There are endless sayings and phrases that have been around for ages and of all of them, the most timeless may be “No Rest for the Weary.” You work your tail off. We know you do. This site is about being committed to making yourself stronger, smarter, and more skillful and we encourage you to push yourself to your boundaries.

Improving yourself is exhausting. It takes time, energy, and sacrifice. Too often, we look at people around us and tell ourselves that when compared to Average Joe,  we are “good enough.” Perhaps you’ve been training to get in better shape and see that you may look better than your friends or lift heavier weight than them. If not, perhaps you have become a little bit less ambitious in your career because you feel like you are more senior to some of your peers.

There can be no slowing down. There can be no rest. Life is one tremendous superset. If you are taking it easy in one aspect of your life, you need to shift gears to improve another. You’re going to face times in your life where tragedy strikes, trains become derailed, and everybody around you is going to begin to cave in. It’s up to you to face your demons, one by one, without showing exhaustion. Lead by example and instead of looking to create followers, look to create more leaders.

If you spend enough time on this site, you’ll learn that we love Batman. The story is compelling because Bruce Wayne has so much conviction in his purpose. He is willing to sacrifice his wealth, body, and even his relationships to fulfill his purpose. As a Batman junkie myself, I look to superheroes as moral exemplars. By this, I mean that to be like them we don’t have to dress in a cape and jump off of rooftops – but we should try to reflect them in the ways that we can. By pushing ourselves to be better and seeing the good in people, we can inspire others and we can foster hope in times of despair.

No Rest for the Weary: A Confession

I am an ectomorph. I don’t really pig out, so I almost always look lean. When I have gone on a crazy binge, I would just end up looking like Kermit the frog for a week or two until I decided to get my act together. When I was a little bit younger, I was very active. I would train because I wanted a six pack. Being pretty lean to begin with, it really didn’t take much effort to have some muscular definition within my torso. My purpose was to get a six pack and as a consequence I looked good.

Not long after that, The Dark Knight came into theaters and I went to see a very early showing where I had to go straight to my day job after the movie. While on a New York City subway, I saw a very one sided fight start to break out and (after seeing Batman) felt like I had a responsibility to do something and tried to break up the fight – only to be flung aside like a child.

What good were my abs then? I saw a weak person get pummeled and I didn’t have the strength to stop this guy nor did I have the endurance to detain him if I could stop him. All that I had was the will to stand up to him and that didn’t do much for me.

This is only a few years ago and all that I can do is think back at how vain and selfish I was. On top of that, I had no purpose. I had the will power to save the day, but felt that purpose only in a drastic time of need.

Finding Our Purpose

The next day, I signed up for a martial art called Jeet Kune Do and took on a serious training regimen. I was a man on a mission after having my pride wounded and would YouTube bare knuckle fights or bully attacks to get me angry before I went to train. After a two hour MMA session, I would go lift weights. Ideal for muscle growth? Absolutely not. Recommended by personal trainers? Far from it. Either way, it taught me to push myself. It taught me to do things when everybody said not to. It taught me to somehow step on the pedal when I felt like I was out of gas.

Long story short: I felt remarkably strong, fast, and ready for anything. Feeling vigilant, I was always looking for ways to put my new found strength and speed to use. Years passed by and I never witnessed another fight. Feeling stronger, I would help people push their cars when stalled or I would participate in charity races to put my speed to the test. Last Halloween, I saw a brawl break out while at a party and went straight for the biggest guy in the middle of it all. In my Clark Kent costume, I grabbed him and threw him into two others fighting. Turns out, this guy was actually also trying to break up the fight. I felt like an idiot and such an amateur.

A couple of weeks after that, I spoke with a cousin of mine who I haven’t talked to in years. He received a college scholarship for wrestling. I found out that he tried out and signed up in the first place because he thought it was “cool” that I was in shape and that I “knew how to fight.” My mother who has been overweight for most of my life, had signed up for Weight Watchers to take her health more seriously after seeing how dedicated I was to working out. On top of that, my girlfriend told me that she wanted to take a very active role in a non-profit and she also participated in her first adventure run.

The Bottom Line

The point of the story is, you need to push yourself to your absolute limit – and then you need to push yourself some more. Sometimes, people don’t need to see a superhero stop a villain to inspire them. Sometimes, just witnessing somebody work their hardest will inspire others to do great things. We all have a specific purpose in life and until we find out what that is, as Confitdent people we need to work our asses off to inspire others to do great things. It will be exhausting and it will be daunting, but you cannot rest. Your legacy and legend will last far longer than your body.