Oh, what have I committed myself to? Well, my life is about to get real interesting.

After giving a lot of thought to my fitness trajectory and what I wanted to do, I began putting fingers to the keyboard to write out goals. It started with a lot of back and forth, a lot of thinking, and a lot of jumping around. I spent a lot of time writing about my goals, abilities, and self-doubts. It was time spent figuring out exactly what I wanted to do and building a "plan." These journal entries evolved into the "Can't" series I recently posted on my blog.

I wrote it down. I committed myself to these goals. The thing is, once I wrote them down and committed myself to the plans, it was like a massive burden was lifted from my mind. A fog had cleared, and once again, I found purpose in what I was doing every morning in the gym. 

Here I am doing some Jefferson Curls to prep my hamstrings because tomorrow I will be doing the Open 22.2. My coach sent me a rundown of a few prep things to do before the Open workout tomorrow, and I will attempt to do up to 100 deadlifts and up to 100 burpees.

Wait, Ben... didn't you jump to a different topic? Nope. This year's Open is going to be my "practice" Open. Next year (2023), I am committing to registering for the Open and competing scaled. Then in 2024, I'm committing to registering to compete Rx (unless some skill is missing). In 2025 I'm going to make a go at trying to get to the Age Qualifier. I've committed myself to a three-year plan to go from a reasonably green "General Fitness" athlete to actually be competitive in the Open. 

I've never planned anything for three years. Hell, I can't even commit to a CAR for three years, and here I am laying out a plan for my fitness journey three years ahead. There are plenty of skills I still need to build, the least of which is pull-ups. 

This will be a long-haul effort, but I see it as a great adventure. Never before in my life have I said "I CAN" this much to something. Rather than beat me up over what I can't do, I've decided I can totally do this, and I will do this. 

Will I bet myself up if I don't make the age qualifier in three years? Nah. This isn't about the competition itself; instead, it's about competing against myself. It's about setting goals and really setting out on the next phase of my body and ability transformation. 

At the end of the day, I really enjoy fitness and enjoy working out, no matter how much I might bitch and moan during it. If I didn't think this would be some of the most fun I've had in my life, I wouldn't be doing it. This day will represent my largest respawn ever. Let’s get going…