The Engine

We hear talk about "the engine" in a person:

• "Her engine is way bigger than that other gal."

• "Man, he's got an engine that's unreal."

What do we mean?

You might say the engine is a person's capacity for work. The top athletes in the CrossFit Games seem to have bigger engines than others: they can do more work in the same amount of time as the next person. And, really, fundamentally, that's the basis for success in fitness: do more work quicker.

There are other words people use for "the engine" in regular life: they use verbs like produce, make happen, or they'll say someone has a good work ethic. What it all comes down to is the same: If you want to achieve in the gym or in life, you have to produce more.

Your engine has to put out. You have to perform well. 

So why do we ever think it's any different?

Why do we think there is an Easy Street? Why do we think there is a magical place where we can stop striving and just relax and merely sit back and reap the benefits of our efforts?

Why do we think that we can stop the engine and still produce output for an extended period?

Keep the engine humming.

Focus on fine-tuning it. Learn when to rev it and when to idle it. But there's only one time that it stops, when you really think about it.

And, keep perspective on the really important things, because like Greg Glassman says: "You understand that when you die, your work capacity goes to zero, right?"