Where did the name WorkHarder come from?

My mom always told me (and I freaking hated it, I think it’s cliche as crap) but she’d say, “You can do whatever you put your mind to.” With playing sports, she’d always say, “Whatever you want to do, whether it’s be a starter, get good at something… if you apply yourself, you’d be a lot better.” (And for me it was always about school.)

I’d say, “Mom, I’m just not good at this.”

She’d say, “You gotta work harder at it.”

And I hated that, but it was true.

People often say, “I want to look a certain way,” or “I want to be a certain amount of strong.” When they ask, “What can I do to do that?” and you give them something to do, they usually ask, “Well, what else can I do? I want to do something different.” Because the answer means doing something uncomfortable.

But you have to be willing to put in the work, the actual work. You can't just do the things that are comfortable. Sometimes that’s studying something you don't want to study, doing extra reps of an exercise you don’t like (not everything’s a pretty lift; sometimes you gotta do the little accessories that are the not fun stuff; that’s what makes you better). Sometimes your talent level just isn’t what other people’s is.

In highschool, it was like that for me. I was a little guy, and everyone was stronger than me. The first time I benched, I got stuck under 65 pounds, and in a weird way it broke my spirit. I never thought I was weak. Mentally, I thought I was stronger. I was at that age when you think you’re way cooler than you are. Then I got stuck, and I thought, this is real life. Nothing had challenged me that much. 

When the coach went down the roster of everybody’s benches, and I was at the bottom, I was not happy with that. And so I told myself, I am not going to be the weakest dude on this team. I might be the smallest, but I’m not gonna be the weakest, I’m not gonna be the slowest. And so anything we did, I was going all out. I didn’t care if I was just a kicker, I was gonna beat somebody. I wasn't coming in last. When you’re doing sprints in highschool, coach notices who’s first; everybody else notices who’s last. And I didn't want to be that guy. I was already a little skinny white kid who was a kicker. I was determined to beat that.

Plus the fact that I was weak. No one wants to be weak.

When we first designed the WorkHarder phrase, we had the “er” blanked out.

Anybody can work hard. But you have to be willing to put in more than the guy next to you. 

What do you want? What are the things that you’re not doing that you could do better to get you there? Not just the flashy things, but what’s the little things you’re not doing?

The times you choose to do the hard things build the foundation for someone who can’t be beat.

That’s what WorkHarder means.