Find your Practice

 Start training and never stop

Here’s a brief history of my training to bring you up to speed:

• 2010-2018 Lifted with no clue what I was doing through high school (thought squats had to be done with maximum lordosis arch)

• 2018 Started with a 'Faleev 80/20' program I found from a random article which was basically the big 3 for 5x5 and get out

• 2019 5/3/1 BBB, FSL , Candito and Calgary barbell 16 week- made solid progress off noob games

• 2019 First novice comp Oct 2019 - 170/112.5/205, 487.5kg total

• 2020 Lockdown - destroyed my total, ended up running 5k every second day from an initial 400m 10RPE run. Had access to a pullup bar and I did a boatload of dips and pushups

• 2021 Ran Greg Knuckles 3xBench Int/ 2x Squat Beg/ 2x DL Int for 3 cycles, and NOW:

I'm in the second month (peaking phase) of the Russian extended peaking program. I run the main sets as is and have only missed a couple days of training (seem family for Easter holidays). I’m currently feeling good about hitting all my expected maxes, by the end I should be hitting 137.5/105/190 as part of the program. I’m enjoying the 6x2 days, and focused on hitting these reps both paused, and as speed reps. I’ve always enjoyed doubles and triples for high sets and will definitely be keeping these in my programming future.

Do or do not, there is no try

I’ve figured out that I need to be honest with myself in training, and I’ve learnt that I’ll go to any lengths to hit mains sets and reps, but as soon as a program says I don’t have to add accessories if I don’t feel like it, then I won’t. To fix this, I've started implementing generic accessory rules, for example, no matter what day, I’ll throw in sets of rows or a minimum amount of reps on dips. It’s amazing how quickly the body absorbs the extra volume of work. These rules have helped a lot, because like anything in life, once you get started on something you’re more likely to keep going (writing this blog included).

Find your Practice

The Practice by Seth Godin.

This book is the one that inspired me to write this very blog, and has framed my work and creativity in a much more positive and thoughtful way. This is certainly a book I would recommend to any creatives and anyone else in literally any other field. Framing work through a creative and generous lens has already made an extremely positive impact on my motivation and feelings towards work and life.

Ship continuously

The practice involves shipping continuously and diligently. Do not give yourself a choice, you create and ship your work to your audience because it is your task to do it. You ship continuously with no thought of reward, no thought of reciprocation. You help your friends with what they need, not because you expect a favour in return but because you have the ability to be generous. You have the capacity to help, and so you help, and you ship, and you ship. Shipping continuously creates good practice as it gives you strong working time frames, builds expectations and keeps you accountable to your work.

Not exactly the right way to ship, but at least they left the port

Focus on the practice, not on the outcome

Regardless of the outcome, create a strong practice with consistency. Understand your process, create your own ‘scientific method’ and be consistent. Within those boundaries of your process, you’ll excel. The problem with not creating a good process is that people will often pick up their ‘brush’ and spend so much time thinking where to begin. This is extremely taxing if you are going to ship regularly (which of course is what you’re going to do after reading this book). If you have a strong fundamental process, projects can be started and stopped and you can hold yourself accountable.

This is something that is counterintuitive to lifting, where lifting is almost ONLY results orientated. You try a program, see the results and figure out what works for you. You should have a process towards each lift, towards increasing your skill, but at the end of the day in lifting, the results are what matters.

Ship generously

Frame your work and your creative output as a generous favour, something you do not only for yourself, but for others. People wait for your art, people want to see more, and understand that your art serves a great purpose for them. These people expect more, expect greatness, and you will deliver. Not only will framing your work in this way make you feel better about what you do, but you’ll also ensure that your work fills a purpose. You’ll have a much better understanding of what you’re bringing to the table. 

The magic is there is no magic

This is something that lifting had taught me a long time ago. There was no pre workout solution, no special diet, no special time to lift. You go there, you do the work, you get the results. Some days it's cold, raining, dark, and you go anyway. You become a robot, immune to thoughts and emotions. You lift because it is your job, your task to lift and not lifting is not an option you’ve given yourself. Lifting or not lifting aren't even options, lifting is just part of your daily routine… 

Replace the word ‘lifting’ in the above with anything else in life, and within 3-5 years you’ve reached an elite level. 

The more crutches that you rely on to achieve your own special sort of greatness, the harder it is to replicate. If you can only be at your best when you’re wearing your special pair of socks, the sun is in the eastern part of the sky and the temperature is between 21-25, the less consistent you are ever going to be at your best. I don’t listen to music at the gym and I don’t try and hype myself up for this very reason. Train your inner magic, your ability to switch on without the need for external motivation. You’ll find you’re at your best much more often.

Your resume isn’t special

Everyone’s always looking for the perfect job. The fulfilling job, the job that makes you feel good. The job with good people, good work life balance. The job with the cool manager that’s giving you enough work, more when you want it, and takes work away when you’re overburdened. Jobs like these exist, but it’s rare and almost impossible to know when you’re interviewing for a company. A common pitfall is applying for one or two jobs. Finding something that’s in a good location, suits your skills and is a company that aligns with your values. More often than not, by the time you’ve applied for these jobs the role is filled and your resume is in the bin.

What people fail to realise when they apply for one job at a time is that companies are receiving hundreds (maybe thousands) of applications. It’s easy to feel like our resume is a big deal, because we’ve spent so many hours curating it and because it holds so much power over our life. Our resume has become a big deal to us, because maybe we’ve shown our friends and family and received their feedback. Hours have gone into this little thing and so believe it’s special and unique and powerful. Unfortunately for you, it gets sent to the hiring manager who goes through hundreds in a month across multiple jobs. 

So just apply, create a really strong and generic cover letter. Start with a resume that highlights your soft skills and apply for roles. I’m talking about hundreds of jobs a week, in positions and fields that may or may not suit your skillset. It doesn’t hurt to have an interview, especially if you’re unemployed. Create an abundance mindset where you feel valued and can come to an interview on even ground, a place where you can be both the interviewer and the interviewee. Rather than looking for the perfect job, find a set of roles that suit your soft skills. Do something, get started somewhere. Apply.

How the hiring manager views your resume

I believe skills and industry trends are going to change more rapidly than ever before. The boomer generation had one or two jobs their whole lives. Now, individuals often don’t stay in a role longer than 3 years. I’m imagining a future not too far off where individuals work for multiple companies, filling similar roles remotely or in large public collaborative open office spaces. Imagine large open office spaces where individuals can go and work collaboratively with strangers based on industry or specialisation. You could rent computers, cloud storage, board rooms, phones and infrastructure on a day by day basis. You could even hire hourly specialised consulting for an industry or a field and network like never before. This would fulfil the social longing that individuals complained they missed during lockdowns, while allowing remote and flexible working arrangements on a large scale. I’m honestly not really sure why this isn’t already happening.

The future is unclear, the perfect job is out there, but you won’t know until you start working there. And remember you're unique and special, but your resume isn’t.