MaximumU

Our Devices Are Listening

In early spring 2023, I quit.

Perhaps it was the cumulative effect of aging, the lingering impact of the pandemic, my wife's interest in "Bobby Approved" foods, the influence of numerous YouTube fitness experts, or simply boredom. After ten years of fruitless attempts to regain fitness following a soccer injury, I decided to quit. I was tired of the futile cycle of exercise.

As I contemplated this significant moment and decision, I opened YouTube. It felt like a loser move, but I was resolved to just sink into my comfy couch and stop all the pointless working out.

Then, an unexpected video appeared in my feed: "Stop working out. Train like an athlete. An athlete of aging." This message struck a chord. Not only did it arouse my suspicion that our devices might be eavesdropping, but it also captured my attention. The "Grey Steel" website promoted the concept of "heavy lifting" for older individuals, and it resolved my mental shift.

My mental pivot transformed into more than just a pursuit of physical wellness. It evolved into a quest to rediscover a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in life. This shift was encapsulated by switching from “working out” to “training.” Make no mistake about it: words have an alchemical power.

This need to imbue meaning into my training was surprising, as I've always been someone filled with purpose. In my professional life, I've emphasized the importance of purpose, initiative, creativity, and adaptability. Now, I faced a personal call to action.

Occasionally, we all encounter pivotal moments in our personal lives that urge us to pause, reflect, and adjust our course. My commitment to this training was about aligning my efforts with a more profound purpose, extending beyond mere physical fitness. It marked the beginning of a significant transformation—not just a change in routine but a shift in mindset. This was the restart of my journey toward becoming the best version of myself—again.

The Death Race

So, I quit working out and started training. But training for what? Certainly, the training had to correspond to the mission. What the mission might be varies from person to person. For me, I wanted something that harnessed not only my attention but my will. So, I searched for competitions in which to participate, and one caught my eye: The Death Race.

I was beyond thrilled. The name spoke to fully committing to overcome any challenges we might face in our careers, families, academic preparation, and/or health.

My wife? Not so much.

So, I looked around for something with less death in it, as a place to start. I found several kinds of races: 20K wilderness runs, 10Ks with obstacles. Finally, I decided on a 5-kilometer race with 20 obstacles, referred to as an OCR, an Obstacle Course Race.

And even though this was the easiest of the races, I knew there was no way at my fitness level that I could do this. Add to my fitness level, any man my age with any common sense should not attempt this. Besides, even if I tried, there’s absolutely no way I could finish this race. After all, by the time the race rolled around, I would be even older. In fact, as I read the details on the website, my left knee started to throb. This had every mark of a disaster. I did the only thing I could do: I registered.

Yep. I cleared my calendar. I paid to play. Signed on the dotted line.

And not just for the race in North Carolina. I also registered for a second 5k OCR and a 20K wilderness run. That meant that the whole of 2024 would be about competing. And thus, every minute between now and then would be about training.

New Habits are Way Better than New Resolutions

I did this in the spring when I usually look to initiate new habits. I do this because I don't believe in resolutions. This way, when the New Year rolls around, I'm already well into the work of accomplishing my goals. I've developed this practice over time because of my experience with resolutions: they don’t work. But new habits do work. I don’t celebrate setting goals because this can make you feel like you’ve accomplished something and you haven’t even done anything yet. Instead, with my eye on the prize, I celebrate the day-to-day grind of building a new habit. And this new habit would be a grind. I would need to start from the ground floor and build my way up.

Have you taken on a big challenge at work? Break it down to the basic skills (or knowledge) you need to acquire. Apply yourself to those basic skills until you crush them. Celebrate the process and the progress. As you meet the first challenges, level up to the next set of necessary skills.

Remember: There’s (1) thinking about doing something and (2) actually doing something. I registered for the races because action works. I also found my running shoes and put them where they would be in my way. I was now registered for a race. I needed to get ready.

Quietly, I began to train. As I researched the race, I discovered that it required a focus on endurance and grip strength. Besides running a 5k, there would be obstacles like rope climbs and bucket carries. Every failed obstacle meant 30 burpees, potentially 600 in total. And, of course, I needed to be able to run 5 kilometers. I had the metrics. Going to the gym a few times per week and doing some bench presses and lat pulls was not going to cut it. Starting with those two categories, I designed a training regimen.

In The Seeking You Find

I tell this story because it sets the stage for some thoughts on wellness, and primarily on the primacy of meaning and purpose in our lives at all ages.

It’s a risk to use a story about preparing for a race when you have yet to deliver the big win. And that's part of the mind shift: It's in the seeking that you find, in the pursuit that you achieve, in the sweat of preparation that you win.

One morning at 5 AM I found myself running. It was still dark outside, and it was 20 degrees. It hit me suddenly: Wait. What am I doing? I'm winning. That’s it, I thought. I win.

