Several years back, when I was out of town for one of my son’s baseball tournament, I came upon a coffee shop called The Daily Grind.
I appreciated the play on words, so I went in there, ordered a coffee, and commenced writing about another type of daily grind: exercise.
But for me, exercise isn’t a daily grind, although it is for many people. These are the types who think it’s all about will power or how you need to force yourself to “just do it.”
I don’t see it that way and because of that, you may not relate to me, which is fine.
In my view, life is hard enough, but because I supposedly have a brain, what I set out to do is figure out how to make everything that is hard easier… within reason.
This is a tough, uncomfortable pill for many people to swallow, much less digest, mostly because we have been conditioned to believe that nothing has any value unless it’s difficult. The harder it is, the better it is for us, we’re told.
Then along comes el Furecat, sporting his Cheshire cat grin, laughing at these ideas.
My wrestling coach at Iowa, Dan Gable, stated the following at a clinic he taught back in the 1980’s: “Constantly strive to make your wrestling as easy as possible.”
Hmm.
Gable was an Olympic champion in the hard work department – yet he also believed in making hard work easier.
He once told me, “You want to be in such good condition that you’re enjoying a soda on the sideline while your opponent is still lying on the mat trying to catch his breath.”
And so it is with fitness.
You can add more stress and strain into the mix, or you can figure out how to remove it and get even better results.
We tend to think the easier approach is a lazy, almost diabolical way.
It’s not. It requires forethought. It requires you to use your mind.
So I now present to you the following challenge:
Before doing an exercise, ask yourself:
1. How can I make it easier and get better results?
2. How can I stop fighting myself and make an improvement?
After asking one or both of these questions, your mind will deliver an answer. Test the answer that comes to you and see what happens.
In my experience, there is nothing that cannot be improved by figuring out how to make it easier. That’s what we call “superior technique.”
Another way it was ‘splained to me long ago: “A pro is someone who makes his job look easy.”
Test and verify.
When you remove the unnecessary tension from what you’re doing, you’ll almost always be flabbergasted by the positive results. And if you’re not – you tried too hard to make it easier.
Kick ass – take names!
Matt Furey
P.S. Yes, in ALL my products, today’s message applies.
