One man’s meat is another man’s poison

One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor

One’s man’s pleasure is another’s pain

One man’s loss is another man’s profit

One man’s fault is another man’s lesson

What may be a sin to one is a blessing to another.

What is your normal?

What may be deemed as normal for some may often seem extreme to another.

Someone may warm-up with your max, take a main for a starter or habitually crack open a can on a Monday morning, but it’s still no more extreme than your extremest.

We tend to focus on the general progression of those around us for scale and perspective, weighing up the likelihood of emulating similar feats. While it is easy to get distracted by the fine details and raw ingredients that make for someone else’s success, it’s often a basis of personal traits that come to distinguish an ability to define the extreme from the necessary.

In that lies the contradiction, considering anything outside the capacity of our normal to be abnormal, whilst equally reluctant to replace our own habits with what may be required. It’s only when requirement becomes obligatory can we set old habits aside for new beginnings. Unless you live every day like its your last, are reluctant to step outside of the confines which contain your potential or simply fear disappointment, this is normal.

It is upon anticipation and the likelihood of failure that better defines possibility, enough to make what once seemed impossible less than such. Some people are just plain lazy, they wear their faults and restrictions to exercise like a badge of honour, welcoming those who refuse to follow suit with bitter applause, eager to criticise something they can’t or simply won’t do themselves.

This is THEIR normal.

Just because you can run doesn’t make you any better. It’s a redundant comparison which does nothing but put you closer into the category of quitting prematurely. Simply doing more than someone who does nothing isn’t a feat worthy of adulation, unless you couldn’t physically get on your feet before or have surpassed your own restrictions to get to this point. Don’t celebrate doing the BARE MINIMUM, EVEN IF it is more than most.

So how can we define OUR NORMAL from everyone else,

Do one thing you didn’t do yesterday. Always be thinking about the distance between yourself and your capacity over anyone else’s. Level up on the cardio, or ANYTHING that is difficult, go faster, do more calories, demand more from yourself rather than looking for ways out of it.

When you do, outwork any reward besides the reason for starting. If you do 500 calories on the stairs, and you have to think about chocolate all the way to get you through, you’re just making it harder for yourself. Later you get home and eat the equivalent amount, have you just done it all for nothing? Does the goal warrant the reward? If it does, make sure it is worth it. If it wasn’t we go back to where we started, justifying how you did so much more than you anticipated, certainly more than the BEST laziest comparison, but you’re now no much better than if you stayed home and did nothing. Rather than compare and rationalise how much LESS you COULD have done, think about how much more ground and momentum you COULD HAVE MADE for bigger goals beyond momentary pleasures.

There’ll ALWAYS be an opportunity to EAT, DRINK and INDULGE, what there won’t be is enough time or energy in-between to maintain something that demands a lot of both, aside everything else. If it’s normal for someone to eat whatever they want and seem to look the same, drink the night before and still seem to perform, let them make that their normal, whilst equally owning yours. If normal isn’t staying till the end, leave. If it means eating something you wouldn’t usually for the sake of being hungry, don’t. There’ll always be a way around everyone else’s normal.

Having goals and requirements doesn’t mean you have to suffer in silence. You can always factor in more flexibility around days which require you to be more flexible, just make sure it’s that day and not the full weekend. Have a look at what you plan to eat in a few days time, earn it in advance, do the work now rather than overcompensating.

Despite the title, there’s no one defining point of physical action required to separate the person you are, from the person you could have been or will become. You can either learn from your mistakes and failures or let them cast shadows of discontent over the work you have done thus far,

Everything in life is about timing, a large clash of smaller fragments and transient moments to make for grander opportunities. It’s these moments which can either define or make you crumble underneath the pressure. One capable of exploiting your incapabilities; a stumble, a slur, a misstep, a resolution down to 100th of a second.

All of these smaller points contribute to the larger duration of a lifetime; stressors, nervous processes, erraticism which we cannot control, but can come to understand. From my understanding this is a process which forces the instinctual means of  ‘get it right or don’t try at all’, the reason why most of us do exactly that. Stress can make the action of something usually second nature seem just as alien as learning it again from scratch. Although, without it are we denied any such urgency or impending consequence for not doing, trying, leaping.

It’s usually the timing of our response to the unknown and unsettling which separates the impulsive and irrational from necessary. The cogs of clarity turning reluctantly in spite of the fire below, the transitory respite of comfort, a tactful back step to better scale the void ahead.

This would be to blank, bottle it or pass, consumed by the fear of upset, treading on eggshells or around the possibility of failure.The backstep usually being a harder decision to make, conscious of losing momentum, regressing, losing ground, pride. It’s a tough pill to swallow but a necessary step to rediscover.

By this rationale, is everything worth having so hit and miss. A game of fine margins. No such reward for mere participation. Yes, a result to which can either discourage or prepare you for a later date when it actually matters. So why do we stumble? hide beneath a passive guise? Lack of practice? Confidence? Retention of knowledge? Nerves ?

All of the above?

Sometimes it’s better to watch other people jump first and acquire a better angle to the rocks below, but aside the best, most optimal, safest or most elegant, you have to commit to it regardless. It’s easy to own your own place or role within a certain environment which demands for nothing less than hard numbers and solid facts. Either you reach the same number or one of you is wrong. Faith in your own ability to get there equally bears a doubt that the other person doesn’t, otherwise it just becomes a free for all. Don’t allow the CAN’T’S and WHAT IF’s to put fear and doubt in your head, any risk worth taking is one worth knowing.

Embrace the thoughts and affirmations as you woke, write them down, listen to them carefully. What remains to think about before you go to sleep? Has it changed or muffled by the noise of your day. This doesn’t have to resolve a budding realisation, million dollar question or subversion of the beliefs you have currently, but failing to acknowledge the questions you have in your own mind is equally denying them of the answer.

If we had someone else’s heart or organs, our bodies would quickly attempt to adapt and survive with the now dwindling resources that match our physiology. Establish control of every fibre in your body and own it before it owns you, a transitory state of settling for any less than what is BEST. Have faith in your own ability and capacity to succeed in ANYTHING worth having, anything less is not worth your sacrifice.