It’s you versus you. We’ve all heard this before, and as cliché as it seems, we seldom ask ourselves ‘why’. Why are the most significant battles we face against the one staring back at us in the mirror? Why is our greatest opponent ourselves? The answer is simple. All the obstacles in the world still can’t tell you ‘no’. No amount of complexity or chaos can say when you’re ‘finished’ or that you’ve had ‘enough’. Only YOU can make that decision. Pain and discomfort can’t look back at you and tell you to give up, settle for mediocrity or take the easy path. No, only you can do that. You are the sole chooser of where you stop along the way. You decide how far you are willing to go or how much you are willing to endure in pursuit of your dreams, goals or vision of success. I’ll use today’s training session as an example: 2 sets of stairs, 15 pull-ups and 30 pushups repeated for 10 rounds with a weighted vest followed by a swim. During this session, I didn’t negotiate with my weakness or rationalize with the voice in my head telling me to quit. I charted my course well before the workout started. I went into it knowing it will be uncomfortable at times. There was no ‘thinking’. All I saw was the next task in front of me and simply said ‘yes’. Freedom is separating what you have to do with the pain associated with doing that thing. When you separate the task from discomfort and the pain from the objective, both pain and discomfort become part of the audience as you proceed to do exactly what you showed up to do. After all, what’s left to hold you back if you can’t talk yourself out of doing it? All that’s left is forward progress. #youvsyou #staythecourse #keepgoing #discipline #mindset #selftalk #trainhard #12laborsproject #fitness #strengthandconditioning