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| My wonderful daughter, Alura, captured this photo. I am the puncher and my buddy Mike is the punchee. |
by Tim Swanson
The Challenge
I started boxing after I read the first chapter of Wild at Heart. I was inspired by Eldredge’s words. I found this dingy old boxing gym in downtown Phoenix where I could afford the dues. I loved learning to fight at a that gym. My trainer was a crazy old guy named Joe. He would stand in front of the tall mirrors in shorts and bath slippers and shave while watching me over his shoulder. With a thick New Jersey accent he would shout at me, "breath troo ya nose! ya doin it wrong!" That was almost 5 years ago. When I first started, I weighed 300 lbs, smoked about a pack a day and I couldn’t walk more than a half mile without getting worn out. So I started by setting a simple goal to win 2 of my first 3 fights. This is where you might envision a montage set to 'Eye of the Tiger'. In reality it took me three and a half years to get to my first fight. As I trained and lost weight and prepared, life kept getting in the way.
The Problem
Isn't that what always happens with our dreams. Haven't we all set great goals, only to look back on them with disappointment after life got in the way. This happens because people carry more weight on their shoulders today than any other time in our history. And the average American doubles his/her responsibility level every 10 years. It's no wonder that New Years resolutions are a joke in our culture. We are the underslept, over-committed, taxed to the max generation.
To make matters worse, we are also characterized by (I'm sure this isn't new news to you) our impatient expectation for immediacy. Generally speaking if we don't see results quickly, we'll move on to the next thing. Our culture has lost any sense of stick-with-itness. Right now there are more people enrolled in college in the US than at any point in history, but the graduation rate is actually declining. People are leaving school with huge student loan debt and nothing to show for it.
The Solution
So here are three steps to sticking it out and achieving your goals.
1. Make it work for you: Start with a commitment that works with your schedule or style. If you want to begin working out or learning a new skill, don't start with every day or even 5 days a week for that matter. Find a couple days a week that are realistic for you to consistently commit .
2. Eventually you have to work for it: At some point you will have to prioritize your new habit over other things in order to realize your dreams. If your goal is weight loss or learning to play a musical instrument, you'll make good headway at two days a week, but if you want to hit your goal you'll have to make a bigger commitment. The advantage to you is that you can choose when you want to commit more time to your new skill. I trained two days a week for years before I kicked it up to Mon-Fri.
3. Don't ever, for any reason, give up: Working toward your goal might get hard, and I mean really hard. You'll always meet people who say, "I used to play piano. I wish I had never stopped", but you'll never meet anyone who says, "I really regret all that time I spent learning to play piano". That's because there is value in simply sticking it out. And the value to sticking it out is more than simply obtaining a new skill.
It Works!
After three and a half years of boxing I finally had my first fight, which I lost. Then I went on to win my next two fights. Having accomplished my goal, I look back on all the time I investing in learning the sweet science, and I’m realizing that the journey to accomplishing my goal is the thing I really value. I have lost nearly 70 lbs. I’ve quit smoking. And when my dog and I go running, our track is a little over three miles. Over the years I got to get in the ring and spar with some amazing fighters like Freeman "The Machine" Taft and Rich "Rare Breed" Hale. I have met a lot of really talented and inspiring people, like my current trainer, Mike King. For me, sticking it out has yielded way more than the confidence that comes from gaining a new skill and hitting personal goals. I've gained new friends and made some very fond memories. And, for me, that's worth so much more.
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