I am now one week after the National Bodybuilding Championships in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My mind keeps going back to the great experience, the new friends, the multiple lessons learned, and the bonding time I had with my wife and my Coach Justin Dees and his wife Heather. I have flashes of events, conversations, on stage performance, dieting, pre-contest training and the rest of it. All of these things serve to indelibly imprint the Nationals on my mind. The whole experience was rich!
In the midst of all these memories is the lesson that stamped itself on my quest to be the best. “EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED.” Let me illustrate. I came out of the pre-judging in 4th place and feeling good that if I killed my posing I had a chance to move up even further. I went back to my room feeling that if I made the necessary adjustments that Justing would help me make, I would do even better.
Ten minutes before going onto the stage my coach looked me over and said I was ready. I was shredded, big, vascular, and dry. When I stepped onto the stage to do my music posing selection it was obvious that I had smoothed out significantly—-ALL WITHIN A TEN MINUTE PERIOD OF TIME! My coach was be waffled as was I. I could not think of a single thing that I had done to cause such a major change in my appearance. I was not “fat” mind you, my subcutaneous fluids just smoothed me out. I was easily the largest competitor but I lacked the sharpness required to win the trophy. THIS WAS TOTALLY UNEXPECTED AND NEITHER I OR MY COACH COULD ACCOUNT FOR THE FLUID RETENTION THAT CAME ON SO STRONG.
Thus, the truism of the hour is to “EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED.” The action to this bit of truth is to be “OVER PREPARED NEXT TIME.” I can’t change the past but I can for sure do things to change that mistake or unaccounted for phenomenon. As a result, I will be doing the Utah show in the next 2 weeks to see if I can correct this game changer that hurt me at the Nationals.
Justin is working up a new regimen to meet the demands of the new contest. All is focused on my conditioning and my shreddedness.
Moral of the Story: “EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED” and plan as if it will occur. No matter how dark things seem to get because of a glitch, we have the capacity to make big changes if we pay attention to the perceived or anticipated “UNEXPECTED EVEN.”
I leave you with the admonition to get started on the path to your goals. When we face the “UNEXPECTED” we make the adjustments necessary to effect positive change. Never give up and never stop learning even when we do not know what is about to hit us.
Until next time!
Douglas E. Graham, Lt Col, (USAF), ret,
Six Pack and Senior 