Discipline and Determination

Working out for me is more than just staying fit or being generally healthy. For me it’s an escape from stressors, issues, and anything weighing me down. This is helpful for your physical health, mental health, and social health. This is because creating healthy life choices and habits boost dopamine. Getting up early, eating healthy, and making drastic life changes might sound like a hassle but the feeling of satisfaction overpowers and it is all worth it in the long run. I can prove this by sharing my personal experiences and how it has changed my life.

Ninth grade, I’m a freshman, 14 years old without a care in the world for responsibility or good habits. Here I am thinking I’m unstoppable, the world revolves around me, and an ego the size of the sun. I have friends, I’m a great athlete, I’m getting by in school, and I’m comfortable.

My friends always made me think I was important and that they actually cared for me, but they showed their true colors later on. People I was surrounded by every day created a false reality for me, they made me feel like I was a great person but all they did was boost my ego even higher. It took me a while in high school to realize that real friends will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. I live by a famous quote by Micheal Hyatt. ¨Never take advice from people who aren’t getting the results you want to experience.¨  Unfortunately, I was comfortable, so I surrounded myself with ¨friends¨ that told me what I wanted to hear. 

Lacrosse season rolls around, I’m a freshman, 5´11, 150 pounds. You don’t have to be a genius to know that a person this size will get bodied in high school lacrosse. First week of practice and I still have a humongous ego, but that changed real quick. That week was hell for me, and I thought it would be a walk in the park because I thought I was unstoppable. Luckily, I had a teammate who was older, wiser, and a lot better at lacrosse than me. He was our captain, and one of the only all-Americans from our school and even with all these accomplishments he was humble. Here I was with zero accomplishments and I had the audacity to think I was the best. Luckily, he saw through my ego and helped me reach my actual potential.

As I grew older, around 10th and 11th grade I changed completely. I surrounded myself around successful people and started to push myself harder. I started working out every day consistently, eating healthy, and would work on being a leader.

This drastic change didn’t just happen overnight. I had multiple setbacks, constant failures, and even times when I would tell myself I should just give up.

Our high school has a weight room and I would wake up every morning at 5 Oćlock and grind. The school gym teachers would workout in the weight room as well, and they gave me great advice and workouts to do. Although the weight room was convenient and I was working out there all the time I had to really push myself. Waking up at 5am, pushing my body to my limits, and staying consistent wasn’t easy but I persevered.

Through my hard work and tenacity, I increased my GPA in school, I gained over 30 pounds of muscle, and I grew from a naive kid with an ego to a man with a plan. My lacrosse performance increased dramatically, I was scoring every game, getting assists, and became a captain and helped lead our team. 

This process for me has been well worth it,  although there are times that went badly for me and I felt like I was plateauing, that was just part of my journey. I had moments when I was mentally and physically drained, moments when I worked hard with no reward, and moments I tried with everything I have without any recognition. If I had to leave people with a final message I would say setbacks will occur, never give up, never be satisfied, and reach your full potential.

Featured Image: “Nazareth College vs Stevenson U Lacrosse – 001” by go mustangs is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.