Only Getting Stronger

Only Getting Stronger Blog

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STRONGER MIND

Making good progress on reading through “Pour Your Heart Into It”! I’m about halfway through now and I’m looking forward to writing up my thoughts this weekend on what I’ve read so far... 

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June 21 - Day 1

It’s a cold, rainy Sunday evening and I’ve spent nearly the entire day being lazy, unproductive and generally depressed. I skipped going to Church... not because I didn’t want to go, but because I was just to lazy. I skipped going to guitar practice... again because I just couldn’t be bothered. And I love playing guitar. I really do want to learn. But laziness and depression are powerful. More on that later...

So, where now? I’ve got this awesome blog idea that has been ‘start and stop’ for nearly a year. And I don’t have an excuse to be lazy ALL day long. So, I figure this will be the first day of “the rest of my life.” Today is all about doing something small to just GET STARTED. Let’s see how it goes.

STRONGER BODY

Nothing too crazy today. Just enough to make me feel like less of a bum. Here’s the workout plan:

- Abs/Core circuit (3 sets): 50 jumping jacks, 50 crunches, 15 lying leg raises, 50 bicycle crunches, 30 second planks on the middle and side

- TRX Arms/Upper body (3 sets): 15 bicep curls, 15 rows, 15 tricep extensions, 15 press ups

STRONGER MIND

- 30 MINUTES OF READING: “Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time” by Howard Schultz. Why? Because I aspire to be a business owner myself. In order to do that I want to understand what other successful individuals have gone through on their journey to success. I don’t want to emulate Schultz exactly. But I recognize that attributes like hard work, perseverance, dedication, and self-confidence are critical to becoming a OGS man. I believe that reading books like these will help keep me in that mindset.

STRONGER SPIRIT

- This evening I’ll be spending some significant time relaxing, meditating, and praying. It’s been a long few days, and I need to calm my mind and focus on de-stressing. 

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Damn. Procrastination sucks.

So, Plan A didn't work, but... 

Ok, first things first. This is a confession. I had big plans for the first month or two of this blog. I was gonna kick things off by revealing my plans to run my first half-marathon, and tracking my training and progress on OGS as I went. What could have been a better way to start a blog on motivation and achieving challenging goals!? Nothing. Half-marathon was the way to go.

Yes, I still ran the half-marathon. I trained well enough (though to be honest it was kind of a half-assed training program), I raised pledges for charity, I bought fancy running shoes (for like $300!!), I showed up on race day, and I ACTUALLY RAN!

But I didn't blog about it. And that's a big deal because I wanted to share my story and maybe even inspire others to go out and achieve their goals. The point is, procrastination and laziness kept me not only from training like an OGS man would, but they kept me from starting this blog like a committed, all-in, professional OGS man would.

I'm going all in on Plan B

The point of this blog is to show myself that I can become the high-performing, achieving-my-potential, person-I-know-I-can-be self. It's about finally taking that thought in the back of my mind... that "I know if I tried, I could conquer the world" thought... and turning it into reality. And if I can't write a stupid blog to chronicle that journey, then I'm never going to have the discipline to make it happen. 

So today is a re-dedication to beginning that journey. I swear I'm going to do it. I'm going strategically improve my Body, Mind, and Spirit to the point where I know that I'm achieving my potential and I'm happy about it.

And I'm going to be brutally honest. When I fail, I'm going to acknowledge that I've failed. Then I'm going to get back up and keep trying. I have so many dreams for myself, and it's about damned time that I start achieving them. Over the life of this blog, I'll share those dreams with you all. I'll chronicle my progress. And hopefully, I'll inspire some of you to do the same.

Keep getting stronger,

Aaron

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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So this is it! Welcome to Only Getting Stronger Blog!

This is where I'll chronicle my journey to get stronger physically, mentally and spiritually every day by challenging myself to achieve those crazy goals that I know I'm capable of but just haven't done yet. Things like running marathons, biking cross country, getting back on the track for races, reading those classic books, writing my own book, and who knows what else!

So to get things started, here's a song that I use for inspiration. I'm not "there" yet, but I've started the journey... And if I can inspire other people to Get Stronger everyday, then the journey will be worth it.