27 Apr Character

Character

To paraphrase a couple different quotes:
Our character is determined by how we enjoy the good times and by how we deal with adversity.

Most of these quotes revolve around dealing with adversity but fail to mention that a large part of character is in enjoying the good times. The bad give us a relative understanding of just how much we have to appreciate. Do we take the time to reflect on the things that make our life great? Dwell on the negative if it keeps it from happening again, but don’t lose sight of the little things that make life great.

Patiently waiting

I walk my dogs every day at 5am. I get up early to make sure they get at least a few minutes of exercise. Does it suck to get up that early in the morning? Absolutely. But it’s my quiet time. I get time to reflect and enjoy some time to myself. During certain parts of the spring, there are these flowers that are blooming. They smell wonderful. They’re not roses, but every day during the spring when they’re blooming, I’ll stop and smell them. Enjoy the little things.

Social media has given us more insight to other people’s lives than ever before. What we fail to realize sometimes is that we only see what others let us see. The good, the bad, it’s their choice of what we see. The best analogy I’ve heard is that it’s like looking through a telescope at a person on the peak of a mountain or at the bottom of a valley. We don’t always see the distance between the two. It might be a short rise or a long drop. We don’t know.

There are no perfect lives. We all will face troubled times throughout our life. Do we shine when things are bright or do we cloud it over worrying about the next pitfall?

It’s interesting to note that when we (and I’m guilty of this as well) have problems, we think we’re the only ones dealing with them. It’s tough to remember that problems are universal. Everybody is dealing with something. “Be kind for everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”

As a coach and a personal trainer, it’s like I’m not supposed to have bad days. I’m always the one to smile, cheer, and support. It’s not always easy to do those things when I’m having a bad day. When life throws you lemons, passing lemonade on to others seems like the last thing I want to do.

What did you say?

I’m an extremely optimistic person. My wife says it’s “sickenly” optimistic. In most cases it’s contagious. I will make my face hurt from smiling so that every person leaves my gym feeling better than when they came in. Nothing makes me feel better than asking a client how they feel and hearing back, “better than when I walked in.” Nobody wants to work with a trainer that’s bitching and moaning the whole time. No one is going to listen to a coach that’s ranting about his personal life. So I suck it up and give and give and give. Is it worth it? Absolutely. It’s the most rewarding experience. I’d trade all my PRs for a client or athlete to do better. Sometimes I do. I’ll put others before myself.

There are times I absolutely hate blowing rainbows and sunshine up somebody’s butt to make them better. But as a coach, as a personal trainer, as a friend, sometimes we have to do what we can to lift the other person up and push them to where they ordinarily wouldn’t go. We know they can do it so we give them the motivation to do so. Even when in our own lives we might need some of it ourselves.

Dealing with other people’s adversity over my own isn’t easy. It doesn’t leave much energy to concentrate on dealing with my own problems/training/life. I need help sometimes pulling my head out of my own ass. I can scream and cuss at myself. Most of my clients would not take kindly nor respond well to that type of motivational technique. Sometimes we all need a good yelling or tongue lashing. Criticism sucks. Constructive criticism helps but it’s still a critique that’s often a hard pill to swallow.

It’s tough to listen sometimes

What’s the point of all this? I want you to understand that everybody has bad days. Even the best of us. Despite those bad days, enjoy the little things in life. Find the silver lining in the dark cloud. Be kind to others. Be the silver lining in someone else’s seemingly dark cloud. Lift up others every chance you get. You never know when that one moment will mean the world to someone else.

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Low Country Strength

Will Kuenzel is the owner of Lowcountry Strength (www.LowcountryStrength.com) in Charleston, SC. Will started his athletic endeavors as a pole vault; finishing up his collegiate career with a best vault of 16’9” at a whopping 160lbs. He the track and field world to pursue bodybuilding, his first show in 2005, he won 1st place in Men’s Novice as a middle weight. One year later he took 2nd as a Men’s Junior heavy weight. Since 2007 he has been a competitive powerlifter and totaling elite as a 220lber. His best lifts in multiply equipment are a 710lbs squat, a 605lbs bench press, a 615lbs deadlift and a 1930 total. In 2008 Will started Lowcountry Strength out of his garage. Since then it has moved into a 16,000 sq/ft facility and shares space with a mixed martial arts studio. With all disciplines of powerlifting, strongman, MMA, jiu jitsu and other sports in the Charleston area getting trained under one roof, Will heads up the strength and conditioning for a wide variety of athletes and clients.

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