I'm just like you

By Ken Berger

Friday seemed like an ordinary day, until I looked at the gym schedule and saw no one was signed up for my 9 a.m. training session.

Kids were off from school, and families were traveling and taking a break from their usual routine.

And I thought, “So should I!”

And I did … but not before keeping a promise to myself.

Friday was “leg day …” and everybody knows you NEVER SKIP LEG DAY!

I’d made a promise to myself, and I was gonna keep it.

A few months ago … even a few weeks ago … this wouldn’t have happened.

I’ll let you know how the lifting went in a moment. But first, there’s a lesson here that I’d like to share with you.

And part of it is … everyone assumes that their trainer or coach has it all figured out.

Training consistently … always making gains and eating supportively … sleeping 8 hours a night … staying hydrated … managing their stress in healthy ways.

I want you to know the truth.

I’m human, just like you.

I ride the struggle bus sometimes, just like you.

I miss workouts, just like you.

I eat and drink things that don’t align with my goals, just like you.

Sometimes, the stress of life, business, family, finances, fatherhood and other important relationships becomes so heavy that I find quality sleep impossible, just like you.

But fortunately, I’ve surrounded myself with kind, supportive people at Max Velocity Fitness, just like you.

And when I’m having a tough day – or a tough week, a tough month, or even a tough year – I know who to turn to when I need to be lifted up.

If you’re one of my people who lifts me up, you know who you are. And I hope I do the same for you. 

So on Friday, when my lifting buddy and I got together so I could keep a promise to myself, I felt energized. 

I felt strong.

I felt invincible.

And I did my heaviest back squats in almost two years.

A PR more than 20 months in the making.

During that time, I experienced a lot of ups & downs.

Sometimes, it felt like mostly downs. And someday, maybe I’ll be able to tell the whole story.

I’m a natural-born storyteller, after all.

But for now, I’m still here, and I’m still living my dream of helping people change their lives through fitness.

And through a lot of hard work, trial and error, and wins and losses, I’m still here picking up a barbell and doing more than I was able to do yesterday.

Not the most I’ve ever been able to do, mind you.

But enough to keep going.

More important than the physical achievements are the mental clarity and calmness that I’ve begun to experience very recently.

I can’t fully explain why or how this happened, but now I know what my purpose is. Every day, I know exactly what I’m supposed to be doing to live my best life.

I know exactly who’s on my team … and who isn’t.

I know that some circumstances feel good, and other circumstances feel bad … and I've accepted that I do not have the ability to change that.

This has nothing to do with back squats, by the way.

And it has everything to do with back squats, if that makes sense.

You see, every part of our life is connected and fits together like a puzzle.

If one piece of the puzzle is damaged, the whole thing falls apart.

When people say life is all about balance, they’re not lying.

Life is quite literally a balancing act.

My life was out of balance for too long, and as a result, every aspect of it was suffering.

And now, I feel ready to put everything back together again ... but in a way that is going to look very different from the status quo.

So I hope that when you’re struggling, you’ll think of me and this article I wrote for you today. After all, I wrote it for you … not me.

I hope you know that you’re not alone.

I hope you know that support, encouragement and comfort are only a text, call or email away.

Whether you’re currently training with me, used to train with me, have never trained with me, plan to train with me or will never train with me … I am here to help any way I can.

Helping people, it turns out, is my purpose.

Like LL Cool J, I’m not going to call this a comeback.

Because that would imply that I’ve reached some kind of finish line or end of the road … that I’ve succeeded, conquered that which was holding me back and that there’s nothing more to be done.

And that’s not true for me any more than it’s true for you.

Because if we ever stop growing, evolving, experimenting and yes, failing, we’ve basically stopped living long before our time.

And I don’t know about you, but I want to know what’s around the next corner.

What’s on the other side of fear.

I can’t tell you that I know what it is.

But I can tell you that it’s going to be great.

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