I’m going to show you something embarrassing and beautiful.
Hardly anyone has seen it, but you can.
In 2011 I wrote this blog post.
I had just turned 22.
I was terrible at writing.
You could argue that this point is still true.
But I wrote something I never forgot.
So go read that post (and be in awe of ignorant, mouthy Jeff) then come back to finish this. Pay special mind to the part about the search party getting called off.
Don’t worry; I’ll wait here on your iPhone. If you’re on a droid, I’ll wait while you go get an iPhone and join the rest of the modern world, you neanderthal.
-go read now-
-Hey! Welcome back!-
‘They’ve called off the search party!” Nicolich said, ” we’re going to
get out of here on our own.”
I may have been projecting my frustration about my lack of role models. Back then, if you wanted to learn how to be successful in fitness, you had to do one of two things.
- Pay a lot of money to a franchise to own a bodybuilding gym.
- OR –
- Pay a lot of money to some guys in California to make you look like a high-level franchise owner who didn’t just pay a lot of money to a stranger in California.
I couldn’t afford either. So I started writing.
A lot of it was bad, but it didn’t matter. The fact that I wrote showed my clients and friends that I was serious. I cared enough to do a bad job until I learned what it looked like to do a good job.
I listened to what my people told me. What they liked, the pieces that resonated with them, the posts that helped them, and the ones that didn’t.
I grew as my writing and my following grew. Eventually, I had enough to start the business I had been dreaming about, where I’d be doing the things I was writing about.
And It became real.
I kept writing, listening closely to the ones who took the time to read. I was printing and hanging up emails from people who would respond. We became bigger and stronger and looked more like a movement than a gym. Eventually, I had enough to hire those guys from California. “But I didn’t need them back then;” did I need them now?
Instead, I spent what I’d saved on a course from one of my favorite authors I had started following back in 2013. This guy cared. He was willing to be bad until he became good… and wrote the best-selling fitness-biz book of all time.
We grew, bigger and better than I had ever expected. It had been hard. Really hard, there were days I thought I was stupid for doing this “try your best and write until you figure it out” dream. I had lost sleep, hair, and important days where I could have been doing anything else. People came and went. But I was hanging on.
Then one day, I received a comment on one of my posts.
“Wow, these are getting really good.”
It was from Chris, the author I followed throughout my journey as an entrepreneur.
I don’t how many of us get to see our role models find us and say, “hey, good job.” But I know how important it made me feel for spending those nights writing on my laptop instead of sleeping.
What if this was right? What if “living the dream” was actually this? Is this what it looked like to do a good job?
Today, I had a meeting with Chris and the rest of the team I mentor with.
I have that business I dreamed about, where I help people do the things I still write about. On top of that, I get to help entrepreneurs navigate the journey I’ve been lucky, blessed, and grateful to have been on for nine years. I write, mentor, and work every day with the people at the tip of this movement that started writing about years ago.
I couln’t afford to pay or wait for those guys in California to lower their rates, and I’m glad I couldn’t.
Instead, I wrote.
‘They’ve called off the search party! We’re going to
get out of here on our own.”
The good news is that no one is coming to save us. It’s good new because it means we’re going to save ourselves.
No one is coming to save you…
So, I am leaving you number 12.
The twelfth reason you can’t stay in shape is your reason. It’s why you’ve made it through all of these posts but haven’t yet done what you have to do, which is to make it real. To not wait for the guys in California and just start writing.
I’ve given you more than the ammo you need over these last 11 “reasons” to see you, though. They were lessons I learned by taking far-from-perfect action and writing the whole way through.
The last of the 12 reasons from my journey is the beginning of yours.
Is #12 the reason you can’t stay in shape? or is it the reason you did?
Since no one is coming to save you, I suppose now would be the time to find out.
