Keep At It

It’s really that simple … and somedays that hard.

Every summer the college soccer players come home to start their training. Every summer they come back a little de-conditioned after finals and a little time off and so the first few sessions are hard. But, slowly we increase the volume or the intensity and every few weeks back it down to let them catch up and adapt and after the second or third cycle they start to feel it; the slow accumulation of their efforts and their increasing level of fitness. By the time they leave to report back in August they are doing workouts that are twice what they started with and feeling challenged but within themselves.

The magic isn’t in the program. That’s based on sound principles that anyone can use. So, it’s not the program that gets the results. It’s the fact that they keep at it. Week after week, session after session they show up and do the work and then follow it up with sleep and nutrition and rest. Sometimes keeping at the rest and recovery is more challenging than the workouts but that’s another post.

To keep at anything over time is the real key to moving forward. And, to keep at it, it helps to have companions, other people who are keeping at it and who can lift you up, remind you it’s worth it and tell you, you got this when the commitment ebbs. ( and it will)

We also need to trust the process. When the end seems a long way off and you aren’t seeing your progress you need to make yourself vulnerable, lean in and trust before you have the evidence, that not only is this going to work – it already is working.

Keeping at it is a skill and vulnerability and trust are the muscles we build as we practice. Because, as they say, here’s the thing. Those athletes are going to have to come back again, next summer, to prepare for another season. We don’t get in shape once and forever.

The same is true for whatever quality we’re working on. Those qualities are really skills and they need to be practiced and refined and renewed all the time whether it’s strength, or kindness, speed or confidence, power or patience.

So, pick a quality and approach it as a skill.

Get yourself some good coaching, someone who can help you with a solid plan.

Find a companion or two to help you work the process.

Then lean in , trust your efforts and keep at it.

You got this.