Personal Ownership Principle #1 – Action Over Time
“If it’s worth having, it’s worth fighting for…
We don’t control time. We can’t rewind time, fast forward it, pause it, or stop it. However, we can control our focus and how we use energy relative to time. We can control our actions. Any meaningful goal in life will most likely take a relatively long period of time to accomplish. With significant time comes both adversity and opportunity. The key is to continue to act in the face of adversity so we are able to reach the opportunity.”
Pg. 43, Adapt and Overcome by Travis Daigle
For a goal to be worth having implies that there is something deeply meaningful about the goal. In this portion of the book I am referencing my struggles with obesity. My goal at the time was simply to get in better shape but the meaning behind that goal was the acquisition of self worth and self confidence. To fight for something means it’s worth navigating present day struggles, disappointments, and obstacles in order to maintain forward pressure on the process of reaching the goal. As I’ve said many times, I struggled for 7 years trying to lose weight. I gave literal blood, sweat, and tears, year over year in a failing effort. It was incredibly heartbreaking at times and 30 years later it still draws tears out of me when I talk about it.
The future goal requires present day action. The future goal (if it’s truly meaningful) is going to be tough to achieve, which means it will most likely take a relatively long period of time. Over long periods of time our daily actions will be met with resistance and sometimes massive challenges. In order to navigate these challenges and keep moving forward we want to choose goals that have deep meaning to us. Keep in mind that there is no guarantee of success. Learning to fight and struggle for something is just as important as the thing itself. We tend to build character and mental strength through navigating difficult circumstances versus easily achieving every goal we set. However, let’s not forget that time can also bring opportunity and circumstances that are favorable to our efforts.
Principle #1 in Practice: Rehabilitating an Old Injury
When I started working out it was 1992. According to wikipedia, websites weren’t available for general use until about 1994. We didn’t have a computer in our home until about 1996. The availability of knowledge online about exercise was limited. In particular, knowledge of stretching, mobility, and injury rehabilitation was limited. Due to an old ankle injury when I was around 6 years old and the chronic stress of my childhood, I had major mobility problems when I first started working out. Up until recent times, my left ankle and right hip have always been excessively tight. Much of that stiffness and dysfunction came from poor rehabilitation of the ankle injury (There was no rehab. I couldn’t walk for 2 weeks and when it stopped hurting I went on with life. We didn’t have any access to medical intervention.). Also, chronic stress exacerbated by chronic overtraining (between 1992-2000) created immobility in my hips (primarily my right hip). This would lead to major back issues later on.
Fast forward to 2012, I was leaving the US Army and a Doctor of Physical Therapy named Kelly Starrett was putting free videos on YouTube showing people how to improve their movement quality and how to approach injury rehab. And then, a few years ago (2020) a guy named Ben Patrick started putting videos online showing people the exercises he used to rehab his knees from chronic pain. In the 90’s and 2000’s, it was becoming hard for me to imagine a life where I didn’t have chronic patellar tendinitis and back issues. But I would not relent. I kept training and I kept looking for solutions. My mind was always on alert looking for new strategies. When these guys popped up online, I was primed to take advantage of their knowledge because I never gave up on the process of improving my body. Due to the work of these men and many other experts who make their knowledge available online, my left ankle is functioning properly and improving daily, my right hip has opened up considerably and I’m not having back problems anymore, and I’m more athletic in my 40’s than at any other point in my life.
What if I let knee pain and back pain discourage me so much that I just gave up on exercise? What if I assumed at age 30 when I left the military, that I was past my prime and there was no longer any point in trying to improve the condition of my lower body and back? I hesitate to think about this next one but, what if I would have never started working out in 1992 because I was in pain and lacked knowledge or real world examples? As much as I appreciate the physical transformations, I am way more appreciative of the lessons in resilience and perseverance that working out has taught me over the years. In that way, pursuing personal fitness has been similar to what team sports do for a child’s character. This is important because often my physical challenges in being obese, having chronic knee pain, and back problems kept me on the sideline in sporting activities when I was growing up. If I did participate, my athletic expression was severely limited compared to other kids.
Action over time has yielded fruit:
- The pursuit of health and performance has resulted in more calm and peace in other parts of my life (I’m passionate about fitness and this is why I believe people need to cultivate their passions/interests. It’s not always about getting a dollar or some other tangible reward. Joy and peace of mind are much more valuable!)
- As time has pressed on, technology has allowed me to connect to information that has led to massive gains in athletic ability at an age where society considers you more than over the hill (I’m 41 at the time of writing this and I’m regularly training in Boxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu).
- As I’ve continued to be relentless about my pursuit of health and fitness, time has revealed patterns. I’m able to strategize around major life events, navigate injuries, and adapt to surprises in life and keep my fitness moving forward because I’ve gained more wisdom with time.
I’m talking a lot about health in this post but can you think of ways this might apply to your job/career field, your relationships, or your personal finances?
This isn’t a message to ‘never quit’. This is a message to keep going as long as it’s still meaningful. Sometimes we have to find and make meaning in things because they’re necessary to live (like jobs we don’t love). Sometimes we have to make the space to quit things that have lost meaning and we can’t see ourselves getting that meaning back (like a relationship that has gone bad). I can’t tell you precisely when to pivot or when to persevere but in the next post we’ll talk about the second principle (understand your story) from my book that might help you answer that question.
Reflect
In the last post I asked you to think about your life in relation to the pandemic. Now let’s be more granular. Focus on a specific habit that either improved or got worse during the pandemic. If you have an example of both, use each one. List factors in your life that helped you improve the habit that got better and list factors that impeded the habit that got worse. I’m focusing on habit change because that’s what action over time toward a goal is – moving our habits into alignment with a future we desire.
Here’s an example from my life:
During the pandemic my savings rate improved for several reasons:
- I moved from Washington State to Arkansas so my cost of living dropped significantly.
- I actually have made more money per hour at both of the jobs I’ve had here in Arkansas versus any job I had in Washington State. This feels like a complete fluke but it is partially because of my military background.
- My wife and I have only been married for 8 months but we’ve lived together for 2 years and sharing the bills is a tremendous help. On top of the fact that we’re both financially responsible!
- The jobs I’ve had here in Arkansas have been less stressful than previous jobs which means I’ve been willing to work more when asked.
During the pandemic my dietary habits have slipped. In particular my level of sugar consumption:
- I was already struggling with this before the pandemic started. A lot of this has been emotional eating in response to existential angst about what am I doing with my life and how am I contributing to society. You might say that this blog and all the speaking over the years has been a contribution, but I’ve really struggled to see it that way. Fortunately, as of late (literally the last couple days) that’s changing.
- I did an Amatuer MMA fight last February 2022, and the process of cutting weight to hit a specific weight for the fight ( 185 lbs. I normally walk around between 200-205 lbs. ) left me depleted and I kind lost my mind for 6 months afterward. I was eating everything. So definitely some lessons learned in terms of diet to take forward if I do another fight.
In both situations notice how much overlap there is from different parts of my life. Health, Personal Finance, Relationships, and Work all impact each other which is why we need to think of our goal setting in context. We’ll get to goal setting soon enough but in the next post we’ll talk more about ‘stories’.
Travis Daigle 