What You Want

Categories: Uncategorized Mar 16, 2014

What You Want

Do you know what you want? I am asking this because as a trainer, many people often find their way to me because they think they know what they want. Many people want to lose weight. Some want to get stronger. Some want to be leaner. Others just want to "get in shape." But I think most of the time, they really don't know what they want. They only think they do.

I don't mean to sound arrogant, but there is a good chance you don't really know what you want either. You may exercise for a goal, you may train for a reason, but you may not necessarily be on target with the real reason. What I mean is that many people, maybe yourself, train for a symptom, or a fruit, of what they really want.

People that want to lose weight, don't really want to lose weight. People that want to be stronger, don't necessarily really want to be stronger. People that train to run a faster marathon - well, really, they just need help (kidding...) - don't really want to run faster.

Yes, I am making no sense.

What people really want, what you really want, is to live a "good" life.

What is a "good" life?

It's a life where you are able and capable of enjoying your experiences. It's a life where when you are 99 years old, you can still enjoy your grandchildren and their children. It's a life where your children don't have to take care of you when you are 80. It's a life where you are strong and have vitality until you leave this world.

Think about it. No parent wants their children to have to take care of them one day because they have become incapable of doing so. No one wants to age just to be weak. No one wants to really settle for the notion that the best years of their life was the time between their twenties and their fifties.

What you want is to live. You want to have strength until you leave. You want to have joy, freedom, and vitality every day of your life. You want to walk around knowing you are an able, capable, effective, valuable, contributor to the world, especially the immediate world (family, friends, neighbors) around you.

A person may think they want to lose weight. What they really want is to feel good about themselves.

A person may think they want to bench press 400 pounds. What they really want is to be able to get up off the floor when they are 87 years old.

A person may think they want to run a sub 3 hour marathon, but what they really want is to be able to go for a walk with their children without aches, pains, or fears of aches and pains.

Yes, we may have immediate desires and goals, but really, every single day, what we really want is to feel good. To feel strong. Needed. Capable.

There is nothing wrong with having short term goals or desires. But just know that sometimes those goals mask what you are really after. Sometimes those goals may even take away from what you will one day truly desire.

Train. Exercise. Practice. Run. Do these things. Just remember what it is you really want: Freedom to enjoy your life always, every day, until you're 120 and you finally decide you've been here long enough.

Regain your original strength. It is one of the best ways to ensure that you can have what you want - what you really want.


If you haven't read Original Strength, give it a look. If you have, and you want to learn more about what I am talking about, check out one of our workshops.

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