In Defence of Excellence

It's okay to want to be brilliant. To excel, rather than survive. To thrive, rather than get by. And to be your best, rather than just better than before.

Often, in the online fitness community, we tend towards being soft with people. This includes us at Triage. It's okay to have a night out drinking once a week, let your body fat settle a bit higher, train less and focus on other things in life, and focus on what's practical rather than optimal. These are fairly reasonable messages in many cases.

But, what about those who want to be great.

This is now a different domain altogether. Whether we are talking about being the best student, professional, or athlete, excellence requires a level of commitment and execution above and beyond that of the casual.

If you want to be a great doctor, do you think you can just casually approach your studies and focus on having "balance" at all times? No, not at all. 

The same thing goes for being a great athlete/trainee. If you want to be your best, you have to sacrifice the idea of "balance". Balance is for the average, not for the great. And that's fine, you don't have to want to be great in a single area, that is not what I am suggesting. It's all a question of trade-offs, and the great athlete will suffer in other areas.

But, here we are, you have told me you want to be a great athlete...

Now, my expectations of you are above and beyond the average trainee. I'm expecting 8-9 hours of sleep per night, at least, not the 6-7 that might be "okay" for casuals. Your meals need to be prepared and timed appropriately. Your workouts need to be planned, tracked, and executed with focus and intent every single day. That night out each week is not acceptable. Those supplements that account for just a small percentage of progress now matter. And so on.

Excellence is extremely challenging. Whether it's the pursuit of excellence in athletics, education, professional life, or parenting, its achievement demands sacrifice. Those sacrifices may seem excessive if you are surrounding yourself with those in the pursuit of a "balanced life". That's not your life. To be great in any domain, you must live an unbalanced life.

Choose your goal, then ask yourself how far you wish to take it? Average level of competence? A little better than average? Or great; excellent; the best?

Execute accordingly.