[SB #231] Consistency is The Competition

I’m Matt, and welcome to Steady Beats. If you like to walk for a better life, and also like Dire Straits’ “Walk of Life,” you just might like this newsletter.

Her question came on the fifth step of a journey we’re taking together all too often of late.

“Do you think you’ll be able to do this in ten years?”

It was piercing and pointed—the kind of question my daughter specializes in.

I had to ponder it for a few steps.

Some find my workout regimen odd. Sometimes I find it odd, also.

There’s no grand goal I’m working toward. No road race. No powerlifting or other fitness competition.

I get why people love doing those. They provide a destination to point towards. A purpose and structure for training. A way to measure progress against yourself, and your peers.

I see competition differently.

The competition was sharp last Friday morning. It had been a long couple of weeks, capped off with a lousy night of sleep on Thursday. I didn’t want to go to the gym at 6:30am.

I didn’t skip.

And the workout was misfiring, honestly—an engine sputtering, trying to get the fuel and oxygen mix correct. Reps evaporated. Sets that normally cap out at 10 reps capped out at 9 … or 8.

Those workouts on the cusp—the ones where we’re healthy enough and have time to go, and don’t want to—those make the difference over the long haul. The ones we have to shudder and sputter through. That’s how we win this game over the long haul.

Consistency is the competition.

My daughter, who is 20, has a rare genetic condition. When triggered, it hampers her ability to use her muscles properly. Walking becomes problematic, for example. Sometimes, walking isn’t an option at all.

When she struggles, I’m the elevator, carrying her up and down the 16 steps between the first and second floors of our home.

It was on the fifth step of a recent trip upstairs when she posed the question.

“Do you think you’ll still be able to do this in ten years?”

Hmm. I’ll be 60 years old at that point. And while there are factors outside our control, of course, I was confident in my answer.

“Yeah. Yeah I think I will.”

Consistency is the competition.

Thank you for reading.

Let’s keep the Steady Beats going. 💚

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