You Don't Need Energy

Whatever you make your body do, it will do. It prefers to be lazy. If you let it be lazy, it will absolutely take advantage of that. And it will thank you! Feed it ice cream and your body will f^&king love you.

However, the more you do, the more you will find yourself capable of doing. You do not need energy. You only need will.

You only need will.

Your body is amazing. It is powerful. It is designed so that in a pinch, you can outrun a dinosaur. You can lift up a boulder. You can punch a sabertooth tiger in the face. But why wait for a life-threatening emergency to test your limits? You can punch through those limits every single day.

You have to convince your body every day that it needs to go to its max and beyond. You have to trick it. Because there's no way it's going to say, "oh hey, by the way, I can totally run marathons and bench press small cars." No. Your body is going to say, "oh, couch? Yes. I love the couch. Couch is the best."

"Couch is the best."

You can't wait for your body to tell you that it's OK to run. Or that it's OK to lift. Or that it's OK to destroy it with brutally hard work. It will never tell you that's OK. You have to tell your body what you want it to do. You have to decide. And then your body will say, "well, I don't see a sabertooth tiger anywhere, but I trust you."

I discover this every day when I run. I discover this every day when I do my deadlift challenge. I'm exhausted. I haven't gotten enough sleep. My body is complaining - loudly - that it just wants to chill out. But I refuse to give in. And when I start exercising, my body gives me the strength. That strength is there, it's always there. But if you never use it, you won't ever know that it's there.

All that it takes is a decision. Decide what you want to do. Don't worry about whether your body can or can't handle it. It can. It so can. But if you honestly don't believe that your body is capable of much more than you assume, you will never know. It will never feel that you can step out the door and run for hours. It will never feel that you can step up to the weights and make them airborne. It will never feel like you can conquer any and all of life's challenges.

You have to force your body to do what it's forced to do. It sucks but that's the truth. Whatever you want to accomplish, you have to dive into the deepest end and go for it. You can't dip your toe in. You can't wade into the shallow end and see how it feels. You just have to dive in head first. It's only at that point your body says, "holy shit! We're going to die if I don't do this! OK here we go!"

You're dying a little bit every day. But it takes a LOT to actually kill you. And the weird thing is, by pushing yourself where your body thinks you might die, it makes you more alive. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. It's the only way you get to experience life to the maximum. It's the only way to make yourself strong. Otherwise you will slowly and quietly die. That's a waste.

Because on that last day your body will say, "hey, why didn't you do all that stuff you wanted to do?"

"I didn't think I could," you'll reply.

"Oh, well, you totally could have. I would've been fine."

"Why didn't you tell me that?"

"Because I'm an asshole."

"Ignore this blog. Your body isn't capable of shit."