On Saturday, April 14th, 2012, four first-time competitors took to the stage at the 2012 OCB Eastern Regional’s bodybuilding Championships in Baltimore, MD.  Each brought a level of symmetry, poise, and beauty to the stage they had never before achieved, and each walked away victorious, placing within the top 5 of all categories entered.  The
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Do you know Heaven? Have you had the blessed opportunity during your days on this planet to find that thing, that person, that activity or event or song or painting, that transformed this clump of mud into clouds and sky? Have you found your Heaven? Have you found your bliss, your rapture, your radiant awesomeness?
Do you know Heaven? And will you fight for it, now and forever? Will you never let it go?

You grab the edge of the Band-Aide, peeling up the very corner, ready to pull back, and you stop– there is a flash of hesitation and fear– you know that it’s going to hurt no matter how you remove it, that you can try to slowly peel it back and hope the pain is reduced,
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Bodybuilding.com is one of, if not the biggest bodybuilding sites on the internet. Each week they feature a Transformation of the Week. This week they have selected David as the “Male Transformation of the Week”

So I decided I would be Wolverine, but my own version, without the genetic mutation. I would be impervious to pain, and guilt, and fear. I would make the decision to not let things touch me so deeply. I would learn to let it roll off my back.
The decision to be Wolverine, to be indestructible, is not something magically discovered. It is not something one is born with. It is a choice. It is choosing to fully accept and acknowledge the fact that only you are responsible for your own happiness; that the circumstantial and uncontrollable aspects of your life are ultimately irrelevant and contribute in no large part to your current place in life. Lining your soul with an adamantium skeleton and attacking life with adamantium claws is not hard-wired in one’s person.

“Today, January 1st, 2011, is the first day of me being successful. January 1st, 2011, is the first day of the rest of my life. I resolve to finally accomplish my goal.” A resolution is the grand-daddy of do-overs, the final do-over committing to no more do-overs. It is commitment to the notion that there are no more dress rehearsals, that every moment matters, and that it’s time to ensure you quit repeating the same mistakes, you quit asking time to wait up, to spare a second, and instead, jump on board the train marching tirelessly towards its destination.

What if we could take the model of the film, where every aspect is consciously selected, and apply it to our own lives? What if we could make our lives into movies?

“See, I don’t train for reps, I don’t train for time. I train for failure. I like to see my body fail. I like to stay in bed for a whole day because that’s how tired I am from working.” – Ray Lewis – Baltimore Ravens

Ever make a decision that you knew in advance was going to piss people off? That would enrage everybody? That would be criticized as wrong, or foolish, or impossible? Did that criticism stop you, or did you move forward? I don’t mean stopping to consider the arguments; after all, I’m a big fan of weighing
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I know that in many regards I’m a pretty odd duck, so some of the things I find motivational might be “off the beaten path”. But I’ll do my best to deliver the honest-to-goodness spirit of what drives me further. Hopefully it will help you in your own quest.