You are in danger of peaking at 30
I made this arbitrary goal to be able to deadlift 410lbs for my 41st birthday. I used to be able to lift much more so it’s more of a “can I still do this” goal rather than a new goal to aspire to.
That said, I crushed my goal this week without much trouble, which made me wonder, is being able to deadlift 400lbs+ at 40 years old a big deal?
Age has started to provide me an interesting perspective. At 25 everyone was full of potential and optimistic about fulfilling it, at 40 the gap between those who have become heroes and those who have been defeated is becoming quite apparent.
Deadlifts aren’t a big deal but quitting at the age of 30 and then living to 120 is the biggest deal of all.
The time value of money
If you invest $1,000 in an account and let it sit with a rate of return, it will compound. That’s a fact and you don’t have to do anything for the growth to happen. This is why financial investing is so powerful because compounding is purely a mathematically process and nearly guaranteed to work. The downside is in order to build that wealth you are forced to rely on time.
Health is different. If you don’t lift weights regularly your progress will slow, stall, and eventually reverse. You also can’t get such a head start on fitness that your early work will keep creating prosperity for you 20 years from now. When you stop working on your health, it goes away.
The upside is you aren’t handicapped by compounding-over-time to get results. You can change your level of fitness at any time, today even.
The commoner thinks 41 is when they start getting old, and when we think something is true - we act as if it’s true. The reality is that 41 is young…very young. I’m going to live to 120 years old and so will many of you, therefore I have 79 more years to reap the rewards of my investments. Heroes see 41 and think “I have a lot of time to grow even if starting from behind”, while the defeated says “I’m 41, past my prime, and its’ not worth starting now”.
Just reminder that society is full of idiots (commoners) and the sooner you realize and accept this the faster you’ll get to living a life of individuality. If you’re 41 today and you’re broke as fuck, you can start now and be extremely wealthy in 20 years and then still have 60 years – half – of your life to enjoy it, that’s the power of compounding.
If you’re 41 today and you’re fat and out of shape you can fix this in 12-18 months with a bit of commitment and intensity. I wasn’t able to hit my deadlift goal because I’ve been doing it for 20 years, I was able to hit my deadlift goal because I’ve been doing it with intensity this year. I’m extremely confident I could get any 40 year old male who would bring a little intensity to the gym to lift a 315lb deadlift inside of 12 months, and 405lbs within 24 months. (For my women readers, I could get you to a 225lb deadlift in 12 months, easy).
What's the point?
I want you to consider what people think about you, and what they expect you to accomplish, and then I want you to prove them to be devastatingly wrong – even if they have high expectations.
You can be a extraordinary force of accomplishment if you use nothing else but time horizons to your advantage because the game is longer than everyone else is playing. They are playing for 60 years total and peaking at 30, but the game is actually 120 years and you want to peak at 80.
My father-in-law Steve signed us up for a 9 day hike at Kilimanjaro next March. He’s not a lifelong hiker, but at 70 they told him he needed a new knee so he started hiking the world to get the most use out of it. Now he’s 79 and the doctor says he doesn’t need a new knee, he literally was going to lose it from not using it, now he’s out adventuring 35 year olds I know who quit going to the gym because “it hurts”.
People you know are going to peak at 30, lots of them. They are going to quit the gym, business, adventure, reading, and growing. Maybe this is you, maybe it’s your loved ones. You won’t actually know who is guilty until a few years goby and you look back and see a gap between heroes and the vanquished. If this alone doesn’t terrify you just think about how much shit I talk now and how much worse it will get as I continue to improve for the next 40 years. Unless you grow with me you won’t want to hear my mouth and you’ll unsubscribe, unfriend, retract, and hide in an ever shrinking corner where you’re safe from reflecting on goals you refused to pursue.
"A man without a heroic bent starts dying at the age of thirty" - Nassim Taleb
Do some deadlifts
The list of people who consume this blog and newsletter is short, a few hundred people and only a portion of them actually read it. That makes you the reason I spend all this time writing, and trying to say something valuable, and encouraging you to grow.
Are we going to grow together? Are you going to crush goals, take care of your fitness, and prosper until you’re 70? Are you going to throw away age as an excuse and get excited about the next 80 years. Or are you going to relax and watch the next 8 decades of your life go by in regret?
There is a saying that “Most people die at 25 but aren’t buried until 70”. Do not do this.
Lastly,
I plan to deadlift 420lbs for my 42nd birthday and I’m going to come back and talk even more shit so you have a year to catch up.