IF

"Do you know that "IF" is the middle word in life?  IF, you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, IF you can trust yourself when all men doubt you". That is the famous quote said by the Photojournalist played by the late Dennis Hopper in the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now.  Great fucking movie.  Yeah, I know what you're saying.  Johnny loves war movies.  True.  But this one goes beyond anything in the war movie genre.  My father took me to see this movie when I was 12 years old. I'm sure I just dated myself....who cares.   Take this for perspective; The Vietnam War officially ended April 30, 1975.  Apocalypse Now was released August 15, 1979.  Only four (4) years after the war officially ended.  In my opinion, that's when Hollywood had balls.  Here was a writer/producer, Francis Ford Coppola, who decides to release a movie about a war both fueled and filled with leaders run amok. The dust that was a war that changed America more than ever before had not even settled yet and Coppola kicks out a story line that goes like this.....It is the height of the war in Vietnam, and U.S. Army Captain Willard, played by Martin Sheen,  is sent by Colonel Lucas and a General to carry out a mission that, officially, 'does not exist - nor will it ever exist'. The mission: To seek out a mysterious Green Beret Colonel, Walter Kurtz, played by Marlin Brando, whose army has crossed the border into Cambodia and is conducting hit-and-run missions against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army. The army believes Kurtz has gone completely insane and Willard's job is to eliminate him!  -some excerpts from IMDb.  

So here we go.  This sets the stage for the opening title of this Blog Post "IF".  Really?  YES.....really.  Remember during the closing of my last blog post when I said my next post would be about nutrition?  Yeah, well I didn't lie.... nutrition will be addressed.  Most likely not in the way you suspect nutrition to be covered.  

I am certain, that after reading some of the background of how Apocalypse Now came to be, Coppola had to deal with so much adversity.  As athletes, we are faced with adversity everyday, but take a look at the odds against this film for a moment.  Sheen had a heart attack on the set and Brando never once read the script prior to arriving on the set.  Furthermore, Kurtz is supposed to have just recently deserted his Green Beret command.....so instead of a ripped special forces warrior, Coppola gets a Brando who tips the scales at 300+ lbs.  To make it even more difficult, the film was made without any cooperation from the U.S. Government.  Then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, refused to allow the film to use any U.S. military equipment or personnel.   Remember, the war had only officially ended 4 years prior.  The shit storm that surrounded the war, what it meant, what it accomplished, and mostly how the soldiers were basically treated like shit upon their arrival home....  all of this was all still fresh in the minds of the American public.   This is how the masterpiece came to be.  The theme here again is IF; IF Coppola listened to the naysayers who said he shouldn't, couldn't and wouldn't complete this movie, then it would have never came to be.  IF Coppola gave into Marlon Brando and fired him the movie would not have been such a success.  IF Sheen would have died of a heart attack....IF Dennis Hopper hadn't received the load of Cocaine required to keep his drug habit alive....IF - IF - IF - IFFFFFFFFFFF......Whoa!  In the end the movie is made up of just as many misfits and missteps as were evident by the political powers that ran the Vietnam War.  Fortunately, this was JUST a movie and no lives were lost during it's filming.  The only real casualty was that Coppola lost over 100 lbs. due to stress along with a constant stream of suicidal thoughts.  His reality, which became his rabbit hole was that his life and career teetered upon total failure "IF", and I emphasize IF he doesn't complete the over budgeted film.  But he does.  Against all odds, he does.  

The lesson here is this.  Your CrossFit training. Your O-Lifting training.  Your flexibility.  Your mental state.  Your stress levels.  Your sleep.  Your recovery.  ALL OF IT is only possible IF you have your nutrition in some form of order.  This means measuring Macro-Nutrients in some way shape or form.  Whether it's ZONE Principles or KETO or whatever you decide to sink your teeth into.  Bottom line is that you need to establish a method and stick with it.  Learn by process of elimination for what works and what does not.  The human body is in a constant state of change, so tweaking is necessary.  There are times when it's perfect.  Other times not so much.  Want to test the theory of trying to out train a shitty diet?  Go ahead.  Pretend you're directing your own film and that your success or failure depends on your ability to lock in an optimal nutrition plan.  Eat the donuts.  Eat the cake.  Eat, drink and shit yourself like a glutton.  Fuck it up completely and watch what happens. I will put money on that horse to fail.  Your training, flexibility, mental state, stress, sleep and recovery will not be worth two shits IF your nutrition is not in proper order.  The movie set IS your body and your mind.  Here's a few more similarities; Your skills as an athlete are no different than Brando saying fuck reading the script. Flexibility? Mental state?  That's Coppola losing his shit over the fact that all of his hard work could have been lost at any moment.....same goes for your training....stay the course, or damn close to it, or you will FUCK IT UP.  How about one more....Your stress levels are just like Sheen, the star of the film having a heart attack.  All of these clever little bullshit correlates are what drives the success or failure of the project.  Sure, once in awhile you'll get lucky and figure out a way to make it work like Coppola did.  But 99.99% of the time you'll fall short and the project ends up on the cutting room floor.  

You are great at what you do, but you can be better. Make sure you tell yourself this daily.  If you are not confident in your ability, then make damn sure that you are in an environment that will give you the mental lift to stay positive.  Be sure to establish a dynamic with your significant other, your mentor, your boss, your teammate, your coach.... anyone that can help you get better so that you achieve a method or technique you can trust to get you better than you were yesterday.  You are the director of the film and you MUST operate with the notion that the project will fail if not financed, directed and launched properly.  Your success in this scenario is no different than your macro-nutrients being administered in proper portions.  Your budget will be right on target IF you run it the way a good director should.  In the end you'll find success.  A box office smash.  Learn to know success.  Learn to know victory in the gym.  It's still just you against you and that should never change.  

The final take away here is what everyone is after, and that is achievement.  Do yourself a favor on this last day of January 2016, watch what happens IF you utilize and apply the best resources for a segment of your life. I suggest you start with nutrition.  For IF you do, everything else becomes manageable.  

Do you know that IF is the middle word in LIFE?

Stay strong!

Peace - Johnny