I mean, it’s not like it was a David Goggins-level run or anything. But the impulse to act and do something? That’s epic at any level. Remember: where you start matters less than where you’re going, as long as you're doing something to get there.

And I was starting to rack up a lot of little wins on the way to the big prize.

I repeat this for emphasis: racking up little wins does not relegate the actual competition that I was training for to a side note. That’s not where I’m going with this. Quite the contrary. The actual competition grew in importance because each small win brought me closer to the ultimate prize.

Not long after I began training, I blew out my Achilles tendon. That’s about a 14-month recovery period. So, that first race is still in my future. Consider this a story in progress, a journey from physical therapy to the obstacle course.

Here’s the point: It’s within the process of becoming the person you aspire to be that you’ll find the treasure. You don’t have to become a social media influencer to achieve the best version of yourself. In fact, that best version of yourself isn’t the person you’ll be in front of the camera, on the stage, or in the winner's circle. The best version of you is the version of you that got you there.

The person in front of the YouTube camera and behind the edits could be fake. The person who acts to progress toward a prize when no one is looking? That person is real. I call that person MaximumU.

Introducing MaximumU

Who is MaxU? MaximumU is a personification of that moment when an act of will overcomes inertia, resistance, or exhaustion. Imagine a moment when an “I can’t” or an “I just don’t want to” almost prevail. And, by a sheer act of will, you simply do it anyway. When that happens, MaximumU was there. Learning how to summon MaximumU is a process I call mind-sculpting.

MaximumU, MaxU for short, is an ephemeral and mystical version of you that appears in very special moments. He appears in that moment on the rope-pull machine when your muscles are burning, and you’re having trouble sucking in air, and the timer has not yet gone off. Yet you continue to pull. Why? Because you envision that future rope climb you’ll be challenged to make. It’s excruciating, and you realize in the midst of the burn that you’re exactly where and when you need to be, must be, want to be. And you scream within yourself, “This is the place you’ve been looking for…right here, right now. You’re not wishing or dreaming anything… you’re DOING it.”

It is in that moment that he appears — your MaximumU. And then the alarm goes off. You stop pulling the rope and bend over, arms burning, and he is gone. But for a moment, you melded with him. It’s that mystical melding when you know that you are doing everything in your power to reach your goals. This melding tells you that you have a shot at FutureU. That is, you have a shot at becoming the person who did everything he could to finish that race.

As I came to grips with MaxU, three things became clear:

(1) This process was not going to be quick.

(2) This was not going to be easy.

(3) The adventure was totally worth it.

Another thing became clear: MaximumU doesn’t care that you don’t feel like it. He laughs at your whining.

Just to clarify the ephemeral and mystical idea of MaximumU a bit more, let’s use a less dramatic example. MaximumU appears in that moment when, by an act of will, you overcome inertia, hesitancy, resistance, or exhaustion. For example, when you need to get up but the pillow and sheets just seem too wonderful. He appears when “I can’t” or “I just don’t want to” seem about to prevail, and you simply explode in an act of will and get up anyway. When that happens, MaximumU was there.

To further expand the idea, MaximumU appears when your will is directed toward an aspiration, using that goal to overcome any current obstacles. This sense of aspiration and purpose is what keeps immediate, willful action from being impulsive. Impulsivity tends to be undirected and undisciplined. MaximumU appears when there is a purpose.

Of course, MaximumU is a pure figment of my imagination. Also, he is real. Many of us, myself included, have encountered MaxU over the years without actually being aware of his appearing.

Well, I named him.

And, having named him, I think we’ll be able to perceive him more clearly when he appears. I will not be surprised when someone contacts me about meeting his or her MaxU. I fully expect to one day see graffiti, maxU was here.

When MaxU appears, he can impact every area of your life. For me, when I shifted mindsets from “working out” to “training,” my vision for my business renewed, my productivity at work amplified, and my personal energy abounded. There was a convergence as well with other practices I enjoy—breath work, journaling, forest bathing, teaching, mindfulness. And new practices emerged: diet, mobility, and flexibility. Every aspect of my life was impacted for the positive.

A purposeful awakening in one area of life tends to spill over into other areas.

As you can tell, this story is less about “training” and more about a purposeful awakening, that is, finding a sense of purpose that spills over into all areas of your life. There’s more to your life than work. If you discover that “more,” no matter where you find it, your contribution at work (and in every other area of life) can benefit.

If you resonate with these ideas, I would love to hear from you.

Here’s a list of what’s on my mind related to MaximumU:

• How to find your purpose.

• How to sculpt your mind.

• The Simple Secrets of Happiness.

• The Illusion of Quick Fixes in our On-Demand World.

I may add to this list as I go. What do you think?