Time, Consistency, and Comparison.
-by Clark Hibbs
-by Clark Hibbs
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The other day I found myself disgruntled and frustrated with coach Dan.
Not because of anything he did coaching wise or anything he said… but because he is so. freaking. fit. and I am insanely jealous.
Annoyingly fit, really.
I mean, seriously! Last Monday I struggled doing those 4 rounds in 13 minutes, and he got done with his 4 in 7:27 then calmly says, “Yeah, it was alright.” (Meanwhile, the soreness in my biceps didn’t go away for 6 whole days!).
Anytime I’m watching Dan lift way more than I do, run way faster, finish workouts faster… just do everything fitness wise better than I do… I do get legitimately jealous and a bit angry.
I start thinking…
“ugh wow must be nice.”
“Geeze what a lucky guy.”
“He’s got great genetics… he’s meant to be fit.”
And all of that other nonsense we tell ourselves to feel better about our own insecurities. In all reality, I’m actually just angry at myself for having more rest days than workout days in recent history…
…and what I haven’t seen are the thousands upon thousands of training session’s Dan has been through. He started CrossFit in 2008 or 2009, and has been training 5-6 days a week ever since. You can do the math. That’s a LOT of workouts.
So yeah, he should be annoyingly fit. He’s put in the work, and he’s put in the work consistently over the past 10 years.
10 years. TEN. YEARS.
If I had been training sustainably and consistently for the past 10 years, I might not be annoyingly fit like Dan, but I’d certainly be a lot fitter now.
Long story short: the next time you find yourself comparing yourself to someone else, STOP.
- You don’t know their journey
- You don’t know the whole story
- It’s not helping you
Use that brain-space instead to figure out when you can train this week, and what path is going to yield sustainable consistency over the next 10 years.
For the record, it does not take 10 years to get much fitter. You can start feeling better, stronger, and healthier in as little as 90 days! But to get to the status that you really want to be? Well, strap in, because you’ve got a long journey to take!
-Coach Clark
