Compromise: The 10 letter obscenity
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
One persists in trying to adapt the world to himself
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man
-George Bernard Shaw
I’ve been trying to think about what to say here today over the weekend and I decided I want to talk to you about a pet hate of mine; an awful dirty word, compromise; the dirtiest 10 letter word in the English Language
What is it and what does it do? Compromise is the acceptance that what we wish for is somehow out of our reach, compromise occurs when fear and doubt set in. Have you ever tried setting a personal best deadlift when you doubted you could do it? I wouldn’t advise it, compromise and doubt are bedfellows which will follow you around if you allow them.
Power comes from our ability to say no to fear. A loud and clear ‘no’, I will not back down, I will succeed
Compromise is never anything but an ignoble truce between the duty of a man and the terror of a coward.
-Reginald Kaufman
There are very few people born without the ability to compromise, for any of you who think you honestly push yourselves to the limit I challenge you to say the same after reading Flyinfree’s journal. There is that final mile or one last squat in the tank for all of us.
I know I’m guilty of this, I make excuses like sticking to my schedule and time restrictions but the truth is if you walk out the gym feeling fine then you probably didn’t push yourself hard enough, you’re robbing yourself of the chance to be better
Is Pepsi OK? What do you think?
If fitness isn’t such a big deal in your life then that’s fine, but then what is your passion, what really gets your juices flowing? Do you push that last rep in the areas of your life that you are passionate about? From what I’ve seen people who push themselves in one area of their life push themselves in all, it spreads quickly so try and make sure you push yourself in whatever you do. This attitude will breed success throughout all areas of your life and it all starts with a failure to compromise and the strength to take the road less traveled
Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people
-Nido Qubein
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
-Edmund Hillary
The attitude I’ve found most disturbing on this forum is the quest for average. Why do people come on here looking to gain a bit of muscle or lose a bit of fat? The people who don’t want to get ‘too big; just cut’. Why aren’t people coming here and saying ‘I want to be the best that I can be!’? People are aiming for targets that are relatively easy to achieve, but what makes attainable so good? Mankind has always aimed for the stars, things that seem just out of our grasp. Because of this we have advanced further than any species ever has. But it seems the tide is changing and people are actually aiming for ‘OK’.
Will mankind ever venture outside of our solar system? Not if our children start dreaming of becoming accountants instead of astronauts we won’t. We need to reach for things that seem impossible or we’ll lose what makes us different. Remember that impossible is not always a fact. Push for the best and often you’ll end up with better results than you even thought possible.
The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn't angry enough
Bede Jarrett
Now your ally on this journey is anger. Anger gets a bad press but to deny anger is to deny our very nature. Anger is the bringer of change, the catalyst to revolution, it will provide you with the fuel you need to cut the failing parts from your life and introduce fresh promise.
Anger as soon as fed is dead -
'Tis starving makes it fat.
~Emily Dickinson
I’m not saying you that you should allow yourself to be controlled by anger but chance are you’ve spent most of your life confusing suppression with control. Use anger as your ally, use it to push you on to making the necessary change and then let it go.
I don’t want to contradict the teachings of Yoda but anger is not a bad emotion it is just misunderstood and poorly applied.
So to sum up, I’ll ask each of you to try something for me. Identify one thing you want to achieve, make a goal and focus on that and decide right now that you’re going to achieve it no matter how difficult or painful the journey might be. And also find something to get angry about every day, anger will help your spirit strong in your pursuit of perfection
Be the uncompromising man
