The take-out principal

Couch to ironman in how much time?  Are you nuts?  People usually take a year to train for an IronMan dude, and those people usually already have an athletic foundation.  What are you thinking?  You must be crazy, but good crazy?  Your going to get hurt.  Prepare to be injured.  You'll never do it without getting hurt man, do you want to get hurt?  Just finishing the Ironman, that's lame you should try to get a good time too!  Why are you just going for completion?  It doesn't really count unless you can do an Ironman every year.  Your wife is going to leave you, think of all the time you're spending away from her.  What about your family man, don't you miss your kids, don't you think they miss you? You should quit.  Stop trying so hard.  Go home and read your kids a story.  Go home and make your wife dinner.  Writing about this is a waste of time, you should do something more important.  Focus on your business.  Focus on your job.  Stop being so abnormal!  Why can't you just be like everybody else.  This is the way we do things here, you better learn how to fit in with the rest of us.  Nobody likes you, you're not like other people.  Why don't you listen.  Your feet hurt today, just skip the workout.  Your roof is leaking, stop the training and take care of what's important.  Your legs hurt, quit.  You've got a headache, stop.  Your knee is acting up, you should quit.  Make more money, your not doing enough.  Your going to fail!  If you leave it all out on the field, and then lose, that makes you a loser, you're a loser.  Loser.  Nobody is going to listen to you.  You can't even write dude, why are you making a fool of yourself.  People are going to laugh at you.  People think your weird.  Stop smiling so much, it bothers everybody around you.  Driver slower.  Take fewer chances, you've got kids to take care of at home.  Just fit in.  Stop.  Quit.  Loser.  Faker.  Poser.  Wimp.  Failure.  Loser.

Sooner or later, probably both, you're going to have to overcome something greater than all the other obstacles you've had to face so far.  You're going to have to fight someone who knows you very well, someone who knows exactly where your soft spots are, and knows how to poke them so it hurts the most.  This enemy is fierce and relentless, just waiting for you to make the smallest slipup and then remembers it forever and throws it in your face over and over.  You'll never be able to totally silence this condemning voice completely, it'll be a struggle your whole life.  So you better get ready.  This fight is going to take everything you've got.  The battle is silent in many of our lives.  We just do our thing, never really going for it, never pushing past the limits.  We define our lives by the barriers, we allow ourselves to be fenced in, bridled, broken.  At least for a while.  But there comes a time for each of us when we have the choice, to step up.  To push back.  To do something amazing, and that's when we become aware of the struggle.  The truth is, as long as you're letting your fear determine your fate, you'll never even see this battle.  But eventually, you'll get a little spark, you'll decide to do it differently, you'll go out on a limb and POW, all this fire and fury erupts in your face!  Be ready for it!!


The truth is, this voice only ever tells lies.  You've got to be ready for it because it feels so true at the time, but it's always a lie.  Everything.  Be ready, the moment you decide and act.  Right when you step out and go for your first run.  Right after you step out of your comfort zone, that's when you'll be challenged the first time.  But when you pass that test, there are others to come.  Bigger, meaner, tougher chalenges.  And they never stop.  This is a good thing, a GREAT thing.  You've just got to remember, they are all lies.  Remember, it's YOUR LIFE, nothing else's!  YOU are the one to determine what reality is!

I know you have what it takes inside you to overcome whatever is challenging you today and everyday, whatever mental daggers have been thrown at you.  Whatever circumstances are trying to convince you to quit on your dreams.  You have what it takes to overcome all of them.  You were born with what it takes.  Believe it, and unleash it into your life.  Never let your fears decide your fate.