A Personal Feat and The Greatest Incentive

Yesterday a good friend of mine asked a favour of me - a favour, as it turns out, that was not in the same selfless manor in which most favours are done for, but in fact something beneficial to us both. What my friend didn’t realise was that he was helping me as much as I him.

This friend, like many of us in the modern day, has been used to taking a more tolerable approach to the way in which he treats his body, both with the amount of exercise he does and the types of food he eats - I’ve witnessed it first hand and the amount of crinkly chips he has with an otherwise relatively healthy meal is not pretty!

However, also, like many of us, the ratio of that large portion of chips in comparison with a perfectly nutritious chicken breast or steak, represents the huge disproportion in our understanding of a healthy living against the actions that was actually take. By this, I mean the easy route - the Costa Coffee lunch, for instance, or the egg McMuffin breakfast when in a rush to get to work on time, over something much better for you that you could have cooked on the weekend whilst you were instead binging on popcorn and watching Saturday night TV!

The favour he asked of me was that he wanted my help in getting him back in shape, or at least, for now, just a workout or two a week. What he doesn’t realise though is that the least is not something I settle for! And this was an enlightenment for me. I’ve been passionate about fitness since I started paying attention to my own health a year ago, but I’ve always been passionate about helping others. I hate seeing friends unhappy or in need of help, and so naturally I try to be there when I can.

So what I didn’t anticipate was that as soon as we stepped foot inside my home gym, I actually felt the urge to disconnect from our friendship, for that can be damaging to the integrity by which I needed to treat him if I was going to get him results, and this was of course the favour he asked of me - my passion to help. To be kind, sometimes you have to be cruel, and I pushed him as much as I believed he could go, and I must say he abided well! Towards the end of the tough chest workout I put him through, he pushed almost every last set to failure, and was sweating buckets by the end of what was about 50 minutes of intense exercise. The irony is that I felt I had to put our friendship aside in order for me to be a better friend, for it was a favour not in need of someone close but of someone that was going to put him through his paces, and by doing that I could help him a lot better.

I felt this was something very important to acknowledge, even though yesterday was like any other day for him but for just a workout thrown in. My friend doesn’t realise that for me it was much more of a milestone, as at last not only is my passion for fitness fuelling me, but for the first time I can see it fuelling others too. I believe that is truly one of the great incentives of getting into better shape - it’s not just the results you’ll see in yourself, but also the inspiration you didn’t even know you’ve given to others. And that could be either the most selfish or selfless thing to treasure!

So don’t give up on your newfound strive for greatness, you’ll not only be helping yourself but you will also be affecting the good people who surround you, and you might not even know it. So thank you, friend, as you actually did me the favour.