In the sport of bodybuilding the last few contractions of the muscle, on the very last repetition, is the most important. In a way, bodybuilding is a sport of failure. A quest for a complete breakdown. In order to grow muscle, the human body doesn’t repair itself, unless the many fibres are actually damaged.
It makes sense.
Why fix something that isn’t broken? Why make it stronger, when it can do all that is asked for it to do? If we don’t condition our minds, and push our bodies beyond comfort and pain, we will never allow the muscles to reach their full potential. Out of the many tasks our body needs to perform daily, unless something is actually broken, it won’t warrant attention.
The same principals apply to our life.
We all wish to be someone we are not. We dream of being someone greater than who we are today. Of doing things we have never done. Of going to new exotic places. Learning unbelievably new things. Of creating things that have never existed. Of haring ourselves with the whole world.
In order to become who we want to be, we cannot remain who we are.
We need to get broken.
We need to fail. Fail miserably even, because without it, without the last rep, we cannot transform and become who we are meant to be.
Sometimes failure is not enough.
I am not talking about tragic things happening to your life. I am speaking about the failure of losing weight, of quitting smoking, the desire to stop complaining, or our habit to pick our nose or to fart secretly in unventilated places.
Failure is not enough.
If we just fail, we continue being who we don’t want to be. We won’t change. We simply continue living our life as usual. Total failure, on the other hand, which we are all afraid of, the kind of fear that wets your bed and urges you to assume the fetal position, is exactly what brings us to a place we have never been. It leads us to a life we will love and be grateful for.
A lot of people are afraid of bears or lions. That is a good thing. If you see one in your neighbourhood and you decide that you want to dance with it, you’ll probably end up dead. It is a good fear to have.
The fear of public speaking, or of the many other things we get anxious over, serves absolutely no purpose in our life. It is precisely the reason we stop ourselves from performing our final rep. We always just stop a little short of a complete failure, and as a result never recover and squander any home of emerging as the person we so vividly dream of becoming.
We are not failures. We are spectacular people, but we must learn to fall.
Go out and fuck something up real good. Real good!
Tell them Greg made you do it, if it makes you feel better.
Don’t be afraid to fail. Fail big, and reap the benefits that await you on the other side.
