Why should you be training?

Photo by Cédric Dhaenens on Unsplash 

When a person becomes a soldier, they begin training on the very first day. They are not just training arbitrarily. They are training for a purpose. That purpose is war. They spend their days training for war, learning weapons and tactics and doing all the preparation they can to ensure that they can win whenever they are called to fight.

What many people may not realize is that we are all at war. This, I suppose, is true in multiple different ways. Many of us have various wars we are fighting in our lives. But there is one war that is common to all of us. It is the war that we all fight, and we usually fight it alone. It is a war against time.

The fact is, we are getting older. Every moment of every day of every year, we get older. There is no way to go the other way and there is no pause button. There is an old saying that the time to start digging your well is before you get thirsty. Similarly, the time to prepare for war is before you have to engage in the battle. So what does all this have to do with training?

Since we are all going to get older, we all have certain expectations as to how this happens and what it will be like. Maybe you know someone who, as they got older, became more dependent upon other people do help them with simple things. Eventually, they couldn't even get dressed or bathe themselves without getting help from someone. It starts with a slowing down...walking slowly around the mall on a Saturday. Eventually, the walk slows further and becomes more of a shuffle. The shoulders get rounded and they start to stoop. Then they can't walk for very long because they get tired too quickly. In time, they don't even get out to the mall and just putter around the house. Next thing you know, they need help getting out of bed, putting on their shoes and walking up or down stairs.

I know. It's a fairly bleak picture. And I don't bring it up to demean anyone who is living like that. I feel genuinely sad about it because nobody ever told them. They weren't taught when they were younger how to prevent having to live like that. In some cases, it couldn't be helped. Maybe an injury or illness resulted in decreased independence and the need to rely on others to help with what used to be simple things.

For many, however, the problem stems from the fact that they were never trained. And if you don't get good training, when the battle is fought, you have far less chance of surviving, never mind winning. But you're here. You're reading this. Are you prepared? Are you training? 

The training I'm talking about isn't about "exercise." Exercise is something you do to get your heart-rate and body temperature up, breath heavy and sweat a lot. You exercise for an hour or so and leave the gym feeling satisfied that you've accomplished something. The problem is, you haven't trained for anything. There was no end-goal in mind apart from the experience itself. Training, however, means getting a long-term plan to fight the battle of the years so that you can be independent, strong, virile and self-reliant as you get older.

The next time you're out and about (I know...maybe that's a bit less likely right now), and you see someone who has become old and frail and weak, don't think less of them, but determine to not fall into the same trap. Resolve to train. Make a decision to reach out and find someone to help train you to prepare for this battle. The better prepared you are, the better your chances of fending off the enemy of time for longer and longer.

Let me know when you are ready. Let me know if you want to be prepared. I've been fighting that battle and have seen the progress. You can be ready to fight that battle, too. Just let me know when you're ready to start training.