Thursday, November 17, 2011

It Shouldn't Matter

Three days ago my 9 year old son had to take a test to see if he should be placed into a higher academic setting. When I picked him up from school, I asked him how the test went. He said, "It was okay, but why did they want to know what race I was? And why did they care about gender?" Really, out of the whole test, what stood out in my sons mind were these two questions. Before I could give him a "good" answer, he said "I think I filled it out right. I said I was white, but I don't really think of myself as white. I'm not really that pale." My heart melted. How beautiful is that?

In a world where color is not supposed to matter, it matters. Can you even imagine how wonderful this world would be if we all saw things through the eyes of a child? Through an achievement test, my son lost a little of his innocence. But through my son, the world gained a little bit of innocence. 

I have said in Becoming Bulletproof that we can learn a lot by watching children, but I was talking about physical movements. It doesn't stop there. We can learn a lot more than just how to move from watching children. We can learn how to be. We can learn about the wonder and beauty of innocence. 

Some things just shouldn't matter. We preach it. We don't really live it. We often follow opinions and rules before we follow our own heart, or gut. That is sad. 

Okay, since this is a blog about training, lets relate this to training: There are so many rules and opinions out there about how we should train, they literally put the human body into a box. Our limitations are only in our heads. If we fill our heads with rules and precious opinions about training, and we believe these notions, we put our body in a box. We don't belong in a box.

We should be able to do whatever, or train however, we want to without succumbing to certain schools of thought or rules. Some people think running a marathon is bad for you. Some people think training everyday will get you hurt. Some people think strength training should only be done in cycles. All that matters is: What do you think? Do you want to run? Run. Do you want to train everyday of the week because you enjoy it? Train. Do you want to be the strongest man on earth? You better quit listening to people - aim at your dream and go get. You can do almost anything as long as you don't know that you can't!

We are too wonderful to be put in boxes. If we truly are made in God's image, putting ourselves in boxes is no different than putting God in a box. We truly are capable of anything. 

Yesterday's Training:
100 bottoms up snatches with a 24K kettlebell - nonstop. Whew! First time!
Bottoms up clean and press with 28K kettlebell: 3/3 x 4 sets
Skips: 45 yards x 5 trips
Sprints: 45 yards x 10
  
Have a great weekend!

Tim



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