You can only plan for so much. Learning to roll with the punches will get you farther.
Looking back to a year ago, I was living in Kelowna, BC but was celebrating the New Year in Calgary with Renae and Mattea. Renae and I had just returned from Mexico, while we were
There was a point in the past year that I had accepted I likely would never lift competitively again.
away, Calgary had gotten a heavy snowfall and a bit of a cold snap. Having grown up in Northern Alberta, I was well aware what winter was all about but had become quite spoiled after over 20 years in the Okanagan Valley. I remember thinking how I could not image ever moving back to Alberta.
Training wise, I had competed and won my 93kg weight class less than a month prior at the Commonwealth Championships and felt some injuries that had been lingering were finally resolving themselves (even writing those words seems stupid now). The Canadian National Championships were coming up the middle of February and I felt confident I would be able to qualify for the World Championships being held in Texas in early June. Based on previous and recent totals I believed I had a legitimate shot at a medal on the very competitive IPF world stage.
I started Bodyperformance in 2000 and what began as training a few clients in a gym I was managing, developed into a full time career. I started handling some online clients in 2003 but my focus would remain almost entirely on one on one coaching. In 2005, I outfitted a large basement in my house and set out on my own focusing almost entirely on private training. I had exactly 0 clients when I made this transition. I had made a commitment not to poach clients from where I previously had been training and I stuck by that. Over the next 11 years I developed Bodyperformance into a busy and fulfilling enterprise. Though small and exclusive, I had a full schedule of loyal clients that spanned every age group and demographic you can imagine. Some of these clients remained with me for over a decade. Though the hours were long, it was something I happily accepted as a long-term situation. I was my own boss, worked from my own house, had a great group of loyal long-term clients, and was making a comfortable living with a relatively low stress lifestyle. Renae planned to relocate to the Okanagan in the summer so it seemed everything was as it should be. All plans were in place and coming together.
There is an old saying “if you want to make god laugh, tell him your plans” Well then in this case, he must have been in the mood for a good laugh.
Fast forward to the present, I am sitting, writing this in an office in my new home in Calgary. I never went to the World Championships, not even close. There was a point in the past year that I had accepted I likely would never lift competitively again. The 93kg version has become the newly updated 83kg version for 2017 and my business has been revamped from almost exclusively in person to virtually 100% online.
I will go into more detail about the lessons learned in the last year, but to sum up the year in general I learned this: Life will not remain stagnant. No matter how good or how bad you perceive your situation to be, some force in the universe will not allow it to remain the same. Everything will evolve and your perception of good and bad will slide along a scale just like anything else. No matter how comfortable you are there is always a boot waiting for your ass. It may be just what you need.