GOALS
Bodybuilding is about setting and reaching goals. Of course I am biased, but tell me another endeavor that requires more meticulous preparation, constant discipline, and a powerful belief in yourself to achieve a specific goal. Sure, every sport has a finish line, but bodybuilding provides such a concrete format to create a vision and follow a path to accomplish it.
For me personally, my goals have always been changing for as long as I have been lifting weights - 20 years. At first I just wanted to be able to bench press as much weight as my friend in his garage. Later, after attending an ANBC bodybuilding show, my goal was simply to step on stage and not embarrass myself. I remember the morning of that first contest and contemplating chickening out simply from fear!
Back in the day I would read "Natural Bodybuilding & Fitness" magazine, and my goal became to qualify in the WNBF. I did that on my first try, and a month later I won the Pro Natural Mr. Universe, my first "pro" win.
I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said he never wanted to belong to any group that would have him as a member. That’s the feeling I got from the WNBF in that they were just so anti-NPC, what I knew deep down was "real" bodybuilding. In 2001 I set a goal to compete in a non-tested show, and came out the class winner at the NPC Gold’s Classic out of about twenty guys.
Since 2002, my goal has been to win the NPC Team Universe. I got second my first try, slipped to seventh in ‘04 even though I was in my all time best condition to date, and last year after thinking I won prejudging, ended up in a disappointing fourth. What I learned from that experience was that while the placement is still important, if I could look at the photos and honestly believe I had done my job than it still is a victory in some sense.
I’m less than a week out from the NPC Garden State, and although of course I’d like to win, my goal is to test myself against some of New Jersey’s best amateur bodybuilders. The following week is the NPC Master’s Nationals. All year my goal for this show was to place top five, but stranger things have happened, like at last year’s Bev Francis Atlantic States, where I had the same goal but ended up with the overall!
Finishing the year off for me will be the Team Universe once again. I get the fact that there may be more gifted athletes than me on that stage, but I will give it 100% so that I won’t be left with lingering excuses after it is all over.
Looking back, usually when a certain goal was reached there was another in it’s place within a matter of hours, whether it was lifting a certain weight, or competing in a show. So even though goals are constantly evolving, always having something on the horizon serves to motivate and inspire better than anything else imaginable.
