Vision. We all have it. We all have something we want to do, we want to achieve, we want to become, or we want to give. But many times, something gets in the way...

"That's not reasonable..."
"That's too much effort..."
"I don't know if it'll work out..."

All logical frames of mind. Then fast forward a bit from the original vision we had, and we find ourselves in the same situations, doing the same things, but most importantly, being the same person.

Not the person we envisioned ourselves as.

What is it that holds us back? I can't speak for every person, but I can speak for myself. For me, it was complacency, comfort, and fear.

When we find ourselves in difficult situations, like the one the entire world is in right now, a deep rooted part of our brain gravitates towards these things. It thinks that they're safety and security.

They're not.

Up until this point, I've already worked from places of extreme disadvantage, like most of us have at one point or another, or even several, all of varying degrees. One that I'd like to talk about is starting as the underdog at Precision.

I was brand new, with no experience aside from my own lifting, and working with veteran trainers. I felt completely out of my depth, and some people didn't believe in me, or think I was the right fit. I wasn't used to waking up well before sunrise, or used to being in "go mode" all day. I wasn't used to moving that much, or doing those types of workouts, or being that extroverted and open. For the part of my mind I mentioned earlier, it only registered all these things as suffering.

Kevin’s early days at Precision Training.

I, however, was not coming to Precision to avoid suffering and difficulty. I came with the expressed intent of seeking it out and taking as much as I could bear, and then some. Sounds crazy on the surface.

But whenever things got tough, whenever I felt the urge to quit and return to relief, I didn't, because I knew what that relief meant for me. It meant going back to drifting through life, unsure of what to do with myself, working at an occupation I felt trapped in, and just checking the box of life. I would be the same person, in the same prison.

Well, that person wasn't who was going to be able to make a difference for people. He wasn't the one who was going to spend much of their time contemplating how to help themselves and simultaneously others. He had absolutely no chance whatsoever at achieving my dreams. He had to go.

And the harder it got, the more hits he took, the more the person underneath began to show.

I was the granite.
The hardship was the chisel.
And my vision was the craftsman.
Through adversity, a new “you” is born.

Now more than any other time, we shouldn’t seek or expect comfort. We shouldn’t seek or expect to find “the easy way”. That adversity is all around us, but it isn't anything to be feared, it should be met and stared in the eye. When it has you in its sights, know that whatever it causes you to deal with will lead to that new and better you.

“There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.” -Miyamoto Musashi

Vision And Hardship