Some talk, some do the work…

I haven’t posted in a few days once again because, honestly, I’ve been too busy training to find the time to sit down and write.  At times I feel guilty for not taking the time to keep up with this blog the way I’d like to.  Then there are other times that I remember why I do all of this work.  As much as I love all of it, the truth is that it is work, hard, time consuming, brutal work that requires tons of sacrifice and dedication.  Not everyone’s cut out for it, and just a couple years ago I was one of those not cut out for it.  Today I’m a different person than I was then.  Today I was reminded why, it’s kind of dumb, but this has gotten me fired up a little and I had to take the time to share.

There was a post on the Facebook page of a local news station about the government releasing oil from the strategic reserves to reduce prices at the pump.  I’m not going to use this blog a forum for discussion of the politics of this, so that’s not really the point here.  I made a comment on the post that I think people should try to do what they can to reduce their dependence on oil.  I suggested things like riding your bike to work as I have started doing a few days a week.  Well, one guy in particular got very upset by this idea.  He came on and called me an idiot and said he lives too far from work to be able to do that, he’d have to bike over 25 miles a day to do that so clearly that would be stupid.  I said that I am biking approximately 27 miles per day to get to and from work and that is helping make me happier, healthier and saving some gas money.  This made him even angrier.  I won’t repeat what he had to say to me then, it is not something I’m willing to say, but safe to say he had some derogatory terms for me and said that I had too much time on my hands and riding like that is idiotic and then had some more derogatory terms to throw around.  At that point I just had to check out the guy’s profile.  His picture is him sitting wearing a Tap Out t-shirt.

Now, I was never as angry or combative about it as this guy, but I used to get upset with people that told me to bike to work or go run or whatever.  Seriously, who has time for that?  So this guys shirt reminded me of what has changed about me.  Some people, including me a couple years ago, sit around watching people do big things wishing they could do it too.  The problem is they don’t have the commitment to follow through, they continue to sit on the sidelines and watch.  Once I got off the sideline and realized that I could accomplish those big things if I tried I moved from a watcher to a doer.  Now I weight train, I run, I bike, I try to eat right, I have the commitment to get up early and ride 13.25 miles to work, then ride 13.25 miles back then get in some P90X or maybe even a run.  I don’t want to sit around watching people accomplish things and being bitter about it, I want to do it myself.

If you are someone that is sitting on the sidelines, I challenge you to get out and accomplish the things you wish you could.  You’ll probably have more success at it than you ever dreamed possible, I know that’s been my experience.

“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” -- John Wooden