfection relation to my emotions through this path is this documentary which goes by “Rock and a Hard Place”. This documentary is about the Rock obviously but it has the main focus which is to give these inmates another chance at living a normal life but they have to overcome their past mistakes and earn back their right to allowed back into today’s society. The inmates have to go through a 6-month program which they’ll have to prove that their mistakes can be forgiven and gain their freedom back.

This hit home to me because during my sophomore year I was not in the greatest mindset, I smoked weed, drank every so often and I gained a lot of weight. I had to motivate myself to not do such things and become a better being for myself. I had to discipline myself for my mistakes and learn from them, so I had stopped smoking and drinking and put my focus on this healthier lifestyle and focus on these 5 AM lifts and it has drastically changed how I see things and has set me on a good path for life. We all make mistakes and we all deserve a chance to prove that we can make up for them. 

Photo on Foter.com