How close have you been to death?

I died once. I have a heart condition, and four years ago it was flaring up. I was wearing a heart monitor at the time, and when my heart got triggered, it stopped, and the monitor showed 20 seconds of no activity.

Dying will really change how intensely you’re pursuing your goals.

I got into weightlifting after my knee surgery in college. And I slowly got into the idea that I wanted a gym, and I wanted to be able to help people, because I saw how the gym helped me during that process with self-esteem and depression. Plus, I was in college in North Dakota, where it was winter, and it was flat and always dark, just lame, and the gym helped a lot. 

After college, I started working towards having a gym. I started mopping floors at a gym in West Memphis and worked my way up. Then I trained for a few years at a local gym chain here in Little Rock. 

Then my heart condition really flared up, and I died.

The lights went out. I was having conscious thoughts, but I couldn’t do anything. I was stuck in this weird, floaty space. 

Oh no. I’m not ready for this, I don’t want this, I have stuff I want to do, I have all these big dreams that I haven’t even started, haven’t touched them. I wasted all this time, even when I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I fought what felt like a pull, dragging me away from life. I had to pull myself back and say, “No. I want to do this before I go.” 

When I came back I told myself, I’m not waiting, I can’t wait anymore. And that’s where WorkHarder Gym came from.

The more stories you hear like this, the more you’ll realize, you don’t have all the time in the world. You might be living this really mediocre life while you have all these big thoughts in your head – “I would love to do this,” or “I would love to go to this place,” whatever it is – and you’re just not doing it, for no reason. There’s no reason why you can’t do it, you’re just not doing it. 

Start doing it.

There’s something to be said for being on the path to where you want to go. Even if you’re not where you want to be yet, you’re still moving forward in that direction, where most people are just watching or waiting.

We can’t always control what happens to us in life, but as long as you’re on the path to your goal, you can have peace knowing you’re giving life your all and using your time for something that matters.

Whatever you do, WorkHarder.