Be Boring / Be Successful

If you sit back in your favorite chair with a big cup of coffee, close your eyes, and think about life, lifting, success, family, and winning, what words pop into your head?  Lucky might be a word that rolls right off of the brain with ease, but is that the key to success in most things... probably not.  How about intelligence?  Is having the big brain the key to long term triumph?  My only response is Kim Kardashian, enough said.  What I am going to tell you is not going to light your world on fire, but I would like it to swirl around your head, like heavy whipping creme in that cup of coffee.  What I am going to tell you, is that being consistent is one of the most important keys to winning in marriage, training, finance, your job, etc.  I know that this is not what someone that is twenty and has the coolest smart phone on the market wants to hear, but being methodical and consistent and predictable is extremely important if you want to win at anything.  Just as an example, if that twenty year old took his modest $100/month cell phone bill and invested it in the good mutual fund, by age 60 he would be a millionaire.  He MIGHT win the lottery, he MIGHT be left a big chunk of change from some wealthy uncle, but neither is very likely.  Instead bet on the more sure thing, and that is long term, boring, investing in the stock market for 40 years... that will build wealth.  The same can be said for training.  While there may be a program that will add 100 lbs to your back squat in 4 weeks, what about the next 4 weeks?  Why not instead, add a couple lbs/week over the next 4 years!!  That would be strong!  The point of the article here is to convince you that consistent, and predictable is a blessing.  I guarantee that any of you that are married would agree that you would much rather your spouse be predictable, than not.  That would be a long walk up the sidewalk every afternoon , just wondering if it was Jekyll or Hyde on the other side of the front door.  I prefer predictable for my wife, my finances, my boss, and my training.  It may be boring, but you can't rely on luck for success, just sweat over the course of many years.

The Golden Circle

Simon Sinek is a thinker as well as a phenomenal speaker.  In this video Sinek talks about his idea of the Golden Circle.  He uses a great example of how computers are typically marketed to us and how Apple Computers takes the opposite track to reach us.  The concept works well for marketing your business, but has great carryover to the rest of us without a "business".  Why do we do what we do? Why do we train the way we do?  Why do we get up every morning to the sound of the alarm clock, still exhausted from the day before, and go tackle life?  Why?