Putting In The Work And Checking Your Shit
There is something simple and comforting about working out. It isn't complicated. You are simply exerting force on an object with varying degrees of resistance. It's the same every time I go, I generally run the same pattern around the gym with slight alterations if someone is rudely using the station I want to use. The music on my mp3 player is the same (I put my phone in the locker so I am not tempted to stare at it). The only real variable in how my workout goes is mental. It is my attitude, my willpower, that makes the difference between just struggling through the hour or feeling like I kicked ass. John Wilder said something I liked in his last post:
What is Truth? Step on a scale. Look down. The number is the Truth. Try to pick up a weight. If you can, you can. That is Truth. The Iron never lies. The scale never lies.
Those numbers on the weights or on the machines are what they are. Either you make them move or you don't. There isn't a trick to it.
Almost everyone wants the same results. They want to look better and feel better, to weigh less and be stronger. Most people also don't want to do anything to get there. Ours is a world of endless distractions, of things that are amusing and easy. What could be easier than letting yourself drown in hours of Youtube or Netflix?
The simple fact is you don't get the results if you don't put in the work.
If you do the work, you will get results. Will you look like Arnold back in his prime? Hell no. But you will get results. I don't look down at anyone at the gym, mostly because I have no place to judge, but also because just showing up is 95% of the battle. As I said in Your Most Dangerous Adversary Right Now....
When I am getting ready to go workout, it isn't AOC who is telling me to just stay home, that I'm too tired or sore. It's me.
So I respect anyone who shows up and puts in the work. There was a dude this morning, guy was probably mid 40s and looked like he was about 110 lbs soaking wet. He was working out wearing jeans with his t-shirt tucked into his pants. He struggled on low weights on the machines. But he was there and that makes all the difference. He isn't going to look like Paul Waggener and neither am I. As the kids say, mad props and much respect for doing what he was doing even looking like a dork.
Finding excuses is easy, putting in the work is hard.
On the other half of the title of this post, I was feeling especially frisky today and had nothing scheduled work-wise, so after I worked out I came home, slapped together some breakfast since the wife was gone, and took care of a customer doing a couple of firearms transfers. With some eggs and sausage in my tummy, that post-workout burn fading in my muscles and some new shekels in my wallet, I decided to pack up some gunz and go shooting. The weather was about perfect, searing blue skies with no clouds so what better time to go spew some freedom?
Went to the safe to get out some neglected li'l friends and....it wouldn't open. Tried again, still no go. WTF?!
Sure I have back-up keys so I could get it open but fat lotta good those guns do me in a time-sensitive emergency as most of my longer range lethal toys are in there. Now I need to figure out what the hell is wrong with the keypad on the safe. It was a cheap safe, my fault there, but this isn't a pair of boxer shorts that I can throw out and replace. It was a bitch getting the safe in my house and I don't really want to drop a bunch of cash getting a nicer one. So that needs to get fixed pronto.
Better to figure out there is a problem now than if things are going sideways and I am in a hurry.
Big Country down in Hurricaneida posted here, Yet Again, and talked about some of his neighbors who were...less than prepared even though they a) live in a state known for hurricanes and b) had ample warning of the Hurricane Ian coming.
They were radically underprepared for this event. We've known for at least a week this particular turd was heading towards the oscillation unit. Even knowing this, both of them...
No practice
No experience setting it up in austere circumstances (like in the middle of a fucking hurricane Aye?)
No real working knowledge of what kin kil't ya and what have you (ungrounded genny = bad things)
THIS right here. THIS is why when you 'prep' you have to learn how your shit works BEFORE everything goes to shit. Failure to plan and practice can kill you stone dead quick. Especially fucking around with electricity, water and a storm.
Having your shit is one thing, making sure it works and you can work it, is a whole other thing. Over at Captain's Journal there is a nice article with some solid links about learning the fundamentals of the AR-15 platform, Beginners Guide to the AR-15. As he says:
The time to learn your AR isn’t when your family is in trouble but before.
Anyway, got a nice little assortment of pea shooter shooters out and spent some time in the beautiful sunlight sending lead downrange. It was a good reminder that I need to get out and shoot a lot more than I do. While I will never be a certified, gen-u-wine "shooter", I am an adequate shooter. Adequate ain't good enough. While the sun is shining and it is fairly safe is the time to get your shit figured out and get good at what you need to be good at.
Whether getting in shape or shooting ur gunz, you have to put in the work.