Should I compete? That’s the question that keeps coming up. You want to but you don’t know if you’re good enough.
You’ve been training for a while and either you or the people around you have noticed. You move better, things that used to be difficult are now easy for you. That’s when the hunger, the itch starts. It might begin with someone at work asking you how much you can bench press. You might see a flyer advertising a 5k or even an obstacle race. Then there are the YouTube and Instagram posts. It seems as if the whole world is competing in something. But is it right for you? You chose the garage gym lifestyle because you wanted to play by your own rules; who’s to say you have to compete in anything to make your fitness journey legitimate?
And screw those girls from high school anyway. They were all fake. It doesn’t matter if that clown at work doesn’t appreciate how hard you’ve worked to get the bodyfat off and to build strength. His opinion about your training program doesn’t matter because at the end of the day, this is your body, your goals and your life. You don’t need anybody else’s applause to prove that you’ve made it. Just looking at yourself now compared to those old pictures from last year when you were ashamed to take your shirt off at the pool or you wore that bulky sweater to hide the extra fat from the having the baby, just looking at the new you in the mirror where nobody else is invited is enough. Just enjoying the looseness in your clothes and smiling to yourself as you realize that you’re about to be able to give away another set of clothes because the sleeves are too tight and the waist on those pants is too loose. That should be enough.
But still when you see yourself in the mirror, more and more the person looking back at you wants to know. And there’s only one way to find out….
John Greaves III is a freelance writer in North Georgia. He is the founder of Garage Gym Life and a graduate of The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. John’s diverse athletic and writing background allows him to write about a variety of topics from sports to business. You can find out more about him including how to have him guest post on your blog, write for your magazine or ghostwrite a piece for you by clicking here.