Things I’ve reminded myself of daily and weekly over the last year:
Progress is uneven. You’ll drop two pounds one week, nothing the next three, then wake up looking shredded on a random Tuesday. The body doesn’t operate on your preferred timeline. It never will.
Some shows will go poorly. Bad lighting. Questionable judging. Flat muscles from a miscalculated peak week. You’ll bomb at least one competition. Probably more. Every pro has stories about shows that went sideways.
Feedback will sting. Judges will write things that hurt. Your coach will point out flaws you thought you’d fixed. The critique isn’t cruelty. Growth requires honest assessment.
You will question yourself. Deep into prep, exhausted, hungry, depleted your brain will manufacture doubts. “Why am I doing this?” That thought visits everyone. It means nothing.
The mirror will lie under fatigue. You’ll look worse at 8% body fat than you did at 12% because glycogen depletion and sleep deprivation distort perception. Trust measurements. Trust your coach. The mirror becomes unreliable precisely when you need confidence most.
Here’s the critical part:
None of this means you’re failing.
Read that again.
The ancient Stoics had a practice called voluntary hardship deliberately choosing difficulty to build resilience. Seneca took cold baths, fasted intentionally, slept on hard surfaces. Not punishment. Training.
We just call it prep.
Or life, just depends on the season you’re in.
The discomfort isn’t a sign something went wrong. It’s the point. You’re stress-testing yourself physically and mentally, building the kind of person who can execute under pressure when it actually counts.
-Neuro
Progress is uneven. You’ll drop two pounds one week, nothing the next three, then wake up looking shredded on a random Tuesday. The body doesn’t operate on your preferred timeline. It never will.
Some shows will go poorly. Bad lighting. Questionable judging. Flat muscles from a miscalculated peak week. You’ll bomb at least one competition. Probably more. Every pro has stories about shows that went sideways.
Feedback will sting. Judges will write things that hurt. Your coach will point out flaws you thought you’d fixed. The critique isn’t cruelty. Growth requires honest assessment.
You will question yourself. Deep into prep, exhausted, hungry, depleted your brain will manufacture doubts. “Why am I doing this?” That thought visits everyone. It means nothing.
The mirror will lie under fatigue. You’ll look worse at 8% body fat than you did at 12% because glycogen depletion and sleep deprivation distort perception. Trust measurements. Trust your coach. The mirror becomes unreliable precisely when you need confidence most.
Here’s the critical part:
None of this means you’re failing.
Read that again.
The ancient Stoics had a practice called voluntary hardship deliberately choosing difficulty to build resilience. Seneca took cold baths, fasted intentionally, slept on hard surfaces. Not punishment. Training.
We just call it prep.
Or life, just depends on the season you’re in.
The discomfort isn’t a sign something went wrong. It’s the point. You’re stress-testing yourself physically and mentally, building the kind of person who can execute under pressure when it actually counts.
-Neuro