Purpose & Outcome
We’ve been programmed for a certain life. Early on in childhood we start the beginning phases of the program. Education is important, but I feel there is something missing from the mass culture of general education, that being guidance towards true meaning.
Most of us start out our college years already in debt to student loans to pursue a laundry list of pre-existing careers. Chances are you didn’t go to college for your PASSION. You have most likely chosen a career path with the most stability. Now comprehend that you’ve put yourself into debt for something that if given an actual choice, you would not have picked.
We know what comes next. Work for 30-40 years in order to finally live the way we want. Is this our meaning? No. We are souls, and we require nourishment of our truest selves.
Powerlifting has given this to me. It provides me with something to attain, goals to achieve, and strength to build. This is how I nourish my soul. I have found what I need under the bar.
We need control. We need to own it. We are free, and we don’t want to be confined by outside regulations. Constant change is constant growth, the death of ourselves is stasis. Without this, we will undoubtably slip into that darkness again.
When I walk into my gym, I get to control my own outcome. I enter with a purpose, a choice, and an emotion that drives me to push. This is my light, lit up like a multifaceted color scheme that pierces through the dark like sharp blades. I enjoy the chaos that is powerlifting. As challenges arrive, I give myself the ability to cut them down.
This is how I cope. I owe so much to this simple, yet intense sport. Right as I felt myself losing grip, I discovered my cause. Calloused hands, sore bodies, and lost breath: All a beautiful combination of hard work and determination.
How can something so intense, and so misconstrued as barbaric actually improve the quality of ones life? As an example, I will explain my own experience with how my life has been altered.
I’ve gone through the program myself. I’ve encountered the gloom and dread of not knowing exactly what the next day offers. I began to slip into the mundane, feeling as if my body was in a motionless state while the world around me zipped by like blurred lines. It’s a trap, and a damn good one.
Since I was about 14 years old, I’ve been surrounded by fitness, but it wasn’t until I was 18 that I began to take it seriously. This time around, I was hooked. Completely enthralled by my newly acquired fitness journey. Over time, the gym became my sanctuary and a place I could arise from the pits of the mundane. However, something still felt off.
My training was recreational at best. I lost fat, gained muscle, and more importantly confidence, but I couldn’t help but wonder, what’s next? I didn’t want this newly discovered fire to dwindle and burnout only to leave me once again motionless in life. Thankfully, I crossed paths with one man who had discovered his meaning and took interest in mine.
He spent a lot of his time enhancing the training style that I was accustomed to. He encouraged me to try my hand at powerlifting at an upcoming local meet, as if he had seen my path before I even could. Little did I know what I was going to discover at the end of that short 8 week prep. As I stepped foot into the banquet room of Hyatt Hotel, assembled with rubber mats, mono lifts, and competition benches, my heart felt overjoyed. Traversing through the sea of lifters and coaches, I was fascinated by the energy in the room. There was something unspoken that seemed to pull me in.
The people. All ages, sizes, genders, personalities, appearances, all not only welcomed, but coexisting with one another. I was witnessing humanity at its finest. Everyone lending a hand, whether it was loading each others plates, offering spots, sharing equipment with total strangers and even sharing food with people that they had just met moments before! I knew right then and there that this was it for me.
Seeing this changed everything. I found my challenge, my way to fight stasis. This required growth, change and a willingness to escape my comfort zone. This drew me in, and I wanted to improve myself. This discovery of a truly beautiful community filled with amazing people, was exactly the nourishment my soul needed. With that, I’m able to strive, and because of this, I no longer feel alone. I now have people to look up to, challenge me and push me into a state of growth. With this, I strive to set an example, and hopefully impact someone else’s life the way this has impacted mine.
That is my passion and my purpose. I have chosen to control my own outcome. What will you do?
Jonathan Escobar
@ironesco