This was an email Tim Ferriss received from Coach Christopher Sommer, the former men’s US National Team Gymnastics coach.
Tim had expressed frustration that he wasn’t getting strong enough as fast as he would like, and this was his response.
We often speak with people who feel like their money isn’t moving fast enough.
Read this, and re-read it every time you begin to feel discouraged when you are pursuing something worthwhile.
“Hi Tim,
Patience. Far too soon to expect strength improvements. Strength improvements [for a movement like this] take a minimum of 6 weeks. Any perceived improvements prior to that are simply the result of improved synaptic facilitation. In plain English, the central nervous system simple became more efficient at that particular movement with practice. This is however , not to be confused with actual strength gains.
Dealing with the temporary frustration of not making progress is an integral part of the path towards excellence. In fact is is essential and something that every single elite athlete has had to learn to deal with. If the pursuit of excellence was easy, everyone would do it. In fact, this impatience in dealing with frustration is the primary reason that most people fail to achieve their goals. Unreasonable expectations time wise, resulting in unnecessary frustration, due to a perceived feeling of failure.
Achieving the extraordinary is not a linear process.
The secret is to show up, do the work, and go home.
A blue collar work ethic married to indomitable will. It is literally that simple. Nonthing interferes. Nothing can sway you form your purpose. Once the decision is made, simple refuse to budge. Refuse to compromise.
And accept that quality long-term results require quality long-term focus. No emotion. No drama. NO beating yourself up over small bumps in the road. Learn to enjoy and appreciate the process. This is especially important because you are going to spend far more time on the actual journey than with those all too brief moments of triumph at the end.
Certainly celebrate the moments of triumph when they occur. More importantly, learn from defeats when they happen. In fact, if you are not encountering defeat on a fairly regular basis, you are not tryin hard enough.
And absolutely refuse to accept less than your best.
Throw out a timeline. It will take what it takes.
IF the commitment is to al longer-term goal and not to a series of smaller intermediate goals, then only decision needs to be made and adhered to.
Clear, simple, straightforward. Much easier to maintain than having to make small decision after small decision to stay the course when dealing with each step along the way. This provides far too many opportunities to inadvertently drift from you r chose goal. The single decisions is one the most powerful tools in the toolbox.”
-Coach Christopher Sommer
Get after it my friends. The road is long but the journey is worth it!
If you enjoyed this, you’ll love Tim’s book Tools of Titans which is full of wisodm like this from pretty much any type of successful person you could think of.
It’s one of my favorite books of all time!