| Managing to Your Weaknesses By Kevin Parker |
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Back to The Edge |
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The vast majority of people in today’s world would rather show you what they’re good at rather than admit their weaknesses. In the gym I see so many who love to work arms & chest but so few who will train legs. Inevitably, their legs fall behind & become their weakness. They’re often identified as the ones who wear sweat pants to hide their neglected legs year round. It’s not limited to just the gym. How many people do you know who live & work within their comfort zone? Never venturing out or trying anything new, never working to improve or learn anything new? “That’s not my job”; “Oh, I don’t like to do that, I’m not very good at it”. It’s hard for us to admit when we’re in a comfort zone with our workouts (or our life). Here are some ideas to help you find out if you are & break out of those comfort zones! 1). What do you avoid doing? Do it first! Some of the best advice I ever received was instead of putting things off that I didn’t enjoy doing, do them first so that the perceived obstacle didn’t get larger mentally. Then, I could move on to the things I’d rather be doing knowing that the worst was behind me. An example of this would be leg training. Legs are by far the most painful of all bodyparts to train when trained intensely. So I make it my first workout when I keep my workouts to a 4 or 5-day schedule. Once they’re done, I’m ready to move on to workouts I enjoy more knowing the worst is behind me & I’ve bravely met it head on. If I procrastinate doing my legs, I might not ever get to them. Obstacles not met immediately grow a little bigger everyday! If not faced, they’ll get so large you’ll avoid them all together! 2). Take time to honestly evaluate yourself. We want to see ourselves positively & this often keeps us focused on only our strengths & not our weaknesses. What we need to do is take an inventory of our weaknesses. How are we going to get more well rounded unless we see the whole picture; not just our strengths? One of my favorite bodybuilding stories is about Arnold Schwarzenegger & how he brought up his calves when faced with stiffer competition in America. Instead of hiding them, Arnold cut his lower sweatpants leg off to expose his small calves to the ridicule and criticism of others in the gym. This motivated him to focus on his deficiency. We can do the equivalent by not only evaluating our own weaknesses but enlisting others’ opinions and not just choosing those who will say what we want to hear. Ask someone who will be honest with you, I dare you! 3). Face your weaknesses with faith & humility. Once your weaknesses have been identified, it’ll take the faith to move on your part to overcome them. You’ll need to humble yourself regarding your weaknesses so that you can attack them. No matter how good you think you are, generally there’s always someone better. There’s always something to improve on to reach that next level in your physique or life. There’s a bible story that illustrates this, in Matthew 19:16-22, Jesus was asked how to inherit eternal life in heaven. The man asked how he could move on to the next level in his development in life. Jesus gave him a gameplan, identifying his weakness (his attachment to material goods/wealth) that when addressed would allow him to progress. However, the man was unwilling to humble himself to take that step necessary to move on. At some point, you’ll face that choice too! You’ll have to decide whether you’re willing to overcome your comfort zone or whether you’ll settle comfortably where you’re at! You stand at the crossroads of challenging yourself to improve or settling comfortably into your workouts & life; what will you choose? What will you do to address your weaknesses or are you just going to try to keep everyone focused on your strengths? One of the things I like about bodybuilding is that there’s no ceiling, there’s always room for improvement! You know that sounds a lot like life & growing spiritually too! The choice is up to you! Your brother in Christ, Kevin Parker http://360.yahoo.com/dfbb_15909 http://home.hot.rr.com/kevinparkers http://groups.yahoo.com/group/drugfreebodybuilding These newsletters are not a substitute for a doctor’s advice, prescription or care. Please have a physical by a qualified physician before embarking on a workout program. |
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