“You can look the other way once, and it’s no big deal, except it makes it easier for you to compromise the next time, and pretty soon that’s all you’re doing; compromising, because that’s the way you think things are done. You know those guys I busted? You think they were the bad guys? Because they weren’t, they weren’t bad guys, they were just like you and me. Except they compromised… once.” -Jack Bauer

The greatest benefit that I got from doing 20 rep squats wasn’t the muscle mass, but the strengthening of my willpower.

After spending an entire afternoon roofing a building under the hot sun, lifting weights was the last thing I wanted to do. Despite this I still went and did my best. I’d down how much weight I’d lifted during each session, and set a goal to do five pounds more during my next work out.

There were a lot of days when I just didn’t want to lift. I thought I was “too tired.” I’d tell myself that it was okay to take a day off, I’d craft excuses as to why I should just go home instead. While I came close to caving in, I never ended up missing a day.

I wanted to the results and I knew I needed to complete the process before I could have them.

While I don’t have a lot of convictions, at last count there were about seven, I never break them. In fact, I don’t even bend them. The moment that you have to start rationalizing your behavior is the moment you’ve lost.

All those unhappy fat guys with nagging wives and bratty kids didn’t get like that overnight. They made the slow and painful descent into unhappiness, somewhere along the way they sold out. They decided that being in a band, or writing a novel, or going on a cross-country adventure was stupid; and that they should get a job at H&R Block instead. Rather than pursue their desires they choose to settle for mediocrity, a decision they have the rest of their lives to regret.

If you do choose to compromise, don’t worry. The goal wasn’t something you truly wanted anyway. Otherwise you wouldn’t have cheated yourself out of it.

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