About six months ago (or was it nine?), I quit going to the Plano rec center to lift weights. That's no knock on them. My membership ran out and I vowed to start doing something different. Of course, that meant that I had no plan. I had an idea, but not a plan. I thought that I would spend that $140--that would've gone towards another 12 months of membership--into buying equipment for the house. I would finally have the conveniences of a work-out facility right in my own home. Typically, this idea failed to take shape. I never acquired or built the equipment and here we are.

One Spring soccer season later, I am determined to see this through. I want to be the guy who never tires on the field; who's always making the effort to defend and making the long run; the guy who can be counted on to make the play. I don't want to be the guy who wears the headband and craps out after 15 minutes. No one should be that guy.

My first move is complete. I have purchased the used Power Tower on CraigsList for cheap. I have the resistance bands coming in from Iron Woody. This weekend, I plan making the t-handle for kettle swings with parts from Home Depot. I plan on raiding Play-it-Again-Sports for the weights. Finally, I plan on putting together THE PLAN based on a book that I already own--a book that was once used and dismissed for awhile and is collecting dust on a shelf right now. It's called Never Gymless by Ross Enamait (pronounced en-am-ITE).

Ross is the founder of a fitness website called RossTraining.com. He's a fitness trainer and author based out of Massachusetts. His M.O. is body-weight training and I think that's what turned me onto him in December 2008. I wish, for the life of me, I could remember how I first discovered him. I know I was always intrigued by military-style training: running, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, etc. I had just watched the Navy SEALs Discover Channel documentary about the BUD/s training and got inspired. I probably stumbled upon his site while rummaging through the web, looking for military workouts. Alas, here we are.

50 days until Game 1 of the fall soccer season. 50 days to train hard and get in shape. 50 days of grueling Texas summer heat. 50 days of pain. 50 days to glory.

Give me 5 days, first. It takes 5 days to create a habit--30 days if you really want to entrench it. I've just got to work through 5 first. I'll report back then.

Here's some inspiration for you...

In David Brooks' latest NYT column, It's Not About You, he implores recent college grades to shed the ethos of the Baby Boomer generation. "Embrace your dreams" and "find your passion" have long been the rally cry of the Summer of Love crowd. It's striking that the same people who were charged to "ask not what your country could do for [them]" are the very ones who sought to stake their own claim on the world with rugged individualism. Ayn Rand haunts us still.

While life is certainly hard--and each person might say that their current season is the hardest yet--I've always contended that the post-graduation, mid-20s years are the toughest. You’re either a jobless college grad with very little prospects or you ejected into the work force right out of high school and face a bleak uphill battle to attain middle class status. Many of these folk are going it alone without partners or spouses. Many don't belong to a community outside of a few drinking buddies--certainly nothing like a service club or a church. Many have aging parents whose own career paths are entering the twilight years and job opportunities beyond that are flagging. We’re living in a catch-as-catch-can culture. Good luck "embracing that passion."

Brooks writes:

Most successful young people don’t look inside and then plan a life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life. A relative suffers from Alzheimer’s and a young woman feels called to help cure that disease. A young man works under a miserable boss and must develop management skills so his department can function. Another young woman finds herself confronted by an opportunity she never thought of in a job category she never imagined. This wasn’t in her plans, but this is where she can make her contribution.

For the generation of students who have always had a roadmap for where they were going: from primary school to junior high and high school (or prep school) to college and on and on, this sudden engagement with "open source" life is jarring. Re-inventing is difficult. It takes time. There are no instruction manuals, although many authors have crafted them.

If you find yourself in this place, take heart. You aren't the first. Be a part of something bigger than yourself. In the process, I'll bet you'll find who it was that you were looking for.