No…No…this is not an article about why Beyond Failure Training should be the method of training for all bodybuilders. In fact it has little to do with bodybuilding and yet everything to do with it.

Often times when I would be teaching my students in the Dojo, the look of frustration and disappointment that washed over their faces whether they were 10 years old or 40 years old would force me to stop that days lesson for some much needed clarification.

You see in every facet of life, it is always easier to be on the outside looking in. My students would watch me demonstrate an advanced self defense concept and watch the way I moved and executed things and then compared the way they were doing the same move to that and invariable the would become completely deflated.

Men and women of huge accomplishment, whether they were heads of powerful companies, in charge of 100 employees or even if they were in charge of protecting the president of the united states, would all turn into frustrated little boys and girls that came down harder on themselves then a brick wall when they perceived they were failing with the task at hand.

I want it, and I want it now and if I cannot do it perfectly right away, I will not do it at all. This is what was written all over their faces, simply because they felt out of control and felt they were failing at the task at hand.

My solution was simple. First I would point out to them, that the ease and efficacy with which I performed was due to the fact that I lived on the Dojo mat. I spent many, many hours training and teaching, but yet still there were thousands of things I did wrong and in many cases, had an even harder time grasping the concepts that were plaguing them.

The point was simple. Do not fall into the habit of comparing yourself in a situation unless all other things are equal, and even this is a problem, because all other things are never equal since no two people are alike, much the way no two snowflakes are alike.

Taking this into the realm of bodybuilding, an inordinate number of people make the mistake of comparing their physiques and accomplishments to those they admire and because of this wind up getting impatient and trying to circumvent the "failure" that they perceive they are experiencing It is important to understand that "failure" is a wonderful thing. It is what allows us to succeed.

Imagine how boring and un-eventful and un-challenging life would be if everything came easy to you. You would enjoy nothing, for you would know nothing but ease and success and success without failure is not success. It just is! To my little students I would say, "You cannot truly appreciate ice cream until you know the foul taste of asparagus" But it goes even deeper than this. Once while training with Benny "The Jet" Urquidez—perhaps the greatest full contact kick boxer that ever lived—he said something very interesting to me, while I was getting pissed off because I kept screwing up a particular sparring sequence. "Why are you getting angry because you are missing it?" "You should be having fun and laughing everytime you screw up, because that means you are getting one step closer to mastery." And he was totally correct! All "failures" and "mistakes" should be viewed as little "coaches" that point out to you along the way where you need to focus your efforts. When looked at in this manner, one comes to embrace every failure as yet another chance to improve. Each bitter taste of "asparagus" will only make that bowl of ice cream taste that much better.

Bodybuilding, just like everything else in life is about the journey, not the destination. I was having a discussion with Ian Harrison last weekend about this very thing. We sat in my back yard and Ian informed me that he knows he could do well in competition, but that he was burned out from trying to please other people in terms of what his physique should be. Because of this, he lost the passion and had to step away from the sport. My response to that was to ask him to recall the passion he had when he was 16. Back then, the only thing that mattered to Ian and to most of us was the workout. The training, the journey, that is where the magic lay hidden, awaiting for us to discover it by pushing past the pain and leaving nothing left in the gym. There was no thought about what the judges would think. Who the fuck cares?! The beauty lies in the journey along the way and the mistakes and "failures" that come with it. Realizing this, Ian now has a totally different outlook on bodybuilding, and one that will pair the 16 year old Ian Harrison, who did odd jobs to pay for his gym membership and supplements just so he could get a chance to train, with the 300lb freak that will step on stage for nobody but himself.

It is our "failures" that make everything possible. Once you realize this, you will start to achieve your goals faster than you ever thought.

Now before I end this article, I would like to point out the other thing that I would tell my students when they would compare their abilities to mine in utter frustration. That is, that each of us shines in different ways. Everyone that is reading this article does something much better than I do and if you put me in their environment I would be the beginner, fucking up left and right. There is nothing wrong with this. You must simply understand that everyone has a gift and shines in a particular way and the arena's in which we shine are interchangeable and matter not. Often times they are a function of the era we live in. Do you think being good at Golf meant jack-shit 500 years ago? Yet today the media holds up Tiger Woods on a God like pedestal and shits all over bodybuilders. Does this mean that Tiger Woods is better than Dorian Yates or Ronnie Coleman? The point I am trying to leave you with is that if you are getting frustrated in your bodybuilding or life goals, simply take the time to understand two things:

1: Each "Failure" is a gift that if embraced will take you one step closer to your goal

2: Each one of us is a master in some particular area when compared to others. If you look at Dorian Yates and say you can never be like him, that he had it much easier than you, then think again. Because there is something that you can do that he cannot do quite as well. If it is needlepoint then so be it, but understand that you can take the same effort that you applied to needle point and apply it to bodybuilding and then you will be like Dorian and the results that have been alluding you will be just around the corner.

What one man can do, another can do.....