Never Settle For Less

Think back on your school days for a minute.  Remember all the teachers, coaches, principals, professors, advisors, and everybody else who was dishing out advice for the better part of life.

I’m sure if you think long and hard you’ll remember some very, very interesting people.  I have at least 10 people come to mind when I do this exercise.  I could fill up half the internet with some of the ridiculous teachers I’ve had.

Today I’m going to focus on one coach in particular.  Coach McPherson was an assistant coach on my high school football team.  By all accounts he did nothing but yell and scream at everybody.  Sometimes he even had a reason.  He was bout 6′3" tall, 350 lbs, and 35% bodyfat.  For some reason he was our cardiovascular fitness coach.  Yes that’s right.  He was the guy yelling and screaming and blowing the whistles during all the drills.  Perfect man for the job.

At some point in the history of Crisp County High School football an evil man created a drill called the Cougar Alley.  I don’t know who this evil man is or why he created the drill but he did.  The Cougar Alley was a cardiovascular obstacle course.  It seemed like something out of U.S. Army basic training.  Exercises were linked together and 1 Cougar Alley encompassed ALL of the following:

• 10 Pushups
• Sprint through 20 Tires
• Rope Drill
• Tackling a ball carrier
• Catching the ball
• 30 yard sprint

All this was timed.  We’d prefer if you finish that in under 60 seconds sir .

Coach McPherson took  great pride is overseeing this activity.  The team was broken out into sub groups to tackle this task.  The entire time he’d be holding that whistle.  Waiting in anticipation for someone to mess up.  If one person ever made a mistake his entire unit was forced to repeat the Cougar Alley.

One day I had the misfortune of messing up.  I was the last to go.  I was exhausted.  The temperature was 105 degrees outside.  I was ready to pack it in and go home.  Instead of sprinting the last 30 yards I lightly jogged it out.  As soon as I finished I heard that dreaded whistle.  Coach McPherson stormed over to me with that goofy smile on his face.

“Smith!  What was that son?” he bellowed in that thick southern drawl.

“It was a Cougar Alley” I said.  I wasn’t up for this exchange so I kept my mouth closed after that.

“Son, that’s not a Cougar Alley.  You didn’t SPRINT out at the end.  You’re out here prancing around like a woman” he was getting more excited.

Next thing you know he shouts out “LINE EM UP.  Mr. Smith isn’t paying the proper respects to the Cougar Alleys”.  Then he turned to me and in a thick southern drawl said

“You know the motto Mr. Smith. Do it RIGHT do it LIGHT.  Do it WRONG do it LONG!”

With that the Cougar Alleys started again.  AAAAHH.

I forgot about Coach McPherson shortly after I left high school.  He came back into my consciousness after I began working out to lose weight.  When I started out I knew exactly what to do. I hired a personal trainer and we put together a plan. He covered everything I needed to do:

1. Drink plenty of water
2. Eat six small meals a day
3. Perform cardiovascular exercise
4. Lift weights

Of the 4 I regularly performed one.  I lifted weights like a maniac because I enjoyed it!  For nearly a year I ignored the other 3 factors.  One day I looked in the mirror and realized that I’d zero progress towards cutting.  Sure I was bigger and stronger but neither was an original goal.  A year had been wasted.  It was time to get on track.  As I integrated water consumption, small meals, and cardio into my routine I began to notice results.  I went from 250 lbs down to 205 in a matter of 7 months!

Coach McPherson’s voice came back to taunt me

“You know the motto Mr. Smith. Do it RIGHT do it LIGHT.  Do it WRONG do it LONG!”

As much as I hate to admit it.  He was right.  I’d wasted a year of my time trying to defy the laws of physics and defeat the human body.  Had I listened from the beginning and done things the right way I would’ve achieved my goals much faster.  Even though I’m still not a Coach McPherson fan by any stretch I must admit that he was right.

Apply this lesson to life.  It’s very tempting to be lazy and try to beat the system with trickery.  In the end all the work arounds will bring you back to square one.  It’s very unlikely that you’ll be any further along and you will have succeeded in wasting some valuable time.  Value your time and do things right the first time.  It’s shorter, you reap more benefits, and you are allowing yourself to spend time being successful rather than wasteful. Who doesn’t want that?

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 at 6:42 am and is filed under Training, Motivation, Dedication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.