The Time Machine is a great tool when looking into the future but sadly, we can only guess what the future holds while we live in the moment. While we know that tomorrow is not promised to any of us, we postpone important issues for the future even though the future is NOW! We can relate this passage to many things in our lives but I am focusing on getting back to the business at hand, TRAINING!

After taking a break from the gym which started in March of 2004 and lasted until September 2004, you can image that life got a lot more comfortable for me or you may envision that everything I worked for physically has gone kaput! To be honest, a little bit of both happened to me and I enjoyed every minute of my physical & mental break from my job, my passion and my life’s work.

 The extended break allowed for other facets of life to take seed~ Jesus Christ, Family, Friendships and Humility. While taking a much needed break after 20 years of training is great, the long and winding road back to physical fitness is a daunting challenge to be sure! In the grand scheme of things, I am no longer looking for excuses not to get back in the saddle of good clean eating and consistent training, I am relying on the old memories of the way training made me feel and how the good food made me look!

It dawned on me like the rising of the Sun, “If not now, then When?”

Now is the time for me to approach the gym and my future with the calming certainty that Pro-active approach to pursuing physical fitness will further my chances of thwarting off future problems with my health down the road. Now, I am taking things One Day at a time, realizing that tomorrow is not promised to us nor is it guaranteed! Having this knowledge and the insight to the advantages of a healthy lifestyle, I am refreshed with new energy to engage in the mental and physical warfare of the mind versus the body.  I will use the tools I applied in my competitive years to “Super Charge” the batteries so that the painful process of getting past the first few weeks does not deter my mental mind set to stay the course and get back into good condition. I will use videos of athletes training and magazines where the guys are challenging each other, as well as feed off the wars waged against the greats in our sport like, Christian, Labrada, Haney, Yates, Levrone, Wheeler, Cormier, Dillett, Jackson, and Nasser to name a few.

All the while, I am mindful that I am no longer in competition with these guys but with myself for myself, not a title or paycheck. While I don’t need encouragement to do what I did for the better half of my life, after such a long layoff little reminders help reinvigorate my passion for the Steel and hunger for the Burn!

When you realize “If not now, then When” you can suddenly begin to take charge over things you’ve been putting off, Paying bills on time, cutting the grass, losing weight, coming to Christ, learning to love, building relationships, adding extra muscle and so on…

All these things can be lumped into the previous headline, it is just a matter of picking a day, then making a commitment! Once that has happened, things begin to change. Your body will begin to change and the way you feel and act will change, due to the mere fact that we decided by circumstance or otherwise, to do something about it Today rather than putting things off for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Today!

I have chosen to live in the moment by handling my business today…………………...

The Shawn Ray Way!

Peace