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View Full Version : Success or failure is a matter of time and perspective


JoeJustice
12-16-2008, 09:03 AM
I got John’s newsletter, “Back to the Basics for Success” yesterday and felt it needed echoing. It was a great message that I think many, many people can relate to. Here are the paragraphs I felt were key:


The same goes for you and me in our own quests for personal greatness. For example, how many folks have made a commitment to a plan for physical strength and fitness, only to be derailed time and again? The tendency is to give up and say, “I just don’t have the time,” or “I guess getting in shape just isn’t going to happen.”

The secret is going back to the original inspiration that motivated you in the first place, burying the “can’t do” attitude, and digging in once more to your commitment.


This really resonates with me. While I have not really been derailed in my training, I have had a long period of time where I fill I was not training the right way for my body. I stuck with a program for months that did not work for me. At the end of the program I had progressed very little. This would be a good point to give up, throw up my hands and just accept failure.

But instead I went back to John’s books, my original inspiration, and really try to apply that information. From there I changed my training completely and have had non-stop success since!

So was I a failure while I wasn’t progressing? I don’t think so, I think if I would have given up, then I would have been a failure. If you learn and adapt as you’re presented with failure then you can turn failure into success! Everyone says Tomas Edison invented the light bulb, no one ever calls him a failure since he tried literally hundreds of time to make the light bulb without success.

So if you’ve had a bad week, month or even year, don’t focus on the failure, turn it into success, learn from it. Maybe you’re in the 100 Push-Up Challenge Group and you couldn’t do any more push-ups this week or maybe you even did less! No sweat, try it again next week and if you’re still not improving then take that information use it to adapt. Maybe tweak your workout or study your diet. Go back to that original inspiration and re-examine everything to see if you missed something.

Whatever you do, don’t give up, that’s the only time you really fail.

-Joe

omad0n
12-16-2008, 05:20 PM
Wow, that's a great tid bit. I don't actually recieve the newsletter (my own fault) so I hadn't seen that, but I'd def. agree. It's very well put, thanks for re-sharing. I may have to sign up for the news letter now lol.

Greg Newton
12-16-2008, 06:06 PM
Good post Joe. It is funny. I was a Charles Atlas student until a well-meaning wrestling coach steered me towards the weights. That was in 76. Years later, via John Peterson, I was reintroduced to C/A and Dynamic Tension.

I've acquaintances and friends who do not understand my loyalty to John. But, if John had not stepped out and launched Bronze Bow I would still be meandering through life in pain and stiffness, thinking my best years were long gone. Today I have the body I 've wanted since I was a 13 year old boy and can do things I never thought possible. And the best of it all, even at 48 there is still improvement to come.

Below is a picture of Lori, Lauren and myself. Even my beautiful wife is stepping out of long term pain and moving down the road towards health and productivity. For us the paradigm has changed and this is a debt I cannot begin to repay.