Identify Your Today To
Reach Your Tomorrow

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By Phil Stevens

Goals, Progress, PR’s, advancement. We all want them and strive for them in some form. The largest road block is surprisingly not a lack of focus on our goal, on the end but a lack of focus on today, the starting point.

We spend the majority of our time milling and pondering over the ending, Point B. Never occurring to us that most plans fail not for a lack of identifying the ending point, but from not accurately identifying the starting point. Point A. It would much like if you were to get blindly dropped in an unknown location with an Atlas and your instructed to make your way to New York City.

Well what the??? It aint going to do a damn bit of good to map backward from New York City to your current location when you don’t know where the heck that current location is. Mapping, and any planning you is all for not, just wasted time.

The number one priority after picking your general goals is to identify where are you now? In training and nutrition this is what I describe as finding your margin’s.

What are margin‘s. Much like a piece of paper its our limits, boundaries, a clear definition of our abilities. Its your zone of comfort, your current ability in varied attributes that play a role in your goals. For instants an athletic goal will have multiple margins. Of course one for training, you may even break that down further into varied strength attributes that lend to your goal, cardiovascular ability, limit strength, endurance strength etc.. Nutrition and supplementations. Rest and recovery, among others that you need to honestly address and identify your current state. In order to then make a plan of attack.

For example well to individuals and ID their margins.

#1 total beginner to training and nutrition, a desk jockey who has never trained in any aspect or taken part in any real athletic endeavor in a serious, or semi serious nature . Along side this total beginner we have a seasoned gym rat.

Maybe he grew up playing sports and living an active lifestyle. He has lifted, built a decent base of strength. Has a decent knowledge of eating habits, and training. They both happen to sit down and see the same broadcast of Worlds Strongest Man and decide, That’s IT!!! My passion is to be the Worlds Strongest Man.

Neither of them has ever once touched a strongman implement let alone ventured into this type of training competition at all, but both now have a passion, a goal, an end point that’s clear in their mind. What’s Next?? Identify their Margins.

Sit down, take an objective and honest view of yourself in contrast to what you want to become or achieve, and then make note of your current status or abilities.

For simplicity were going to narrow it down to three simple attributes that each will need, Training, Nutrition, and Rest and Recovery. The blue lines are the current newbie margins. The red lines, the gym rat. Anything inside the margins equals their current ability or comfort zone. Anything lying out side these lines equals the potential for growth and progress.

Times a wastin’ you got your goals now go ID your Margins. Next week Ill discuss the next step Action, How one uses these defined abilities to progress toward their goals.

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About The Author

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, 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).