Marshall Ramsey

Imagine you are 18. You’ve been recruited, sought after and now, you’re about to put your pen to the dotted line. You are being given the gift of a college education — but you’ll have to earn it. You have hours of sweat and hard work ahead of you. Long hours on the playing field. Injuries. Time in the classroom. But still, you’re being given the opportunity of a lifetime. You’re about to step onto the stage. What are you going to do with it? How will you change your life?

Do you have a 5-star heart to go with that ability?

I wasn’t a college athlete. I can’t even fathom how exciting National Signing Day is. And it has been a long time since someone recruited me for my talents. But what if we treated today as our own personal National Signing Day? What if we made a commitment to our jobs, our families, our spouses, our friends and our lives? What if we stepped onto the stage with a 5-star heart? Can you make a commitment that will change your life? The lives of everyone around you.

By waking up this morning, you were given a gift. Today is your National Signing Day. Put in the work. And receive your rewards.

Fit4Change blog: Day 13 of 48

I didn’t write about Friday, but it was a leg workout and my legs are still sore from it, so in a way, any discomfort I had today was a leftover from Friday. So there you go. I also ran 11.5 miles on Saturday and 3 yesterday. Coming into today’s workout, my legs were spent.

So guess what we did a lot of today?

If you guessed “run,” you are a genius.

Honestly, I like running and it burns fat well for me. We did the Indian Run (which is an Indian Sprint with Line One), did bags and ladders (quick feet!) and ran four 100-yard sprints. (We also worked in the weight room on chest and arms and did stations with Coach NASCAR). My heart rate stayed way up today. I think it might have been because of the warmth (it felt like summer).

I was sweaty mess.

On the last sprint, I poured everything I had in me onto the fire. Sure, I was tired. But I wanted to prove something to myself. I could push through pain.

Pushing through pain. How many of us pull up when we’re tired? I do.

I’m at a point in my life when I can’t afford to anymore.

Today at 5:55 a.m., I hit a wall and pushed through it. I ran off the field a different man.

Competition is good for the soul. Pick someone who is better than you and work your butt off until you can beat him or her. Push yourself beyond your comfort zone and leave it all out on the field. Use the fire of competition to forge your soul. To push your spirit. And to shape your future.

I come from the participation trophy generation. And I got a few of them along the way. But I’ve learned nothing inspires you more than receiving an award for your hard work. No, I take that back — the sting of losing does, too. Don’t beat yourself up when you do lose. Feel how bad it sucks and then lose from it.

Your worst moments can give you your best education.

I’m in Line One. They are the best athletes and I’m the Clydesdale in the midst of Race Horses. But I want to work out with them. I want to get smoked by them. Because it’s the fuel that makes me better. And I have gotten better. Today, I held my own in a 100-yard sprint. I didn’t finish first. Still, I was up in the front. I will push myself even harder tomorrow.

I’m a Clydesdale with a little bit of speed and a lot of stamina.

Winning isn’t everything. Being out on the field of life competing is. Winning is just gravy. Delicious gravy at that.

I wore shorts on a windy, 35-degree morning. My legs were nearly as blue as my shirt. But I did it for a reason.

I wanted to feel as much discomfort as I could today.

Don’t get me wrong, the coaches are very capable of bringing plenty of pain. But I wanted a little bit more. I wanted to remind myself what it felt like to suffer. And I wanted to push past it.

See, I’m training for more than just a physical goal. I’m pushing my brain, too. I need to learn to keep pushing when logic tells me to quit. I am learning the ability to shut my mind downs when it screams “quit.”

I’m learning resilience.

So I was cold. But it didn’t last long. Paul LaCoste (who was with us this morning) made sure of that. We did a four-corner drill (running laps around the field with quick-foot ladders, burpees, mountain climbers, thirty yards of bear crawls, 60 push-ups and squat jacks. Then we went to Paul and did motion drills (sprinting backwards and cutting one direction or the other.) We then went into the weight room and then back on the field (and out into the cold) and an up and down the football field. By the time the hour was up, I wasn’t cold any more.

I had accomplished another workout. I had pushed through my discomfort.

Look on either side of you. The person next to you is going through tough times. If you’re not, you will, too.

I froze for an hour. I can handle anything else the next 23 hours throws out at me.

We are the product of the stories we tell ourselves.

If you say, “I can’t,” you’re right. If you say, “I suck,” you’re right.

I know. The voice in my head was telling me today would be a great day to sleep in. Look, I’ll be honest: I am exhausted. I drove 800 hundred miles this weekend. I sat in an emotional meeting. Heck, the whole thing was emotionally exhausting. The alarm went off after my six hours of sleep and I thought, “One more hour. I am so tired.”

Then I changed my story. I though, “If not today, when? If I quit today, I’ll quit tomorrow. You’ve got this Marshall. Put your feet on the ground now. Then take it one step at the time.”

Even if they are very fast steps.

We started with an Indian Run. Line One’s version of an Indian Run is a sprint then you sprint even faster. I heard some people call out for the line to slow down. But I wanted it to go faster. I kept telling myself, “Keep pushing. This is how you get faster.”

We are the product of the stories we tell ourselves.

There were several times when I thought to myself, “I can’t.” But I quickly pushed it out of my mind. I told a different story. When Clark was killing us during a core workout, I kept saying, “I AM GETTING STRONGER.”

This is a skill-set that translates to the other 23 hours of my day. Change your story and change your life.

Because we are truly the stories we tell ourselves.