Consistency Sometimes Means Stopping

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What I look back on is the moments to where I start to have to get back into these rhythms where I do something stupid, but it’s the stupidness now, when it comes to my own rhythms, only has to do with my intention, actually being present right there to get out of it, what I need to get out of it doing it the right way. I was excited, you know, because I took a week off from working out. And everyone who follows me knows how important that rhythm is to me. It keeps my mind right, mostly right, because that’s actually a good time of meditating, and I’ve talked about this before, in leveraging your time, combining times for things, and that’s one thing that workouts do for me. But in addition to that, you know, it’s like, I hear from certain people, it’s like, oh my gosh, you eat whatever you want to eat, and you still stay fit and all this. It’s like, because I put five and six years of work into where I’m at right now from a fitness perspective and the muscle mass, but then it gets frustrating to me, because sometimes I have to take time off. I have to let my body recover. And the reason this was is that a couple of weeks ago, I actually injured my left shoulder. Nothing bad, nothing bad at all. 

It was like I really don’t know what it is, except I went to the chiropractor a few times, and that sort of helped. But where I got into trouble, if you want to call it that, is when I initially got injured. I was like, Okay, this thing will heal in a couple of days, no problem. So then I kept working out, and every single time I would work out after that, you know, for a period of about three weeks, it just kept getting worse and getting worse and getting worse. I’m like, What the heck? But the thing is, is that, with my personality, sometimes, to my detriment, it’s like, I’m not quitting. I’m going to push through this thing. And then it got to the point where it was really bad, to where I was almost dropping the weights because of the amount of strength in my left arm, because of my left shoulder, and this muscle going down into into my into my triceps, over the back, it was not good. I would lose my strength in this and almost start to drop the weights. So then it gets to the point where I was like, You know what? Okay, what I need to do right now, because I’ve obviously been through this, anybody who’s ever had any kind of fitness whatsoever, and at least done it for real. 

Now I say for real. I mean, as in, consistently, as in, you know, three to four times a week for many, many months straight. You know, not even a year, but many months straight. You’ve noticed that once you get into this rhythm, right, you start to love it, because you know what it does for you when you get into this rhythm, and the hardest thing is always beginning that rhythm, you know? And the last time I had to take a break was when I had surgery about a year ago, when I had muscle repair in my abs, actually, from when I was overweight. But this time, I pushed myself, and I pushed through this, and then my arm just kept getting worse. So I go to the chiropractor. I’m like, I’m going to do that, you know? I go a couple times, and she’s like, oh, yeah, you’re, you know, it’s like, in your deltoid, it’s actually, like, your shoulder blade is kind of out of place. You did something there, so after a couple of visits, she puts it back into place, you know, and it’s like 50% better. It’s 50% better. So still, I did something about it, and my shoulder got about halfway better. Like, cool. I’m gonna keep pushing through, and this thing is just not getting better, and I’m struggling at this point to actually get through an entire workout when I move to my arms. 

And it’s really upsetting me. So then the reason that it’s really, really upsetting me is that I know, and actually I knew from the very beginning, when I injured it, I knew exactly what I should have done, even when I injured it, I knew what I should have done was give my shoulder a rest, give my arm a rest. So last week, that’s what I did. I didn’t work out at all, and I freaking feel it too, because it’s not even like just your mind, but then your body starts to feel lethargic when you have to do this. And that’s what I hate it when you’re in this rhythm for so long, because you almost feel it’s like a reminder of how you felt before you got into these rhythms, these good rhythms for you in the first place. And it’s just a kick in the pants, because it’s like, hey, remember when you were not doing jack shit before you got into these rhythms. This is how you felt. And it pisses me off, because now it’s like, I lost even more time because I had put in all these weeks of trying to push through the pain and get through this thing, and then all of a sudden I’m like, You know what? I’m up against the wall. I’ve been to the chiropractor, I’ve done everything else. I just need to rest last week. That’s what I did. So then this morning, right? I’m starting to work out, and I’m like, Man, this is great. I have no pain. 

And the reason I have no pain is that I actually took a step back to give my body. I need the proper rest timing. Give my mind the proper rest time. But as I’m starting to push through this today, I’m starting to get sick to my stomach about halfway through my workout, and it’s like another reminder for me, like another punch to my face. Be like, Hey, remember when you started working out all these years ago? Or whenever you stopped for a minute and started back up? It’s like, you know what? Now I’m going to remind you of how that feels and the science behind it is easy when it comes to feeling nauseous, if you’ve ever worked out, if you’ve ever done anything, cardio, whatever, the lactic acid builds up in your body when you when you strain your muscles, and it’s meant to do this, and then your body flushes it out, right? When you have a lot of lactic acid build up, you start to feel nauseous. This is why people, I mean, I remember years ago when I was trying to do kickboxing, when I was really fat, and I would throw up every single time I would do it, but that’s because of the lactic acid buildup. 

