DESIRE vs. WANT

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  

Our Deepest Fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us."

-Marianne Williamson-

No matter what it is you want in life you will not get there unless you truly desire the destination and embrace the journey.  This could not be more apparent then it is in the  world of sports.  I look back at my life and can point to the exact moment that I KNEW I was going to change.  My athletic career would be decided by me and me only.

During the summer going into my sophomore year at Hunter High School we were encouraged to lift weights with the football team if we planned on playing in August.  I always thought myself to be a pretty good athlete and strength was something that never crossed my mind.  On the very first day a group of my friends (all new sophomores) walked into the weight room for the first time and was asked to 1 rep max our bench press.  None of us could press much weight, but I was definitely the "weakest" of the bunch. I vividly remember 95 lbs come crashing down on my chest.

In what was really a terrible moment for me and my confidence, looking back i am so thankful for that to have happened.  You see, that was a moment in which I realized how skinny and weak I really was.  Right then and there i "Desired" to be the strongest I could be.  In that moment I realized how essential it was to put some muscle on my frail frame.  Without this tragic realization that I was not the athlete that I thought I was, I would have never gotten very far in my athletic career.  At that moment not one person in the world would have bet 5 dollars that I would someday play football for the Oakland Raiders.  

The point I'm getting at is this.  Everybody wants to get stronger.  Everybody wants to loose weight.  Everybody wants to jump higher.  Everybody wants to run faster.  There is a huge difference in wanting something and truly desiring it.  From that day until right now I have been in pursuit of the strongest, most athletic "me" that my genetics would possibly allow.  I have a perfect picture ingrained into mind of what the perfect me looks like and how it performs.   This "perfect me" is something that I will never reach, but it keeps me focused on how I should live my life everyday.  

The opposite of this then is the person who wishes they were a little stronger.  This person typically goes to the gym aimlessly in pursuit of strength and size but never gets anywhere and then makes excuses like his genetics just wont allow him to get stronger, bigger, and faster.  A potent combination of science and hard work is needed for success, and even more importantly a diet (i hate the word diet) moreover, "lifestyle" is needed to achieve optimal results.  The biggest problem with all of this is that things just don't happen because you want them too.  You have to put yourself on the line and will all of your goals, dreams, and aspirations to come true.

TO MANY PEOPLE WANT SHORT CUTS TO REACH THEIR GOALS.

In the health and fitness industry there are a lot of things that people do that make me shake my head.  HCG Diets.  Wow.  The people that market these kind of things for money are sick.  And the people that believe that this shit really works are even sicker.  Lets see,  Eating an apple and an egg pretty much all day seams like such a great Fu@#ing Idea.  Eating 500 calories and injecting who know what into your body... Whats wrong with that??? Not to mention (coming from people who have done this "diet") You are not supposed to workout while doing this! I hope these claims seem ridiculous to everybody who reads this.  

In the athletic community you have performance enhancing supplements, steroids, HGH, and all kinds of stuff equally stupid as HCG Diets.  I cant tell you how many times guys will go up to other muscle heads at the gym and the first thing they say is "DUDE!, what are you on BRO!"  They don't say "Wow, how do you train?"  or "How much time and work did it take you to get to where you are now?"  This is a terrible problem enhanced by news stories about professional athletes testing positive for steroids and other performance enhancers, but that's a topic for another day. 

These are huge problems in society and athletics and we need less people enamored by "quick fixes" and more by good old fashioned hard work.  Whatever your goals are; whether they be losing weight, gaining muscle, increasing vertical jump, getting a better job, whatever, you first need to DESIRE it and be willing to tap into your right to be "Powerful beyond measure."  We all have this inside of us but we have to be willing to pay the price.  The price is blood, sweat, tears, and hard work.

Special shout out to all of my athletes who work out at FLEX Athletic Performance!  These guys and girls are most definitely on the right path and they inspire me everyday.  We all have big dreams at FLEX and push each other to the limit everyday.  Proud of all my peeps and everybody else who realizes that just wanting is not good enough.  Go out and get shit done!

keep striving,

John Madsen