In architecture, we all know that a building is only as sound as the foundation it’s built upon.
You could have the most beautiful building known to man, but if it was built upon a poor foundation, it’s always at risk.
I would contend that this is true in almost every aspect of our lives, and today, I’m going to give you some real-world examples.
Let me begin by telling you a quick story.
This past year has been crazy. You guys know about me – I own two businesses (IFAST and RTS), I train consistently myself, and just have a ton of things going on in general.
So why has this year been harder than usual? I couldn’t figure it out until the other day, when it almost literally slapped me in the face!
The answer was simple – this year has been difficult because I’ve been rebuilding my foundation in all of these areas of my life.
With regards to RTS, it all started this past summer out of a conversation I had with Pat Rigsby. I was telling Pat that I wanted more out of my shopping cart and e-mail software. He gave me a new business to look into, and off I went.
Next thing I know, I was moving my entire business from one online shopping cart to the next. It may not sound like much, but this was a HUGE undertaking!
The end result is a cleaner, more efficient program that allows me much greater versatility. And hopefully you guys appreciate the pretty e-mails you get every week!
But it didn’t stop there.
The next project was my website. In all honesty, the website looked great – I just wanted more functionality and control on the back-end.
This project entailed taking every post, article, Podcast and newsletter from the past 6 or 7 years and pulling it into WordPress. Once there, THE Allen Tucker and I had to make some magic happen before it started looking like it does today.
At the end of the day, though, I feel like my site is now cleaner and easier to use. It’s also set all of us up for some very cool things in the near future.
So RTS is getting close to where I envisioned it, but IFAST was another can of worms.
At IFAST, our systems were pretty well in place, but our business was spread across numerous platforms (one for scheduling clients, one for taking payments, etc.), which was causing a lot of headaches. We’re now in the process of switching to one service that does most of this for us, again, simplifying our business and streamlining how we do things.
And if those examples don’t hit close enough to home, let’s talk training. Up until 2-3 months ago when I started lifting consistently heavy again, my training was boring.
Goblet squats, half-kneeling exercises, push-ups and the like don’t exactly make you feel like a stud. Regardless, these were the exercises I needed to develop a better foundation for the long-haul, and hopefully get me where I want to go.
At the end of the day, you’re only as strong as your foundation. I want to continue to grow both of my businesses; without ensuring the foundation was strong and stable, there’s no way I could achieve this.
These concepts apply to training as well. I still have goals and numbers I want to achieve. Going back to square one to fix things up isn’t the most exciting brand of training, but it’s absolutely necessary with the long-term goal in mind.
If you’re seeing success in training and in life, awesome! Don’t let the momentum slip between your fingers. Keep it rolling as long as you can.
But if you’re stuck, in a rut, or simply not seeing the progress you would like, critically evaluate your foundation. Chances are you may need to take a step back, and either fill in some cracks, or complete a major overhaul.
When it comes to foundational work, not only is it hard, but also it doesn’t feel like you’re accomplishing much. After all, in a lot of regards, you’ve already been there and done that!
But when it’s all said and done, you’ll be setting yourself up for long-term success.
All the best
Mike
(Intro Photo Courtesy of Reinante El Pintor)
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