Move Forward & Win the Day

I consider myself an optimist, a perennial half-glass-full type of guy. But there have times over the past year where I’ve given the following question serious thought: can optimism also be a weakness?

I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that question, or even if there IS an answer. But I think I received some guidance when I stumbled upon this passage by James Clear a few weeks ago:

Optimists win in the long-run because their miscalculation of how long it will take or how likely it is to succeed motivates them to give it a try.

You can’t guarantee success, but you can guarantee failure: never try.

I’ve always believed that we only listen to advice when it’s salient to our situation. If I had read the quote above last year at this time, I’m sure I would’ve scoffed and ignored it. But these days? Man, it hits the nail on the head.

My last year has been nutty, full of ups and downs. To get a sense of what I mean, here’s a 30,000 foot view of the last 12 months:

• Won the Fall 2018 Men’s Open category in the StrongFirst Tactical Strength Challenge – a worldwide competition testing deadlifts, pull-ups, and kettlebell snatches.

• Had Mohs surgery to remove basal cell carcinoma (the most innocent of skin cancers)

• My wife gave birth to our sweet little boy, Ethan.

• Opened The Movement Lab with my partners. In fact, I received the email that our lease was approved shortly after Lindsay had her epidural in the delivery room. True story.

• Became the 71st Beast Tamer under StrongFirst.

• Placed third in the Elite division of the 2019 Spring Tactical Strength Challenge.

• Tripled our initial membership at The Lab.

I know, that’s all.

In all seriousness, the past year has been a steady dichotomy of the best and most stressful times of my life. The joy of being a father and achieving some lifelong personal and professional goals have been coupled with sleep deprivation and the stress of parenthood/entrepreneurship. I wouldn’t recommend becoming a new parent, opening a business, and still training at an elite level at the same time.

I’ve often felt that I’ve been on the following repeating cycle: try, fail, try again, fail better. And to keep my sanity, I’ve adopted my new motto: “Move forward and win the day.” It’s nothing special, but it’s a way of blending my long-term view with the daily discipline I’ve needed.

So where’s all this going? Let’s revisit some of those moments I mentioned at the top:

• Winning the TSC Men’s Open: It took me three years of dedicated training to win the TSC Men’s Open Title. The first year I finished tied for 21st. The next, I came in 9th. The following year is when all the pieces came together.

• Becoming a Beast Tamer: It took me about 6 honest years to become a Beast Tamer. I failed my first attempts in 2016, then again in 2018 (something I wrote about here). But each failed attempt is exactly why I was finally able to pass it.

• Opening The Movement Lab: This was a lesson in patience and discipline. I started the process of looking at spaces in September 2017 and it took 15 months for everything to come together. Then we opened…

• The birth of our son, Ethan: Being a business owner and new parent is not for the faint of heart. Running on little sleep, I was in a constant state of stress and guilt for the first 4-6 months. Either a) I wasn’t around to help Lindsay and spend as much time as I wanted with our new baby or b) I wasn’t around the gym able to help get it off the ground. On the outside it looked like I was living my dream, but the reality was it felt like a lose-lose scenario. If there was ever a time I needed to “fake it ‘till I make it,” this was it.

• Tripling our membership at The Lab: The current standing and financial situation of our gym is not indicative of where it was when we opened. It’s been a brutal fight to make our place succeed and the battle is ongoing. I still get a knot in my stomach when I drive down a specific road at a specific time of day, with the smell of coffee wafting throughout the car. This is what no one tells you about entrepreneurship.

That’s why daily wins, as small as they might be, are something I’ve had to hang my hat on over the past year. Win the day. Move forward. It’s not flashy but it’s what works for me.