Give it a Chance to be True
Nobody likes their time, effort or money to be wasted, and yet we do it all the time! Yes, sometimes it's beyond our control. You go to the DMV and there's no getting around it, you're going to have some time wasted, but I'm talking about those instances where you do have control (hint: that's nearly all the time). Here are some scenarios in my own training/life that many of you will relate to:
Physical Therapy - When I first started going to physical therapy to correct muscle imbalances that were causing knee pain after a bike crash in 2012, I didn't commit to the recovery. I did my prescribed PT exercises for the first couple of weeks but didn't see results, so I gradually stopped doing them as reguarly. I was supposed to do them 3x per week but I found myself doing them maybe 1-2x per week. I continued to not see results. Big surprise. At the time, though, I didn't know I was setting myself up for failure. I knew I was not doing quite all the strength sessions, but figured I should still see some sort of results even just doing it once or twice per week. Then I went to a new physical therapist, thinking that maybe if I found the right therapist, I would magically get better even without doing all the work. Wrong. The problems persisted and I stopped going to PT. Fast forward several months, and my orthopedic doctor recommended a physical therapist. Argh...I knew she would say that. I objected because "I already tried that and it hasn't worked for me," but she insisted. I grudgingly began PT again, this time with Josh Grahlman in NYC, and he helped me to realize that I needed to commit to the exercises for it to work. I made the decision that day to commit, to give it a chance to be true. I did my exercises religiously 3x per week and while I didn't notice results for several months, I kept my head down and stuck with it. When I picked my head back up, I discovered that the pain was gone! I was able to run without any pain for the first time in 18 months. Without committing, I may never have healed from the glute imbalance I was facing and would still be experiencing knee pain. It seems there are many things in life that aren't linear...you may not see steady progress, but need to be patient and BOOM, all of a sudden there's a jump forward.
Coaching - In 2014, I hired a coach (Earl Walton) for the first time. After my experience with PT, and learning that you need to commit for some things to be true, I decided that I would interview a bunch of coaches, pick one, and then do exactly what that coach told me to do. To the T. Why pay a coach and then argue with them about their philosophies or complain about the training? I hired Earl for a reason. I wanted to get to the next level, and I believed that he knew what it would take to get me there. I decided to give it a chance to be true, and followed the training plan he gave me. I won Ironman Maryland that year with a 51min PR, so I guess it was true .
Metabolic Efficiency Training - I grilled Nicci Schock with questions for two weeks because I was very skeptical of the metabolic efficiency training approach to nutrition. She answered all my questions, I did a bunch of research, and came to the conclusion that there was little downside to giving it a shot, and a lot of upside. I was either going to not give it a shot, or I was going to commit 100% to doing it because I would only do it if I gave it a chance to be true. By only following her guidelines in a half-hearted manner in my experiment of one, I wouldn't have seen the results to know whether what she was preaching was true or baloney.
If you commit only 50% to your experiment, you may see far less than 50% of the results (or even zero results), and deem the experiment a failure. "Decide and Commit. Give it a chance to be true" is one of the principles I live by. To prevent wasting any of your own time, effort or money, make an educated decision to do something, then commit 100%. Give it a chance to be true.
