Learn to rest, not quit
I am so sore right now. And I have been all week. That’s because we have two things going on at the gym. First, we are having a team competition to see who can achieve the highest average max effort points, or MEPs, this month. These points are calculated based off what range your heart rate is in as compared to your calculated max heart rate, along with the time spent in each range during your workout. In other words, the harder and longer you work out, the more MEPs you get.
So, in the past five days, not only have I gone to my four regular gym workouts, but I’ve also been on a five-mile trail run, a hike to Keown Falls and then another hike around Fort Mountain. Now, the hikes were impromptu because of the leaves changing, but I may have pushed Ashley and the kids a little harder trying to earn more MEPs — not too hard, though. We still had a great time.
Besides the competition, this week was also assessment week at the gym. That’s something our trainers do once a quarter to grade us on how we are doing. It’s made up of a handful of max effort exercises, like how many pushups, squats and then situps you can do in a minute, and then some routines where you see how many rounds you can do in a specified period. For instance, on one of the routines, you count how many rounds of five pullups, 10 pushups and 15 squats you can do in 20 minutes.
And after doing those assessments, I’m sore from head to toe and everywhere in between.
Something funny happened to me this week, though. It happened during a routine that included using a rowing machine to row a specific distance as fast as we could. If you’ve never seen a rowing machine, it has a little seat that slides backward while you pull a bar-type handle toward your chest. You extend your body backward as you push your legs forward.
This movement mimics what people do when rowing a boat competitively, and it really gets your whole body in motion.
On my second round, I was going really hard. And when I pulled back and extended my legs, my rear end lifted off the seat enough for it to stop sliding with me. Consequently, when I came back down, I landed square on the bar that the seat slides on.
That left a mark.
Your feet also get strapped in when you are on a row machine. So, at that point I was sitting painfully on this little bar, off balance from my rowing, and I couldn’t hold myself up or get my feet free.
Yep… I fell to the floor with my feet still in the stirrups.
I wished we would have gotten it on film because it would have been funny to watch. Everyone else enjoyed it. My workout buddy Katie Derrick told another friend — and I quote — “It was epic!”
So, when I say I’m sore from head to toe and everywhere in between, I mean it. And not only am I sore, but I’m also worn out from going so hard all week. And these factors have me contemplating whether I should work out tomorrow or rest.
Being tired, sore and beat up is not something that just happens in the gym. It also happens to new and experienced investors alike. Interestingly, when I was teaching the REIA in Cartersville recently, I got asked why I thought so many people spend so much time, effort and money in real estate investing only to quit.
From my perspective, more often than not, people get tired from putting in lots of effort and not seeing results as quickly as they would like. They then get sore and probably start associating with others who are sore, too. And before long, they all quit.
I saw a cool quote recently that said, “If you get tired, learn to rest. Not quit.”
Getting tired is going to happen. It took Ashley and me two full years of steady door knocking before we landed our first deal. It would have been easy for us to get tired and quit. But instead, we learned when and where to rest. When? When we got exhausted. Where? Around other positive people who were going in the same direction we were. That practice kept us motived, recharged our batteries, and made sure we never quit.
If we can do it, so can you. Learn to rest, not quit.
Joe and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joe at 678-986-6813.