Being “All In”

How do you feel about your training? Maybe on a bigger scale, how do you feel about your lifestyle? Is your lifestyle symbiotic with your goals? Writing this from the perspective of a gym and training makes this easier for me to write, but also a way to explain what being “all in” means to me and what it might mean for you. 

The easiest way to explain being all in is simple; everything you do, from your habits, nutrition, ways you choose to spend your time, even reading material, and more, is working towards one thing or one goal. Maybe that goal is to balance your time as you need to, maybe that one goal is academic, or perhaps within your career, in the case I’ll explain, within your training. You first need to decide upon a goal; for ease, let’s say you want to win your next powerlifting meet, or as a bigger reach, you want to qualify for a national level meet. If that’s your goal, then everything you do, needs to be with intent and purpose to reach that goal. Your training needs to be intentional and focused, your diet (yes powerlifters, even hobby lifters, need a decent diet) needs to be locked in, your lifestyle, who you choose to spend time with, what you spend time doing, and sleep, all need to be in line to chase that goal. When you’re in this phase, you may lose friends who don’t understand your passions and your goals (it should be that intense…), but the ones that stick around are the ones you want in your life. You may have people trying to put you down, if only because they aren’t able to do what you’re doing. I’ve fallen victim to it as well, but if you find yourself thinking after every training day “that wasn’t good enough” or “that wasn’t the day I wanted”, and it has continued for days or weeks on end either consistently or even off and on, it may be time to take a good look at why and fix it. Days not being what you want is unacceptable, not because it’s necessarily bad, but because you’re counting on yourself to accomplish a goal, and if you were doing what you could to achieve it, you’d understand how to fix it and be taking steps to do so. Even if you’re handling other stressors at home or work, being all in means you take steps to handle that stress while being intentional about achieving those training goals. If this seems like it’s too over the top for you, or doesn’t seem necessary, then you just may not be someone who can’t be all in. That’s not a bad thing either, you don’t need to be, but if you want something bad enough, you should do everything you can to achieve it. We’re all capable of great things. Speaking from experience, I’ve half-assed many things in my life while thinking I was putting enough effort into them. I thought I was “all in” on certain things until I realized where my faults were, why it was taking so long, and cleaned them up. At this point, my lifestyle revolves around quality within what I want to achieve. For me, that was understanding more of my training, a cleaner diet, quality sleep, finding my inner circle of real friends, quality time with my significant other, and designated time spent learning to further myself mentally, academically, and within my career. I’ve taken the time to understand what needs done and worked towards achieving it.

Being all in doesn’t have to be focused on one goal either, yes at times it will be, in the case of the previous example. But maybe you want to be “all in” on balancing your career, training, relationships, and lifestyle. There are so many variables to consider here but if you want all of these things to coexist and each hit individual goals within their spheres, then you need to put your focus into doing so. Maybe you’re a hobby lifter or someone health conscious that enjoys training but you want to succeed in another aspect of your life while continuing to enjoy training, that’s perfectly okay. That’s where the “all in” balance comes in. A balanced lifestyle is difficult, especially if you want to accomplish big things within each aspect of your life, but if you’re focused on achieving these things, and you pursue them with vigor and intent, then you will achieve them. If you allow yourself to let one of them fall to the wayside, then eventually they all will and you’ll find yourself once more haphazardly stumbling through. Because one lazy rep may not matter, but you’ll allow yourself another lazy rep later, then another later, until they’re all lazy. 

Damn I’ve said intent a lot. It’s one of my favorite words, and it has deep meaning for me, in every aspect of my life. I digress. As I said, maybe you didn’t like this blog post, maybe it drove a point home you weren’t ready for, I’ve written this in my head so many times, and the first time I even heard this idea spoken some months ago on a podcast, I felt targeted, and a little embarrassed. This got me to get my ass in gear and start working towards the goals that I wanted without fear, because I was trying. Find something you want to be all in with. Be intentional. Work towards what you want with purpose and intention. It won’t be simple, but it is easy.

For additional words on the topic, Dave Tate's Table Talk podcast episode with Dave Hoff, the all time greatest equipped powerlifter, titled "Lifting Big Weights Hurts", minute marker 115 to about minute 123, they discuss this a bit.