Do You Strive, or Despise Being “Good”?
“Good is the enemy of great” was the statement that resonated with me throughout my reading of the business book “Good To Great”, by Jim Collins, over the weekend. At fist, I must say that I was both dumbfounded and taken aback by this statement. After all, how could this possibly be true? I have always thought of being “good” as a stepping-stone towards greatness and Mr. Collins was telling me that I couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
What the author was trying to get across in this bold statement, was that it is simply much easier to settle for being “good” at something than it is to strive to be great. Furthermore, he hammers in his point by offering us some insight into the great minds that achieve greatness, they are simply not satisfied with being good; in fact, they despise it. This very thought forced me to reflect upon how we can take this mentality from a business perspective and apply it to a fitness mindset. In fact, this was the starting point for this very article; to find the things that take someone with a good physique and makes them great. You may be as surprised as I was to find that it’s often the little things, done consistently, that have the greatest influence on greatness.
Achieving greatness in your fitness endeavors begins when you first wake up…or does it? We have all heard that breakfast is the most important time of the day, and although it is very important, I think that something else above all should take priority, waking up on time. Someone who is “good” will hit the snooze button once or twice and then, consequently, be forced to rush through the remainder of their day. However, those who are great don’t hesitate to roll out of bed, in fact they are excited to!
FIT TIP: Wake up earlier. By simply giving yourself an extra 10 minutes a day, you give yourself a very valuable time cushion. This cushion allows you to double check that you have successfully packed everything you will need throughout your day. Another benefit of not being rushed is that this keeps your catabolic stress hormone, cortisol, at a low from the get-go of your day.
Another tool that will take you from good to great is simple planning. In teachers college this is one thing that is stresses constantly. Most of us wander through the day trying to have a meal or a shake every three hours or so. And although this is a good starting point, in order to achieve greatness in our nutritional habits, a definite meal plan with allocated times is required
FIT TIP: Plan your meals. Although a continual alarm on your phone that goes off every 2-3 hours is a great start in meal planning, what really must happen, in order to achieve greatness, is that you develop a strong structure. You must sit down with your school schedule and decide not only on the precise time that you will eat, but also the macronutrient breakdown of each meal. This breakdown should ensure that you reach your appropriate levels of protein, carbs and fats on a daily basis.
Now that you have established a strong foundation of fitness greatness, the only thing left to do is to be great in the gym. Far to often I find that people simply wander in the gym and simply train the muscle groups that “feels” ready to train. I assure you that those with great physiques plan well in advance not only which muscle groups that they will train on any given day, but also the amount of reps they MUST reach for each and every set.
FIT TIP: Keep a logbook. Knowing how much weight you lifted and the number of reps you performed on your previous weight lifting session is the only way to ensure constant improvements and a path to greatness. In order to go from a good physique to a great one, this simple task must be accomplished ritualistically. Great lifters always strive to outdo themselves (by this I mean they either a- lift more weight or b- perform more reps than their preceding workout) and this is what makes them great.
Final Thought: It’s easier to be "good"
In all, it is simply easier to be good at something. All you need to do is eat most your meals, do an ok job in the gym and be kind of prepared. However, I challenge you to be great, plan you meals, wake up on time and follow through when you say you will.
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Thank you for reading and
Keep on Raising The Bar!
#RTB
Rob Thomas Bouchard
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