My 13 year old son prepares to peakbag Mount Morgan South (seen in the distance) in the Eastern Sierra, a 13,900 foot (4250m) requiring a class 2/3 scramble over large talus during a 13-mile (21k) round trip run/hike all above 10,000 ft elevation. If he can do things like this (and he did!) while being a normal kid who spends the majority of his time in school, playing music, and playing video games, you can accomplish amazing things too, without having to burn the candle from both ends.
The most precious commodities in life are time and energy. We can’t make more of either and we always wish we had more of both. Training for sport puts serious demands on these limited resources that we value so much, and yet, it can be easy to lose track of how much of ourselves we invest into our sports. Transforming your training is an intentional mindset based on the premise that you can achieve your goals while reducing your investment of time and energy into training.
Reclaim those valuable resources and have enough of both to be fully present in the roles and relationships in your life that matter to you — and reclaim some spare bandwidth to cope with all of the difficulties that life throws at us.
So, what’s the catch?
Just this: You have to know what you want and you have to be able to take an honest inventory of your life.
The question is, if you could achieve more while training less, would you make that change?
There are all different flavors of athletes among us (you’re an “athlete” in my book if you take a regular interest in a sport); I know that some athletes relate to their sport as their lifestyle, so it’s not just an activity or an outlet for competition, it’s a source of friendships, a place to blow off stress, and a way to experience things like adventure and excitement. For some people, it can even be a positive focus to steer away from unhealthy patterns, like substance use. The people who relate to sport in these ways are the people I enjoy working with the most — and they’re also the people who have potential to make big gains. It’s natural to resist change, but subtly shifting how and where you invest energy can result in positive changes — not just in your performance, but in your life satisfaction.
It’s amazing what making a holistic assessment of your life can do for your perspective. Most of us don’t slow down enough to step back and see the bigger picture of our own lives. When someone does, they see things they never noticed. They realize their goals could be more clearly defined, their approach could benefit from some realignment, the amount of training they believed was necessary has actually been a little unnecessary, and they learn how to be present with their accomplishments instead of immediately becoming engulfed in future thoughts about the next thing.
I really enjoy walking people through their personal inventory and witnessing the lightbulb come on when the ideas click. It’s easy to cruise along the familiar path on autopilot; sometimes we just need a nudge in a less-familiar direction that leads to a great place.