Do You Do This?

The bargaining always begins in Round Two.

The deals, the allowances, the revised strategy.

You attack Round One like a lion, a predator, a master of all you survey. 15 deadlifts? No problem. Unbroken. You rip onto the next movement and tear at the flesh of it. Screw you, kettlebell. You are a beast. You are going to destroy this workout. Toes-to-bar don't stand a chance now. Hard gaze, steely eyes. You have SO got this. You are a machine.

Then it happens.

You finish that first round, but now your breath gets short, your hands start to hurt a little, your soul takes a big punch to the throat. Pain is here. And suddenly, life is really fucking hard.

And that's when you make the deals.

That's when you start to bargain with yourself.

"I should break this round of 12 into 2 sets. Do 6. Let go of the bar. Save my grip."

It seems to make sense, but the real question is:

• Are you bargaining because it's smart?

• Or because you're tired?

• Because you're suffering?

• Because you're scared of how much more it's going to hurt?

Is your new plan in reaction to what is happening? Or is your new plan in anticipation of what will happen? Are you being smart, or are you being scared?

I don't have that answer.

You don't have that answer yet. But you need to find it. And, once, you find it in your workout, then you need to find it in your life.

Because if you do this bargaining in the gym—if you fade, if you make yourself a deal when things become difficult, if you settle, then you're probably doing it in your life too. And that's the real shit you need to figure out.

Imagine what your life would be like if you really knew where your red line was.

If you knew when to use your power and when to back off, if you knew how much your heart could really take, how much you could suffer, how much you could love, how beautiful you really could be.

Imagine if you really knew yourself.

Now go find out.