I recorded a test this past weekend to see where I was.

12.5

This is good, but truthfully I was a bit disappointed.
I had hoped to be at least up to 15 by this point.

Sometimes I look up at the bar and try to mentally overcome my failing muscles.

But the pull-up bar is ruthless, unforgiving.

I’m going to try changing up my training routine and schedule with the pull-ups to see if I can recapture my earlier momentum with them. Of course, the reason why pull-ups are such a great personal challenge is that there really aren’t any shortcuts to get better at them. You just have to put the work in. Do the reps. Don’t slack off.

I know I could get a few more reps if I used momentum and kicked my legs a bit.

But I don’t want to cheat my way up. Even if no one is looking.

I follow the same principle in my businesses.

I want to win, and I will play harder than most to fight for that win, but not at the cost of compromising my ethics and business religion.

I follow a moral compass, and it has guided me well over the past decades.

I’ve passed up many opportunities over the years to make more money. I made that decision because the path I had to take to get there didn’t pass the smell test.

And we all know our lives are defined by the choices we make.

Sometimes they are big, profound choices, and sometimes they are little ones, like not kicking your way up on a pull-up test.

Every day, we make an untold number of choices. When to get up. What we do first in our day. What to work on first. What to eat. What priorities we will focus on or ignore. Hundreds of choices throughout the day.

If you think about it, it’s kind of like a game. We get to make strategic choices to have the best outcome possible. We can make our decisions half-heartedly and still do well or get our butts kicked from the chaos of the day.

Recently my daughter invited me to play the game of chess, a game I used to be pretty good at. However, I found when I sat down to play her that I had forgotten the strategies I had learned in the past. So at every turn I made half-hearted decisions and was constantly reacting, rather than plotting my way through the game.

Now I didn’t care much about winning that game of chess, but it did bother me how lost I felt with each decision.

Your day can be like that.

The more thought and strategic purpose you put into your day, the better you’re going to play.

What is your game plan for today? For the week?

Is there a way you could play better? Be more strategic?

Plan and plot or react. Your choice.

Happy gaming!

Have a good one