“I really want to weigh 130….that’s what I weighed back in college so THAT is my goal!”

“I used to make it to the gym 5 days a week, I LIVED in there, God do I want to get back to being that person!”

“I used to lose weight so easily, I could just cut out carbs for a week and lose 20lbs, now it’s like no matter what I do, I gain…”

“I was so so close to getting to my goal weight 4 years ago, this is the time, this is the time I pull out all the stops and get there!”

–

Uncle Rico is all of us.

We could all throw a football over them mountains two decades ago.

We could’ve all been State Champs if Coach woulda just put us in back in ’82.

We all used to weigh that one number 20 years ago.

We all used to be able to do this thing and that thing and it was effortless.

–

Life changes.

Time passes.

We get injured.

We get high stress jobs.

We work way too many hours.

We have kids.

Our bodies are aging and changing and our mental bandwidth is being depleted as we accrue more responsibilities, whether we want to accept it or not.

–

What used to be, used to be.

That snapshot in time, is not now.

What we were able to do back then, or what we almost did back then, is a cool thought process to think back on, but it is likely a wasted thought process when looking at where we want to get now.

–

I used to run 30-40 miles a week, and want to run more. Now, my knees ache more often than not, and running 3 miles leaves me hobbled for the next couple days.

I used to PR lifts month over month over month. Now, making it to the gym 5 days a week and taking what my body has to give *on that day* is a huge victory. In the last 4 years, I’ve spent more time rehabbing injuries and recovering from surgeries than I have PR’ing anything.

I used to do, and be able to do, a lot of things that time, my body, my responsibilities….no longer allow me to do.

I can sit in the “What If’s” and the “I used to…’s” and tell everyone who will listen. But they don’t care.

They have their own list of “What If’s” and “What They Used To’s”, too. We all do.

–

Quit living under the pressure of creating the outcomes you were able to create 20 years or 30 years ago, before all of life’s stressors added up to what they are now, before you were working 50 hours a week at a crazy stressful job, before you had three kids that meant a fraction of the you-time you had back then.

–

Nothing prior to today is worth fixating on NEAR as much as what you’re capable of now.

Become the best version of yourself that you can be *now*.

That is the only real goal worth pursuing. And the only fair one.

Everything else is an apples to oranges comparison.

Be Pedro, not Uncle Rico.

Pivot, redefine yourself, do the best you can with what you’ve been given *today*.