So last night I had dinner with Dan John...

Hanley

Last night Dan John threatened to make my girlfriend eat dog food.

If you know who Dan John is, that won't come as a surprise.

…but you probably will ask "what the f*ck was James and Sarah doing out with Dan John?!"

The hows and whys are irrelevant.

If you don't know who Dan John is, he described himself as "the crazy uncle of fitness".

He is INFAMOUS for breaking complex things down into the most brutally simple.

Things like "if it's important, do it everyday, if it's not, don't do it at all".

He works with regular folk, high school and college kids, pro athletes, elite special forces and everything in between.

For those in the know, he's a god in the industry.

…so when the chance came for dinner with him - I jumped at the opportunity.

Anyway, here's what's important.

While we were driving him back to his hotel (**brag, brag**), we were chatting back and forwards (lie.. peppering him with questions and listening to him talk) Sarah was silly enough to ask him about her double bodyweight squat goal.

He made the point that there's 2 people who train - people who wanna look and feel better, and athletes with performance goals.

"So a double bodyweight squat, that's a performance goal, therefore you're an athlete".

Sarah conceded that it made sense.

His response… "well then there's only one question - can you go?"

Can. You. Go.

That was it.

How much do you want it?

Do you REALLY want it, or are you just saying you do.

So he helped her break it down a bit and ended up with…

"OK, so in 3 weeks time, you gotta squat 121kg, or I'm coming back and making you eat a tin of dog food"

It was all a bit 'WTF??!?!' until he explained;

"See here's the thing, unless there's a VERY high price of failure there's no incentive"

He said if he ever sees someone slacking off, he'll stand behind them holding the thing reading the ingredient list.

…taunting them.

"Horse meat"

"Hydrogenated vegetable oil"

etc etc

And it got me thinking.

I desperately want to pull triple bodyweight. It's been a long lifetime goal for too many years.

…except I'm not really doing the stuff to get there.

I'm more concerned with being lean, looking decent and having low stress training at the moment.

And that's perfectly ok - I spent 6 years giving up everything in the pursuit of as much strength as possible.

It's ok to take a break and train specifically, but without purpose.

So my question to you now is...

"Do you want your goal bad enough, that if you fail, you'd eat a tin of dog food".

Because in the words of Dan John;

"If you say you do and you fail, i'm gonna stand over you and make you eat every last bite even if you're coughing up lumpy dog food and barfing it out your nose"

Can you go?

PS - originally wrote this in an email, and gonna make this week "Dan John Week" and talk some more about the stuff we chatted about in the car;

-Park bench workouts versus bus bench workouts
-THE 3 questions
-The 5 step testing process
-Mexican Food

RidleyRider

Jealousy wants me to call you mean names...

:pac: