Put Yourself Up for Review

Pay very close attention to the people around you, to your closest friends, and then look inward. They say we are the summation of our environment, the manifestation of the people in our lives. If you look closely, there might be a lot to take away from those around you; so much potential knowledge and wisdom to garner from those same people. The opposite might also be true. Are you one of those people to your friends? Can you see yourself as someone who’s made the right life choices, hard choices? Have you obtained skills and knowledge that could change the lives of those around you? Are you taking steps to be one of those people?

Marcus Aurelius’ “epithets for the self ” included: Upright. Modest. Straightforward. Sane. Cooperative.

There is one word that encompasses all of these qualities. That word is: Virtue; described by Ryan Holiday, in his book Stillness, that

“virtue is not holiness, but rather a moral and civic excellence in the course of daily life. It’s a sense of pure rightness that emerges from our souls and is made real through the actions we take.”

There is also a word for this used in Eastern culture, junzi — which roughly translates to a person who emanates integrity, honor, and self-control.

If it doesn’t seem clear why these concepts may be relevant to a company in the fitness market, consider that it has everything to do with fitness; not just that, but everything in life, health, longevity, a life worth living. No one is less at ease than the person who constantly chooses the excuse, gives in to the temptations, or lacks the self-command to hold themselves accountable. Meanwhile, what about the person who possesses the discipline, the person who finds it easy to make the hard choices, the person who has a strong sense of self worth; let me tell you, that person has no trouble falling asleep at night. That person has a power they can draw on when they face the next obstacle, the next challenge, the next workout.

The gift of life is that we get to make the decisions; we can choose to change in any given moment, what standards we are going to hold ourselves to. We can choose to win. Which is why we all need to sit down and find a moment everyday to examine ourselves and what we believe to be the most essential; the most important. We can decide if we choose to win.