Creating Your Own Reality in the Face of Thwarted Intentions

There is a universal law at work.  You may have noticed it in your own life.  I know I certainly have in mine.  It seems to me that the moment you set an intention, the universe conspires to derail you. 

Maybe you just started a brand-new diet when you receive the invitation to Gram-Gram’s 100th birthday celebration hosted at a dessert buffet.  Or maybe you hired a trainer to embark on a new fitness regimen only to put your back out getting out of the car.  Or you commit to walking to work every day instead of driving only to have it rain cats and dogs 24 hours per day for 40 days and 40 nights straight.  Or the moment you propose to the love of your life, all your old crushes call to tell you their lives are just not complete without you.

It never fails.  No sooner have you started than something arises to thwart your best intentions.  It is really demotivating.  Believe me, it used to get me down too.  Why can’t things ever go my way?  But then I realized the truth, this isn’t a bug but a feature.  Like Randy Taube tells us in his Last Lecture, “brick walls are the universe’s way of testing your level of commitment.” 

The moment you declare your intention; the universe gives you a gut check to see if you really mean it.  Because most people don’t.  Most people give up at the first hint of friction.  Because maybe they were just looking for an escape hatch, a way to say “Oh, I really wanted to, but it just didn’t turn out.”  These folks probably also tell themselves that people who accomplished goals did so because they didn’t encounter the same obstacles.

But obstacles loom on the road to the fulfillment of every goal.  And don’t worry, if you don’t see an obstacle to your goal, it will arise the moment you take your first steps in that direction.  No one accomplishes anything in life without circumventing, climbing over or busting through annoying obstacles.  So, if you aren’t battling obstacles, you probably aren’t currently on the road to accomplishment.  Even an evening of Netflix and chill probably requires you to dodge some urgent texts or phone calls or a wifi outage.

The world is full of people who never accomplished their goal because they are waiting for the stars to align and the world to offer them a clear road to success.  And then there’s all the people who didn’t bother waiting and just went out and did it anyhow despite unsuitable conditions.  Engineers told Henry Ford the V-8 engine was impossible.  You know how that turned out.  Steve jobs was said to have a “reality distortion field.”  But that’s what it takes to shape reality to your will.

Someone once told me that they wished they could open a gym too, but they didn’t have the money.  When we opened Empower on Dunbar Street I had no job, I had -$9000 in the bank account, I had no car, no assets and no home.  Thirteen years later the person who dreamt of owning a gym is still waiting for conditions to be right.

What is it you want?  A pull up?  A six pack?  A bodyweight deadlift?  Set the intention.  Plan the action steps.  Brace yourself for resistance.  Then execute.  When the universe pushes back, laugh in its face and shove it back harder.  You get to create your own reality but don’t expect it to be easy, you will have to bend it to your will.  When will reality stop pushing back?  Only after you have come to understand that you are unstoppable.  But you won’t believe it until you first prove it to yourself.  So, set the intention and stick to it.  No.  Matter.  What.

Friday Make Up Day
1) Refine your clean technique

H: 00 - 02 Intro (2-3 min)

H: 03-10 Warm up (7 min)

Hip mobility

Barbell weightlifting warm up

H: 12-25 Tech (13 min)

Clean deadlift, mini clean pull and power clean from launch point

H: 25 Build up weights (20 min specific strengthening)

Clean pull+ Power clean from LP

2*(1 pull + 1 LP) @ 50% of snatch weight, 2 sets

2*(1 pull + 1 LP) @ 60% of snatch weight, 2 sets

Clean from LP

4 power clean @ 60%, 1 sets

3 power clean @ 70%, 2 sets

2 power clean @ 80%, 4 sets

Accessory

Hollow single arm KB press, 8 each side, 4 sets

H: 50 Cooling down: 5 min

2) 150 double-unders

45-calorie row

15 bar muscle-ups

120 double-unders

36-calorie row

12 bar muscle-ups

90 double-unders

27-calorie row

9 bar muscle-ups

3) 30 GHD sit-ups

155 pound Squat clean, 15 reps

24 GHD sit-ups

155 pound Squat clean, 12 reps

18 GHD sit-ups

155 pound Squat clean, 9 reps

12 GHD sit-ups

155 pound Squat clean, 6 reps

6 GHD sit-ups

155 pound Squat clean, 3 reps