Trust me, when I’m out on the football field at 5 a.m., I’m not looking for life lessons. I’m sweating and struggling to keep up with my in-shape line-mates. But like the artificial field’s rubber pellets, some metaphor seems to always come home with me. And this morning was no different.
We were on the last station of the day. It was Clark’s ab-apalooza and Coach Clark isn’t exactly a softie when it comes to his workouts. We were doing side-arm planks using one arm and then doing crunches with our other bent arm.
1. I was tired.
2. My shoulders are pretty beat up from old injuries.
3. So it wasn’t exactly easy.
4. Did I mention I was tired?
But something weird clicked while I was doing the exercise. I decided to do them perfectly. I leaned into the exercise. I made a conscious decision to make the most of opportunity to get stronger.
How many times in life have I just tried to get through something? More times than I can count. Job. School. Marriage. Fatherhood. I might be tired or busy or some other BS excuse. I cut corners and left a little in tank. And I never really got better. Or lived.
I’m not sure I had an epiphany this morning. But it was darn close. Maybe it was reading about the untimely death of Godwin Group’s former chairman Danny Mitchell at the increasingly young age of 66. Maybe it is the realization that life is very fleeting and tenuous. I don’t know. But I am going to stop leaving so much life in the tank. When I get to the finish line, I won’t need it.