Learning the game

"If you are failing to plan, you are planning to fail."


In my opinion having a plan is the most effective way to succeed at anything. If you do not have a plan, I guarantee you will fail. It is so simple, but people consistently do not come up with a plan before they start a exercise program. Successful people do not just take life as it comes and try something here and there and hope it works. That is a recipe for not reaching your true potential. Even the slightest plan can up your odds of succeeding. You must have a direction of travel if you are going to reach your destination.

I respect my father and what he has accomplished as a runner in his time. However in talking to him more and more about the sport of running it is clear he never had a plan. And by never having a plan he probally never reached his full potential. Now the outsider looking in would say that I am crazy. My father was consistently in the top ten of all the local races he ran for a good number of years. Could he have gotten to the podium with better planning? I believe that although he was not a Olympic caliber runner his drive and determination took him only so far. With knowledge of proper training techniques and laying out a plan for a entire season he could have peaked for certain races and cracked the top three.


"In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an eyelash." Douglas MacArthur


This quote from our countries most famous General speaks of the difference between success and failure. A plan can be that eyelash that is the difference. Obviously MacArthur's quote is in relation to war but the comparison to life and death can be applied to a fitness program. Having a plan of attack applies to both war and fitness. Plans can be as simple as, attempt to fun for 10 minutes 4x a week or as elaborate as qualify for the Boston Marathon. Either way you have to have direction or more often then not you will find yourself straying. Also included in a plan it is not a bad idea to write down how your workouts are going so you can look back and track your progress.

Bottom line is that in the pursuit of perfection we are only accountable to ourselves and no one else. If you are not honest with yourself then you will not be honest with those around you. So do yourself a favor and plan ahead and set goals (some that are easy and some that are a stretch) and hold yourself accountable. Also be sure to track your progress in some way so even small hurdles can be looked back on and considered successes.