Then What Happens?

It can change quickly on you: the workout.

One moment you're cleaning and jerking what seems like a light weight. But a minute later, after 15 clean-and-jerks, your lungs and heart are telling a different story and now there's a run too? And four more rounds of this? Fudge. Hello, pain.

It can change quickly on you: this life.

Maybe you went to work with a job, but you came home only with opportunities.

Or the phone rings in the afternoon and, after some stunned silence, you head to the closet and look for black clothing, and then you collapse on the floor, a crying rocking mess because you'll never see them again.

Or maybe you hear that crunch and feel the impact and then it's just broken glass and gasoline and a radio that keeps playing in the suddenly lonely night.

When you started, you had no idea this would happen—any of it.

The workout looked so simple on the board.

The job looked so simple when you took it.

The curve on the road didn't seem major, even with the rain.

And that phone, oh how you wish it had never rang.

Life was one thing when you started this day, and now it's something else entirely.

Since there's no going back, you have to decide. Either you adjust and have at it. Or you don't.

It really comes down to that.

• Either you decide to head straight into the storm ... or you fold.

• Either your workout wins ... or you do.

• Either life wins ... or you do.

• Either you decide to dance with your problems ... or you decide to avoid them and never really get anywhere.

Your workout, your life, your decision.

Make it. Take it. Or forsake it.

The clock is ticking. Your broken heart is in your hands. Your spirit waits for the whistle or the sigh, telling it whether to rally or retire.

What are you going to do?