When I was 17, my football career ended, and it was traumatic.
I was a senior in high school, and a few years prior had basically walked on to the JV team as a sophomore with a weight loss goal. Football is a beautiful and violent sport, and I had seen enough to know that it wasn’t for me anymore after that. At any rate I wasn’t even close to good enough to get a scholarship, and walking on to a collegiate team while attempting to do a double major in engineering seemed unwise. So I was sad. I cried while my dad listened.
I guess I was sad because a lifestyle I had grown so fond of was coming to a close. Being an athlete is such a purposeful existence. You wake up and have a daily agenda with goals that are part of a big plan, and action steps to reach them. If you have teammates, even better. So much camaraderie and positive pressure can be really good at certain times in our lives. Let’s go!
It’s totally immersive in a way you can grasp and pour your emotional energy into. I always had somewhere to be and something engaging to do. Meanwhile, attending lectures, doing homework, and studying for tests is… not that. At least for me.
But, surprisingly, I didn’t stop training when it ended. I was sad for only a few weeks. Then, almost without thought I went down to the garage and did some sets of power cleans and push ups, because that was my habit. It was strange but felt good. At home we had only iron weights and a bare concrete floor, with wicker door mats to act as a slight landing pad for the plates. It was still winter and cold. I remember closing the garage door almost all the way, and turning on the gas heater, the clank of the iron plates in the dim light, and my breath. Fond memories.
I had probably formed too much of a habit and positive association with exercise at that point to put it down completely. I kept on the self-guided lifting for a while, and then started running, and then breakdancing, and then Triathlon, and then CrossFit, and now mostly lifting again. 20 years later, here I am, still going, no sports team, no season, still training.
What can you learn from this? The athlete lifestyle isn’t exclusive to athletes. Athlete is just another label anyway. You are so much more than one thing. If you think of yourself as “not athletic” that’s okay, but you don’t have to identify as an athlete to adopt the habits and structures that can make a great life for yourself.
Athletes go to bed on time. They study their craft academically, then go practice it, then review film to improve. They fuel their bodies with food that facilitates being the best they can be. They party with mindfulness that their big plans are still more important than that one party.
What gets in the way for you? I’m sure there is some real stuff that calls for your attention a lot of the time. But maybe, just maybe, some of that stuff is negotiable, and you can find a way to prioritize a lifestyle like an athlete.
My suspicion is that, at all times, there is immense social pressure on all of us to conform. We are each a fiber woven into an intricate social fabric that doesn’t stretch easily. Being an adult often means you prioritize serious adult things at the expense of your child-like desires.
What are some socially acceptable ways you can facilitate your athlete lifestyle? Sign up for something. A 5k. Color run. OCR event. Hike a short mountain with a friend. A lifting meet. An open water swim. A competition (maybe). Not because you are a competitor, but because by signing up for things you are self-identifying in a way that makes it easy for others to understand your priorities. It’s much easier to say no to more work or social events you don’t really want to say yes to if you have a tangible thing you are working towards instead. “Sorry I can’t, I’m training for this event that’s coming up” goes over much better than “sorry I can’t, I have a workout to do.”
Another way is to make appointments and put money down. We have a lot of social respect for scheduled time and money already spent. I won’t get into why, because by now I think you probably get this part.
But one thing that might still elude you is… you don’t need permission. From anyone. You can just decide to prioritize yourself and your goals. Making a great life for yourself is reason enough.
Coach Mauricio