Is Your Free Will Holding You Back?

  Over the holiday's, I began reading a book called, Never Let Go by Dan John.  By all accounts, Dan John is a legendary and well respected strength coach for high school, college, and Olympic athletes.  In addition to that, he is also a stellar author.  Never Let Go is a fantastic book that gives Dan's personal philosophy on lifting, living and learning in a very easy, matter-of-fact way that I think anyone can connect with.  In the first chapter, Dan explains why your free will may be holding you back from your fitness goals as well as personal goals.  I thought I'd share these thoughts with you, as well as adding some of my own.

  If you're like me and went through catholic schooling for the majority of your life, then you without a doubt understand the concept of "free will."  However, Dan does not turn this topic into a religious discussion.  He mentions that one of the things people talked about during his days doing work with prison ministry is how buff the inmates are. And what is (hopefully) the main difference between you and a prison inmate?  Free will.

  That's right, free will.  And for me, this is what I took away from that statement:

          What do I do when I have no other choice?

  It's easy to put things off when you know you DON'T HAVE to do them.  But it's amazing to see the motivation I have when I'm up against the wall and have no other choice.  How many rags to riches stories have you heard that you think to yourself, "Man, how on earth did that person start something from absolutely nothing?"  My simple opinion, because they had to.  If they wanted to change their situations, they had no other choice . 

  But how can you relate this to workin' out and eating right? 

  My question to you is, "How long will you wait until you have no other choice but to start taking your health seriously?"  Does your free will run out when you are diagnosed with diabetes?  Or does it run out when your blood pressure is 160 over 90 (if you don't know if that's bad or not, your free will has run out)?  Or does it only run out when you can't see your feet anymore?

  Here's a thought.  Why wait until there is no other choice?  Let's take responsibility now while we're still reasonably healthy  and never let ourselves get to the point where we lose our free will.  And while we're at it, let's have some fun and spend some time doing something for ourselves for a change.  Man, that's some free will I can get with......