My first day at the gym, for the 6pack abs, the instructor asks me to do 20 push ups.
He starts counting, counts until 7 and then steps away, asking me to continue.

I then count
8,9,10,12,14,17,20
DONE!

I cheated.
Because he wasn’t looking.

What we do when no one is looking, is who we are.
That is the person others will get to see, when they are looking.

Lifting weights for the first time, and they felt like boulders.
I closed my eyes, gathering all possible energy within me.

And my instructor shouted,
“No matter how much the weight, don’t ever close your eyes.”

No matter how big the problem, don’t ever close your eyes.

I was on my 20th lunge and it felt like I was about to faint. I looked down on the floor, shouting to release the pain. 

My instructor shouts back
“When in pain, don’t ever look down. Always look ahead.”

When in pain, always look ahead.

You are running, you are lifting, you are cycling.
And it feels like the pain will kill you.

But it doesn’t. It goes away. The pain goes away.
In a second, a minute, an hour, in a day, in weeks or months. It goes away.

But the pain of not trying, stays.

I have been working out for 7 years now, almost every day.
And one would expect it to have gotten easier. 

But it hasn’t.

It’s just as hard to lift, to run, to crunch.

It never gets easier. You just get better.