Awesome people are awesome, so be awesome!

In my last post I talked about the importance of surrounding yourself with people who make you a better person, or “awesome people”. Awesome people can be found anywhere. They could taking out your trash. They could be packing your bags. They could be waiting your tables. Teaching your children. Cutting your hair. They can be absolute strangers who you have never met before. You may only know them for a day, or a few hours, or even a few seconds. It might be that random runner that you pass who sneaks in a quick “keep going” or head nod. It might be that person that tells you that everything is going to be alright when you are feeling down. Or, it might be a crowd of people you don’t know, cheering you on when you are giving it your all. These are awesome people. People which help or at least try to help you to become the strongest version of yourself whether it be in the realms of mind, body, or spirit.

“SURROUND ME, AWESOME THINGS!”

I witnessed many awesome people yesterday, and I myself participated in being an awesome person. I decided to watch a powerlifting meet as I myself shall be competing in one in a couple weeks. Lifters of all shapes and sizes were there. All ages. All ethnicities. All genders, all two of them. Each lifter, there to test their strength after spending weeks, months, years and even decades, of disciplined training, nutrition and recovery. Each lifter, doing what they love to do. And each lifter, having a supportive cheer squad to back them up during a long grinding lift and to applaud the effort whether it was a good lift or not.

This is the type of environment that I was talking about. The type of environment in which to surround yourself in. It did not matter if you were a male or female lifting 40kgs or 260kgs. There was a 45 year old woman who pulled 170kg off the ground and a 16 year old boy with 100kgs on his back. But none of that mattered. Each and every lift the crowd and fellow competitors were behind you, egging you on. Yelling and screaming for you to push, pull and drive with all your might when your legs are shaking and your face resembles a tomato. It did not matter if you were male or female, Russian or Asian, young or old. Each competitor there was there to give their best and everyone was there to see them get their best. There was no bad sportsmanship, no cheering for a missed lift, but rather applause for the effort of the lift. When a lifter was hitting that 10 second grinder rep where your mind comes to the crossroads of whether to stop or commit to the lift, people would be out of their chairs yelling “UP UP UP”, “GO GO GO” and they would take you to the end. And the cheering and applause when that lifter finishes the lift, just amazing. Even more amazing was the boyfriend who was literally jumping out of his shoes, clenching his fist and punching it to the sky when his girlfriend pressed a new personal record over her head.

I was waiting for this to happen.

I imagine it to be a similar feeling that hardcore sports fans have when they are cheering for their favourite team. The only difference here is you are cheering for everyone, as everyone wants to see you get that weight up. They want to help and see you hit that new personal record. They want to help and see you doing your best and being your strongest.

The whole meet is a big support base. From the spotters preventing you from being crushed when you fail to lift a weight, to the referees telling you where you went wrong in your lift. From the coaches helping you mentally prepare, to the other lifters giving you advice to help you on your next lift. The whole meet is one place where many awesome people congregate and help you kick ass. The powerlifiting community is one of the most supportive communities I’ve ever seen. No one is there to bring you down, only raise you up. I’m excited to become a part of it when I complete my first ever meet. I know I’ll have my training partner, my gym friends, and the crowd behind me, cheering me on and yelling at me to keep going when the lift gets tough. And I’ll be there to do the same.

At the end of the day, we all want to be the strongest and best versions of ourselves. I feel the best way to do that is by associating yourself with awesome people and getting amongst it, and not sitting on the sideline. I myself have been sitting on the sideline for too long. The time for thinking and wishing has past. The time for doing, that’s the time right now. I feel  this experience is going to be a step in the right direction. I cannot wait.

– Sash

Living Life in the Limbo Lane!

Limbo.

That strange and depressing feeling that you get when you feel that you are alive, but are not living. You are just existing in time and space. You’re moving but standing still and going nowhere. You feel like you are not controlling what is happening around you. Something else is controlling you to do things, or even worse, not do things. You feel guilty everyday about not accomplishing as much as you think you should. You compare yourself to others who are doing something with their lives and you envy them. They might not be happy but they are at least doing something. Better to be unhappy doing something than unhappy doing nothing, right? At least by doing something you are exposing yourself to the elements of life that might spark that one idea that could change everything. Just the action of giving your physical body to the world, to other people, and to other experiences seems like a step in the right direction. All these great characters in movies start from somewhere and it isn’t until they have this life big adventure that things in their life start moving

We should blaze this trail!

.Have you ever watched a movie, and wish that you were a character in that world? Sure the characters might live in a dangerous environment but their lives are filled with drive, direction, meaning, and purpose. They are having the adventure of their lives where they learn about themselves and the world, and come back as different people, for better or for worse. I know I have wished to be a character in so many worlds. I wished to be a Samurai after watching “The Last Samurai”. To commit myself to a life of discipline, to master my art and to be at peace with my body, mind and spirit. I wished to be a Pokemon trainer and have adventures with my dragon Pokemon companions. To fly to different places, battle other Pokemon trainers, defeat gym leaders and be the very best (like no one ever was).  I wished to be a wizard in the Harry Potter universe, to hone my skills, teach others the ways of magic and be known as a wise wizard. I wished I was the ability to bend earth, water, fire or air like Ang or Korra in the Avatar series.  I wished I had the power to teleport anywhere at will like Nightcrawler in X-men, or like Hayden Christensen in “Jumper”. I could be atop Mount Everest in the morning, Okinawa Japan at lunch, and Rio De Janeiro at night.

Want to go to Egypt now? Give me two seconds to get my coat!

The closest I’ve become to being someone else was in the virtual world of Azeroth in the Warcraft Universe. World of Warcraft was the opportunity to be someone else. The opportunity for a fresh start where no one knew who you were, what you looked like, what your age or gender was, what your occupation was, what your education was. None of that mattered. You were your in-game avatar and nothing else mattered. You had the chance to be a brave warrior, a cunning rogue or an intelligent mage to name a few. What you think you lacked in the real world could be personified in the character that you played. If you were not a brave and strong person you would have the opportunity to be one in the game. You even had a story to follow, and an adventure to embark on where you would decide how your adventure unfolded. You would fight great foes in dangerous dungeons with other great warriors being piloted by other real life people around the world. Friendships would develop and you would go on adventures together and have great stories to tell, even if it was in a world of pixels. I think from all of this it, is lack of adventure that it making me so depressed. The lack of the “new”. I don’t know at what point that I stopped wanting to experience new things and stop learning. To just go through life being content and thinking that what I knew was enough to get by and that I had experienced all that life had to offer.

I have never traveled out of my country of birth: Australia. I have spent all 25 years of my life on this island with no interest in travel, at least that is what I have been telling myself. When people talk of travel the first thing that comes to my mind is wondering how much it cost. What does this cost, what does that cost? A person I used to know told me many times that I should just travel, it does not matter where. Because there I will be experiencing things that I would not have otherwise been exposed to and I will most likely see life and myself in a different perspective.

This year I will be travelling for the first time. I will be going to Spain and will be partaking in the pilgrimage known as the El Camino de Santiago. I am in no shape or form religious but I feel a good thirty to forty days of just walking will give me a great opportunity to reflect, meet new people and just have an adventure for the first time in my life. Maybe it might even be better than the ones in the movies that I watch. Who knows?  I think it is adventure that I yearn for. I think this is what I need, and I’m going to make it happen.

ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!

– Sash