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By
Phil Stevens |
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Multi Sport Champion’s?
Even multi-disciplinary champions or experts in any realm,
be it business, the arts, or sports. Take a minute. Write,
or get a mental list. How many people can you name who have
truly reached the pinnacle of any aspect in life in more than
one discipline?
Now of those, how many have
reached those heights simultaneously? None? Very few? One
jumps out to me in Bo Jackson, but then again his career was
cut short prior to being able to be claimed a real champion.
Bo simply had what looked like the tools to be a multi-sport
champion some day.
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So, what am I getting at here? Why
ask these questions? It is simply my attempt to plainly explain
and convince you of the fact that if you want to excel, be the best,
or the best you can be at something, you MUST make a choice to have
that one passion as your primary goal; all other things MUST suffer.
Some things must go or be set on the back burner and take a lesser,
or at times, no degree of importance and practice in your road to
reaching excellence at the goal you have chosen to concentrate.
I don’t care what your goal is,
how accepted, unaccepted, noble or looked down upon, if you truly
want to reach the highest levels of performance at any one thing
you must give, in order to take. You MUST choose your path and accept
the negatives to reach the positives you so desire, or simply accept
the fact and be OK with being OK at many things, at not ever reaching
your potential at any one given, sport, trade or lifestyle.
Again this is not exclusive to fitness
or athletics, though it certainly holds true in those arenas, but
it holds true in every aspect of our lives. Motherhood for example,
if you want to be the best mom, that career you enjoyed, the nights
out getting sloshed with the girls, a lot of that stuff is going
to have to go or at the very least be put on the back burner. Same
can be said for a great artist, an enterprising business man, a
musician, they all give to take.
If you want to be a great power lifter
you are likely going to have to throw many things aside. You will
likely give up those long runs you once enjoyed, that 6 pack the
kids all swoon over. You learn to train hard and heavy, recover
hard and heavy. Learn to take it day by day, and that this is not
something reached over night. You’re are going to be giving
up things, training hard, eating for your goals, sore, beat up,
and fighting for years to be the best you can be. Accept the fact
you’re not going to be a great or possibly even decent distance
athlete if you’re a limit strength athlete and that’s
OK. It’s normal to give things up, let things slide - and it’s
a must to reach the top.
Excellence in any profession or trade
is NOT reached over night. It’s not a short sprint, but a long
ride. A ride made up of hills and valleys, tough and easy, pain
and love, tears of joy and pain. So you better learn to enjoy that
ride even though it’s not all going to be roses and daffodils.
Give it your all. Out of that, out of that giving, out of all those
small pleasures you discard or place to the side today, you will
get back a far greater satisfaction from your dedication and reaching
something most others won’t dare to take on.
If it was easy to reach excellence
at any given pursuit the world would be full of Olympic Champions,
Pablo Picasso‘s, Donald Trumps’ and June Cleavers‘.
If it didn’t require giving, pain, tears, and years to reach
the echelon then everyone would do it.
Now go take a big look inside. Look
at your joys, drives, what you truly love in life. Also take an
honest look at your other life style choices and habits. Be honest
of what you truly love, and what you can and cannot set aside, and
pick your goals accordingly. You must accept, and not regret (and
try not to question) your choices. It’s natural, and needed
to set things aside, put things on the back burner. Everyone does
it, EVERYONE.
Of course WHAT things get set aside
are individual, different things for different life goals. I don’t
care what anyone says, no one’s goals or choices of what to
set aside are more wrong, right, or noble then the next guys - they
are just theirs. They are your individual choices of what will get
you to your individual goal(s).
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So make those choices.
Wise thought out choices of paths to follow, and things to
set aside to follow them. Dedicate yourself to something,
set aside some months and years to reach something truly memorable.
Don’t let
others beat you up over your choices, and even worse and almost
more prevalent, don’t make your own trip harder than
it has to be, or worse yet impossible by not fully accepting
your choice and what it takes to reach them as yours.
Remember, even
if it’s years, or decades you dedicate and set things
aside to reach your goals you have reached something many
have not, and now look, those things you set aside, those
can be your goals now.
Life is not over;
you can have many chapters, but better, in my opinion, to
have a few fully realized chapters then a book full of title
pages with no substance.
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About The Author
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Coach Phil Stevens is an accomplished
strength athlete with considerable experience in both powerlifting
and strongman competition. Phil is the 2007 APA World Champion
in the 242-pound class (total). He currently holds the APF
275-pound class raw National bench, squat, deadlift, and total
records. Phil’s marquis lift was his 700-pound raw deadlift,
performed on February 14, 2009 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Phil has been ranked in the
“Top 10” in the deadlift Nationally across all powerlifting
federations, and in addition to his coaching duties at Staley
Training Systems, he also serves as the Arizona State Chair
for the North American Highlander Association, as well as
the founder of Lift For Hope, an annual strength-competition
with proceeds donated to Charity (www.Lift4Hope.org).
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