So this morning, I had this lactic acid buildup halfway through, I’m like, I am so freaking nauseous trying to push through this thing. And it reminds me again, right? It’s like another Hello. Remember this? Remember this is how you used to feel before you got into these rhythms for so long, before you actually treated yourself the right way, before you actually respected yourself the right way to actually do something good for you, to get you into this place that you want to be, this state, this perpetual state of consistency and striving towards something and then maintaining this so that you remain at peak performance, both physically and especially mentally, because of these rhythms that you’ve put into place for yourself and you, I see the results Because I feel freaking amazing when I stay consistent at these things, doing everything that I can every day, and then it annoys the crap out of me when I have to take a week off because I did something to myself. Now it’s not the fact that I injured myself, right? Because this stuff happens, this one I don’t even know what happened. I must have just tweaked it one wrong way or something. I’m sure it’s some way that I lifted something. 

I’m sure it’s a way, maybe even like I’ve put a weight down before, and I twisted the wrong way. I remember that’s where I injured my back a few years ago. Is because I was just rushing through this, which means it’s another good point, right? Because I was rushing through it and I wasn’t actually doing things the proper way, which means I wasn’t getting all the benefits out of it, because I wasn’t doing it the way that my body needs me to do it, because rhythms only matter if you’re going to do it the freaking right way to begin with, if you’re actually going to stay consistent and take the time and intention into it so that you have the outcome that you’re going to want. There are times my mind gets, you know, I listen to audiobooks, but there are times I used to have my MacBook right there while I was working out, you know, I’d be on my phone looking up some stats about my company. So, some measurements, some KPIs, you know, getting set for the day, while I would do that, and I found that I got a much worse workout when my mind was on all of these different things, rather than focusing right there. 

When it was on all this other stuff, I would start to rush through my workouts, because my intention wasn’t to be right there. My intention was just to get it over with, and my workout sucked because of it. Now, I don’t care what you do; you know you don’t have to lift like me. And by the way, I don’t lift that heavy either; it’s because of the consistency and the persistence over the years. Why is my muscle mass the way that it is? And I love telling the story of how I started out when I couldn’t even do 10 push-ups because I had just gotten out of a surgery that literally saved my life. In 2015, when I started to put it, put on my muscle mass and get into these rhythms, I had never done these rhythms before. Prior to 2015 it’s been seven years now, and I couldn’t be prouder of myself. What I look back on is the moments when I start to have to get back into these rhythms where I do something stupid, but it’s the stupidness now, when it comes to my own rhythms, only has to do with my intention, actually being present right there to get out of it. What I need to get out of it is doing it the right way, and then also staying consistent with it, meaning not pushing myself even. 

And consistency can even mean rest. I want to get that point across today, that consistency can even mean taking a break to get the best possible results out of whatever it is you’re going after with whatever rhythms. Sometimes that short rest is necessary, because when I pushed myself too hard a couple of weeks ago, I probably could have done with maybe skipping just one workout, that’s it, and allowed my shoulder to heal. But instead, I kept pushing it, and I had to go to the Chiro. Practice three times, in addition to taking an entire week off and missing four sessions. And then today, I get back to it, and it’s a reminder. It’s like, oh yeah, this is what it feels like now. I feel nauseous halfway through. This is what it felt like when I wasn’t even in my rhythms. I am grateful for the reminders as to why I even started my rhythms in the first place. I’m so grateful for that. So I can actually say that I’m grateful that I almost threw up this morning because it reminded me of why I got into these things to begin with, and even more so, reminds me of what it looks like when I continuously, consistently, and persistently go after these outcomes with intention in each and every single session of these rhythms. It’s necessary to be fully present in each one of these things in order to achieve those outcomes. 

I’m grateful today that I get these little reminders, and sometimes, you know what? These little reminders suck, ass. Hardcore donkey ass. I love that phrase, by the way. It’s just funny to me. I think I said donkey toe the other day, but that’s a squirrel that I’m chasing now. Your rhythms in life are important. Your rhythms and work are important. Your rhythms and business are important. Your rhythms and relationships are important. And every time your rhythms with yourself are important, whatever that looks like, and every time you get into a consistent rhythm, and then you’re reminded when you have to take a rest, be grateful for those times. Be grateful for those lows. Be grateful for those times you almost want to throw up in whatever situation, that is recognizing it’s like I gotta put some work in to get back into this, because I probably did something bad prior. I pushed it too much. I didn’t have the intention of being present in what I was doing with my rhythms at the moment. So now I’ve suffered, and now I’m being reminded I’m grateful for these reminders of where I’ve been and where I’ve gotten to, and understanding that I’m never going back to where I’ve been. I can let go of the emotions, and I can take away the learnings from those moments with you.