When people hear the term “higher power” they often associate it with some esoteric God-like figure. Saying you found a higher power sounds like you finally decided to answer the door when the Mormons knocked. It can make people uncomfortable when you talk about it. It’s time to destigmatize that concept.
Finding a higher power is finding empowerment. A call to greatness. Finding something that is bigger than yourself. People do find it in religion. People find it in the military. Finding a higher power means that you’ve connected to something on a spiritual level. Something that becomes so entrenched in your psyche that you can’t conceptualize life without it.
It’s a gateway drug to a better life, a call-to-action that demands you present your best possible self at any moment. My higher power is lifting. Before, I couldn’t really adhere to anything. The longest I had held a job was 9 months. I drank to myself to the early stages of liver failure, smoked a pack a day, and ate a diet consisting of salt and meat.
But more than anything I hated myself, all my behavior was a cycle of self-sabotage that allowed me to keep living that way.
I found purpose in powerlifting. The concept of holding hundreds of pounds like it was nothing excited me.
I found strength in sobriety. I connected with people on a level which I never really expected. I came to discover that the people around me were there for the same reason I was. We were all laying the foundation for a better self.
There’s an accountability in strength training. Whether it’s bodybuilding, powerlifting, or strongman’s stepsibling CrossFit, it requires you to care and nurture for yourself with transparency and integrity. You evaluate every decision you make for yourself, and whether it’s going impact the next day of training.
Go to the gym hungover and the bar will lecture you on getting adequate rest and hydration. It requires you to present your best self, even on your worst days. That was a foreign concept to me, I used to tell myself that sleep was for the weak. Now I can’t operate with less than seven hours.
When I find myself in high leverage conversations, I just have to think back to when I’ve handled a one rep max and suddenly I approach that conversation with a level-headed confidence that I am still unfamiliar with.
That’s my sermon, a ceremony of grinding chalk into my palms, taking a deep breath, tightening my belt, and giving it my best.
That’s true enlightenment, to understand what you’re capable of, and act upon it. To look at the challenges ahead, and understanding that while it may get messy, you will see it through to the other side. That’s analogous to finding God, understanding that there is a greater purpose beyond anything you had previously understood.
Mine just involves steel, chalk, and very good friends.
