Find your joy this summer....
Michael Bronco
I recently dropped off Bronco's Gym sponsored pro surfer David Santiago at his new summer home on Long Beach Island, N.J. We scored him an awesome little house on the beach there, so he could spend the summer training with us and giving surf lessons. Holly and I met David last February while vacationing in Luquillo, Puerto Rico. We went there to enjoy the relatively calm surf swells of the north east corner of the island - or so we thought...
The fact is, Luquillo is home to La Pared, or the wall. It is a concrete sea wall which runs the entire length of the beach and protects the town from the storm surge. And what Holly and I discovered is that there is almost always a storm surge! The rip current and the huge swells will test even the most experienced surfers, and on some days there will be only one or two brave souls out there. The rest of the crew stands on the wall and watches.
David Santiago chooses not to watch.
He paddles into the surf without hesitation and embraces the difficulty and the challenge. Being at peace with oneself is rather heady stuff for most of us. Watching David Santiago surf the "training grounds", as it is called in Luqillo, is a glimpse into what inner peace looks like.
Holly met David on our last night in Puerto Rico, while picking up a pizza. In his haste to get home after a long day in the surf, he managed to lock his keys in his car. Ugghhh! was pretty much his demeanor when Holly asked if she could help. Can I make a call? Anything?
The only thing he said to her was, "My girlfriend is going to kill me! I was supposed to be home an hour ago."
Now, here is where the story gets interesting. We had been watchind David surf on Youtube for months prior to our trip to Puerto Rico. We had no idea who David was or where he was from when we sat around the computer to watch him rip waves.
The next thing that David said cements my belief that the Universe puts us where it wants us. He looked at Holly and without knowing a thing about her said, "I need someone to train me. All the top pros know how to workout. They're really strong. I need someone to help me." Holly immediately threw him in the car and brought him to meet me. And that's when we realized for the first time that this was the guy we'd been watching on Youtube!
We learned alot about David in our first meeting. We already knew he was an incredible surfer, but we also found out that he saved up money by waiting tables to buy a little house in the mountains, and that he lost his mother to cancer at age sixteen and his dad to alcohol at nineteen. David is also adopted. He spent the first years of his life in New York with seven adopted siblings. He taught himself to surf on a water ski at the age of six. And that his first surfboard was a broken one that a guy at the beach gave him.
And so I asked David, 'How did you even know you wanted to surf?" Growing up in a basement in New York doesn't exactly inspire water sports. "I'm not sure," he said. "I just knew that I always wanted to surf. I just couldn't resist it. Even when I didn't have a board, I found a way to surf."
This reminds me of future hall of fame pitcher Mariano Rivera fashioning a baseball glove out of a milk carton when he was a boy in the Dominican Republic.
And there are many more stories like these. I truly believe that inside each one of us is a passion for something. An irresistible pull that is always there. People like David and Mariano choose to listen to it. Unforntunately, most do not. I see this in fitness everyday.
Exercise for most is nothing more than a set of exercises and a constant battle to eat less; or at least, to burn off more than we eat. The elliptical machine is what most people think of when they think of being active and fit. How sad.
Watching David surf and Mariano pitch reminds me of what I need to teach... that our bodies are a gift, and that what we choose to do with them should be out of desire and joy. I know that you have something that you have always wanted to try but you still haven't. We all have that thing that calls to us.
Finding something that brings us joy is the key to lifelong health and fitness, I believe. But it doesn't have to be an Ironman triathlon or surfing at La Pared, either. It can simply be getting up and going for a walk everyday. Or finding a good training partner to head down to the gym with. Whatever calls to you.
Unfortunately, the fitness industry, like most industries, does a pretty good job of telling us what calls to us. "Do these five super moves and look like a supermodel." Or how about: "Eat whatever you want and have the body of your dreams." The fact is, the folks who are the most fit and the healthiest don't listen to that stuff.
Surfers don't surf to have great bodies. They surf because they love it. Cyclists and rock climbers are the same way. Their sports are too difficult to participate out of vanity. What makes them different is that they have fun being active. And they aren't afraid to be challenged.
Inside each one of us is a little voice that calls us to do something that we are not doing. Most people look outside of themselves for what will inspire them, but the harder they look the farther away from it they get. This is why so many folks become frustrated and ultimately fail at being fit. It's like a square peg in a round hole. Your inner voice is telling you one thing and the outside world is telling you another.
Why we choose to listen to outside influences I'm not quite sure. Ego and insecurity I suppose. And the fact that we are not experts at the thing that we haven't tried yet. It intimidates us. At some point you'll need to take the plunge, however.
And when you do take that first step, it's instantly liberating. It's like moving the first old shoe in that closet that you have avoided cleaning out for months. It eats at you until you finally open the door and dig in. Getting started is the most difficult and the most rewarding.
Age is no excuse either. I watched a woman who hadn't been fit her entire life win a bodybuilding championship at age forty. I know other forty somethings who took up competitive ballroom dancing and white water rafting.
What I have found is that the activities aren't the real challenge, however. For most people, it is the difficulty of overcoming complicated lives that keeps them from being free to participate. Kids, jobs, the daily grind, and self doubt are why many don't even attempt an active and fit lifestyle. The truth, however, is that these are just excuses. The real reason people don't challenge themselves to find their passion is complacency. Change is just too darn difficult.
Try sitting alone for fifteen minutes a day and take note of what comes to you. It doesn't happen right away, but at some point all the clutter falls away and there is a single, focused theme that comes to the surface.
Choose to listen to it and see where it takes you.