CHAMPIONS FIND A WAY

This #StayAtHome order has complicated life in many ways, but one thing I have enjoyed the last few weeks is seeing the creative ways so many athletes have found for keeping themselves in shape. With the routine, pressure, and obligation that comes with traditional training schedules stripped away, what's left for most athletes is the individual commitment they've made to themselves, to their team, and to the process of becoming their best. I've seen athletes deadlifting boulders in their backyard. They’re out there curling bags of water softener salt. They’re using cinder blocks in ways cinder blocks have never been used before. It’s been awesome and inspiring to see how far some athletes are willing to go to do what they know needs done.

Of course, not every athlete is using their time so productively. In fact, those boulder-lifting, salt-curling warriors are in the minority. Most athletes are spending these days at home getting weaker and slower and softer. This quarantine has closed their gyms and training facilities, and in turn opened them up to a long list of excuses for why the work they could be doing isn't getting done. “I don’t own any workout equipment,” they say after liking their teammate’s backyard cinder block bench press video. “And even if I did,” they justify as they scroll past a clip of their rival crushing a killer ab workout in their kitchen, “where would I train? I’m not lucky enough to have a gym in my house like some people.” Those are of course flimsy, fragile arguments that won't stand up to the test that next season will inevitably administer.

Flimsy, fragile arguments come from people who've made flimsy, fragile commitments. There are always people - in sports or any other area, including what you do - who are better at finding the reasons the work can’t get done than they are finding ways to get it done. Especially when unexpected or unwanted circumstances complicate the task at hand, you start to see a clear separation between those at the top and everyone else. Usually it’s pretty simple. Champions find a way. Losers find an excuse.

Champions find a way. Losers find an excuse.

“Finding a way” starts with that strong commitment you've made to doing the work that being your best requires. When your commitment is weak, complications have a way of wrecking your plans and allowing you to justify what wasn’t meant to be. But when your commitment is strong, you’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done. That's because commitment breeds creativity. “If I can’t do what I had planned - like go to the gym and workout like usual,” you might say, “then I’ll just have to come up with an alternative.” You creatively find ways to use whatever resources you have at your disposal in a way that you might not have thought of before. You become an innovator. A problem solver. Suddenly boulders and salt bags and cinder blocks start looking more like barbells and kettlebells and bench presses. The more committed you are, the more creative you become.

I don’t know what exactly being your best requires of you today, but whatever it is, this #StayAtHome order has probably complicated it. The way you’ve always gone about your business has been disrupted, and the most ideal, most conventional, or most convenient method for doing what needs done probably isn’t an option. It's easier than ever for your plans to get wrecked and for you to justify that the work just wasn’t meant to be. You can make excuses and offer explanations for what you don't have or what you can't do. 

You can choose to do all that, or instead you can choose to do what champions do. You can bolster your commitment and use it to fuel your creativity. You can decide that what you can’t do isn’t gonna keep you from doing what you can do. You can innovate and problem solve. You can ditch the excuses, and - like a champion - you can find a way to get the job done.