“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you’re hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”
Rocky Balboa
The Halloween-like ground fog on the football field should have been a sign. It looked as if Jason or Freddie would pop out at any moment. But something worse happened: Paul Lacoste lumbered out of the mist.
Instead of of doing our normal rotations with different coaches, Paul trained us himself. He pushed us as hard as we’ve been pushed in the three years I’ve done the program. We ran 200-yard sprints. We did burpees and up-downs. We did planks and spider-crawls. We moved the whole time. And at times, we gasped like a bass flopping on a dock.
It was a butt-kicking. And it was just what the doctor ordered.
I have some things going on in my personal life that are taking every bit of my emotional energy. My job is demanding and life is punching me in the mouth. But like the up-downs we do on the field, when life knocks me down, I have the physical capacity to jump back up. I thought about Rocky’s words, “it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward..”
No kidding.
Paul talks about the Next Level a lot. We yell “1..2..3.. Next Level!” after each session. As we lay on the field afterward, I thought about what the next level means to me.
The Next Level is training yourself mentally and physically to be able to take on lives challenges.
The Next Level is leaning into life, not just floating through.
The Next Level is busting out of your comfort zone.
The Next Level is realizing you are a product of your choices. That means diet, exercise and even your attitude.
The Next Level is embracing personal responsibility. You must quit blaming others for your problems.
The Next Level is having the maturity to fix what you have control about and not worry about what you don’t.
The Next Level setting high standards and sticking to them. Set measurable goals and achieve them.
The Next Level is living in the moment.
The Next Level is being grateful.
The Next Level is leaving it on the field and not keeping something in the tank.
The Next Level is helping others.
The next year will be one of the toughest of my life. I need to step it up and be a better husband, son, brother and father. I need to do better work and make things happen in my career. I need to plan more and procrastinate less. I need to hit fear in the mouth.
I need to get to the Next Level.
And it all starts at 5 a.m. when I physically push myself to the brink.