Why is it everyone wants to take the easy route? It seems everyone wants everything fast and easy anymore, including a strong, healthy body. People want to just ignore the blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice now-a-days and just use a needle, a magic potion, or the worst of the worst: get IMPLANTS! If you are like me, our grandfathers never lived that way. Hell, my grand dad would work his fingers to the bone for everything he had, and then work some more to 'stay busy'. He was an infantry soldier in WW2, left college where he was studying to be an engineer and enlisted because he felt it was the "right thing to do". He left his wife and kids at home to go and fight for his country, then he came home and started his own diary business that left him with enough money and enough comforts that when he passed he was happy, successful, and surrounded by the people that loved him. He won numerous medals in the war, including the Bronze Star, which is awarded either for combat heroism or for meritorious service. I miss him greatly.
My step-father is the same way, always an honest dollar. He was in the Army, then earned two masters degrees and put 30+ years into the public school system as a teacher and guidance councilor, all the while running a beef cow farm! Even now, at 74 years old, he still works FULL TIME, 6 am to 2 pm, construction work. He builds houses from the ground up, and then comes home and works on projects at his own house.
These two men know and knew the importance of hard work. I am glad they passed it on to me. No quick fixes, no short cuts. Though I don't have a hard labor job, I will give you an honest days work ANY day of the week. Before I finished college, I took a year off and worked at a saw mill. If you have never experienced that, I highly recommend it. Basically, it was a giant building with a roof and no walls. Inside this building was a large saw and a conveyor belt. A grader would grade the lumber, and draw a cut line, the saw man would cut the boards where the grader marked them, then they would come down the belt to us. We had 15-20 huge carts we loaded with green lumber, boards ranging from 4' long and 1" thick to 20' long and over 2" thick! I did this from 6 am to 4 pm, 5 days a week. In the winter, we would freeze our asses off. In the summer, it was so hot you could fry an egg on the side of the conveyor rails. It was rough work, but it paid the bills long enough for my wife to finish her schooling. It didn't take long for me to realize that I needed to go back unless I wanted to do this for the rest of my life for a measly $10 an hour.
The same holds true in the weight room. Hard Work is the single most important factor in achieving your goals. It doesn't matter if you are training for powerlifting, bodybuilding, fighting, work, what ever, HARD WORK is the piece of the puzzle that will take you to the promise land.
So what are you doing in the weight room? The same thing you did yesterday? Last week? Last year? Did you increase your weights today? Did you squeeze out 1 more rep? 60 years from now, when you are a granddad, what are your grandkids going to learn from you? Will they see a man who lied, cheated, and took the easy route? Or, will they see someone who stood for his morals and beliefs, worked his fingers to the bone, and never ever gave an inch?
Tomorrow, when you grip that cold, knurled steel, remember this: Every great structure you see has been built by hard work and dedication. Your body is no different. Train so hard that afterwords you can honestly look in the mirror and say, "I could not have done 1 more pound or 1 more rep." Do that, and any goal is achievable.
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