All of It

When is the last time you gave everything? When is the last time you remember hearing that voice in your head that told you to slow it down, and you kept charging forward into the proverbial unknown? This is, of course, a reference to fitness, but it is much broader than that, as well.

If you think about a day with running intervals, there definitely comes a point where you start having the conversation in your mind about slowing the speed of your gait. Whether this is noticeable to an outside viewer or not is negligible, but you know in your mind that you left some bullets in there. You definitely did not empty the clip. The ones writhing on the ground gasping for air and coughing are the ones that have no more proverbial bullets.

This definitely has many applications in our lives outside of fitness, as well. When is the last time you threw down everything that you were doing to help someone out? Have you ever been so entrenched in a project that you forgot to eat, or you completely forgot what time it was?

I am fortunate to see this take place all the time in my house. My wife time and time again shows up, stays up all night for days on end with our daughter. Sleeping has been a real challenge in our household, and now pregnancy and a toddler don’t equal much sleep. Becoming a parent is a very enlightened and growth filled experience. Completely moving aside all of your priorities, obligations, comfort, and wishes for another human is a pretty valiant effort. All of the chips are on the table, or on the floor in this case.

The moment I want to bring attention to is the decision. The conversation happens for all of us in our own way. What is your choice when this happens in your head, do you let yourself off the hook? Do you charge forward with reckless abandon?

I find myself on both sides of this decision all the time. To be real honest I can’t remember a time that I went all in and regret what came of it. I could say the complete opposite for the times that I didn’t go all in. Every single time, I regret those experiences. I didn’t put my best foot forward, and it showed, and it was never fun.

Even in the cases when I went all in and I got burnt, cheated on by a girlfriend, lost a game, got fired, or just all around missed the mark. I knew that I went for it. I knew that no stone remained unturned, and that is enough to let me sleep at night with no regrets.

We have all these opportunities in our lives, it’s your choice whether you are going to go all in or just coast, but I promise there will be a day when you think back on these opportunities and the decisions you made. I think we all would associate success with the people that are going all in, and if you’re going to fail, burst into flames of glory because you were that dude that just didn’t care and went after it. It sounds better to me at least.

 

 

Danny Lesslie

@dannylesslie