What's living life for?
Are you aiming at the right things?
I saw this image floating around social media yesterday and it stopped me dead in my tracks.
I’ve seen it before, recognized it’s value, and made it a core part of how I live my life in the present to negate future regret.
It’s a list of top regrets at the end of life compiled by an Australian nurse responsible for taking care of people in their final 12 weeks.
What do you notice about these? What do they all have in common?
Not one has anything to do with materials.
They either relate to a lack of COURAGE or a lack of MEANING, often connected.
There’s also a stark understanding of perspective, that most people had the wrong one all throughout life. Sometimes a new perspective really CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING.
What struck me most seeing this list again was how impactful physical training aimed at the spirit was in supporting me as I aimed a life towards minimizing these tragic life regrets.
I stood up on principle and had to courage to lose my well paying university career TWICE
I’m currently pausing my business growth as an entrepreneur to support my family and spend more time at home with my kids.
I’m creating life long friendships that have forced touch points at races and team events through my coaching work at Tribal Training.
I’ve learned how to take a positive spin on life, in all situations, and how to find that frame as quickly as possible from the negative side.
Without a love of trail running and the discipline to keep going out there no matter what I don’t believe I would have found the resolve and purpose to make these decisions and live this way.
As I KEEP SAYING “The Truth is in the Training”
How physical training orients you
Let’s get one thing sorted first, it’s not just ANY type of physical training.
It has to be physical training that’s tied directly to your spirit through love.
Love of the activity
Love of of the process
Love of the person you become through them both
Without love, you’re not able to get the true depth of the activity, you’re blocked out from the meaning.
There’s that word again; MEANING.
One of the big things missing in people’s life that they regret.
Here’s another thing that physical training in an activity you love gives you; COURAGE
Hey wait a minute, wasn’t that the other word people zoomed in on when they mentioned regret?
They didn’t have enough of it to live how they pleased or find happiness in a way that meant something to them.
Playing a sport you love passionately brings you to community, gives you a network of people who share your values, and who can encourage you to become more authentic.
Playing a sport you love reminds you of joy, fun, imagination, creativity, and the pursuit of excellence for its own sake. It provides tremendous meaning.
Playing a sport you love taps deep into the spirit, reveals deep truths about your character, and orients your values into a new hierarchy. It provides tremendous clarity of self.
Playing a sport you love can help you live a life free of regret in the present so you don’t have to ‘wish it my life weren’t so’ on your deathbed
I could go on, but I think I’ve made the point crystal clear.
Calibrating your aim directly on the target
The final piece in the puzzle in the importance of competition and a willingness to face the brutal truth of the contest.
This is such a crucial component of the equation, I spent almost an hour swirling around the idea in my latest podcast episode ‘On Serious Competition’
The contest reveals the truth.
It provides the growth in courage to face it head on.
You gain meaning in life by growing through the gaps it exposes.
The community around competition cannot be beat, you will find your people.
It the final calibrating tool in fine tuning your orientation in life.
To live as you demand, not limited by what others project onto you.
It’s the place you display your passion, pronounce your agency, demand your chance for glory.
It’s the ARENA TO LIVE FULLY IN THE MOMENT.
And ultimately that’s the beautiful truth of physical activity that helps us zoom out and recognize the forest for the trees, to see the true value of life, not just occupied by getting to the ‘next thing’ on the list of ‘things to do before you die.’
All those regrets, people living for the future.
And once they get there, they realized they missed the whole journey.
Sports you love slow down time through the physical effort, tell me time doesn’t stop when you’re sprinting as hard you can. LIAR if you say it doesn’t.
Sports you love take you deep inside yourself, no where to run and hide from the truth.
Sports you love give you the strength to keep going when others simply give up.
This is the biggest thing I see in the people I coach.
Unlocking the spiritual drive to live life on their own terms through unleashing their physical passion in sports and training.
I have lots of examples but one sticks out clearly in my mind, the first guy who ever took a chance on me as his coach.
He worked 60+ hours a week in a dangerous job.
He hit me up to get his zest for training back and wanted to aim it at reprioritizing family life and giving away some financial gains at work.
Over 2 years together, we got him into excellent shape (hitting weightlifting PRs and smoking trail half marathons in the Rocky Mountains) by tying daily physical activity to his best self. When he trains, he can take on all the adversity and find the true value. When he stops, he gets lured back onto the path of ‘running the rat race’ and losing sight of what he values most.
That courage to scale back at work and put money well behind spending time with his young family turned into determination to start a business and call his own shots. Now after almost 3 years of grinding, training, buying equipment, and proving himself, he’s set up to have this side hustle take over as his main career.
Even better, the new career helps him give back to community (he employs high school football players and gets them set up for a promising career in the trades) while being creative and artistic (you should see the landscaping and concrete work he does!).
But it all started with daily foundations in the gym, non negotiable. Once he found a way to work out that he loved and supported the best version of himself he literally TOOK OFF in life and has not looked back since.
Best part, he said he was inspired to create this dream life after seeing my example of quitting the university, living to spend time with my young family, and creating a career I loved that helped people by bringing the best of myself to help the most.
If you look at that list at the beginning of the article and think “Man, I’ve got a lot of work to do to turn this life ship around” you owe it to yourself to GO FOR IT and change the ship’s direction.
I’ve helped dozens of people find their true path, the courage and strength to break free and forge it for themselves, all through training in sports they love. I can help you too, but you need to take that all important first step. Send me a message below and let’s get to work making sure the life you live today isn’t a life you’ll regret when it’s all coming to an end. It would be my honor to work hard for your destiny, you deserve it.
Happy Training Team