Dig Deeper!! & BRING IT!!
While I thought I had a good understanding of these, after reading an article from friend and mentor in my life of health and fitness Jimmy Nelson, I realized my understanding was more superficial than I’d like it to be. I was thinking along the right direction, but, not DEEP enough… not to the core of what those words mean. You may or may not be a fan of Insanity creator Shaun T, but, his hugely popular phrase, “DIG DEEPER,” has made a big difference in quite a few lives. Read more…
I once read somewhere that you should make every workout the hardest one of your life. The concept, if you’re not pushing yourself, you’re NOT going to improve. In the martial arts, I got better the more I trained with and sparred against people at a much higher skill level than my own. Why? Because they challenged me more and made me work harder to not get beat down.
In my early days in my old martial arts school, it was a requirement to spar so many minutes as part of your test for your Sho-Dan (first black belt). I looked at that as a 16 year old kid, heard the stories, and it became something that I looked forward to. Yes, I’d likely get beat down sparring those much more highly skilled. Yes it would be very difficult. Yes, it would be one of the most physically and mentally challenging events of my life. But, I looked at it as a “right of passage” and felt I MUST do this.
Unfortunately, the requirement was taken off the books a year or so prior to my test. However, my instructor and I had the relationship that I could go and request this and knew he understood why I felt the need to do this. He said it would take a couple weeks or so to get the “right” people together to make this happen. Well, what I thought would be a couple weeks turned out to be several days as I walked out on the floor one night to see my family watching on. It then hit me, “oh boy, this is it,” with mixed feelings of excitement and the desire to bring it all down to focus on the task at hand. Long story short, what was supposed to be 10 – 15 minutes ended up being 45 minutes worth of both pounding and getting pounded. By the end, I could hardly lift my arms to block, much less punch. However, I survived and fulfilled my dream of earning my first black belt. Through that, I developed a mental toughness through reaching down deep inside and standing with my hands up when I wanted to collapse. I became stronger.
There were two other times in my life that challenged me to what I believed was near the brink of what I could take. One time of severe and low depression that at one point had my hand on the gun to end my own life. It took only that brief physical touch to that weapon to make me realize I needed help. Over the course of many months I fought many life-altering days of what felt like utter hopelessness. I did NOT want to do it anymore. I could not see the end. Finally, I was introduced to a man God used to point me back to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I was so far down that I had to reach UP to get out…and I made it out. He pulled me out and I survived. I now have the tools to help me the next possible time, as well as help others. I’m stronger.
When I had only been married 7 months, I was deployed to Afghanistan for a nearly 9 month stretch. Grant it, that was not long. But, it felt like forever being away from my new bride. I was constantly thinking about her and how she was sad at me being away and how I wanted to be there and comfort her… but couldn’t. I continued to tell her, “before you know it, this will be years past and gone.” I told myself that over and over. I had to dig down to a place inside me that was strong enough for both of us even when there were people out there that wanted us dead, and yes, they tried. However, I survived… and made it home to her, to have our marriage stronger than it would have been otherwise. We are stronger!
Find that thing inside yourself that would tear down a brick wall bare-handed in order to reach your goals and you will not only reach them, but, SURPASS THEM!! That thing that says, “I WILL make it through this no matter what may come!” Everyone has that inside of themselves. You just have to know how to find it. It is not found when you give 100%, it is found when that 100% is spent and gone, and you somehow find more. That is when you have looked down deep and found something no one else can find for you. DIG DEEPER and find that inside. It IS in there. When you find it, as Tony Horton says, “BRING IT” in everything you do!
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