Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated with fitness (you can read about that here); there was something beautiful about sculpting the body through physical work. Over the past 15 years, I’ve come to realize that fitness much is more than physical and that the art of sculpting is something that we can all do, at all times. This blog is about becoming the best version of who we can become and if you don’t feel like being challenged, I would stop reading here.
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I fell in love with fitness because it was a place that demanded consistent, hard work in order to see tangible results; if you weren’t moving forward, you were moving backward. I began to realize that our bodies don’t like to keep muscle without reason (resistance) because it’s expensive (energy) to keep.
“Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.”
Alexis Carrell
Over the past few years, I’ve come to realize that fitness isn’t the only place that sculpting takes place. In order to grow as human beings, we need exposure to resistance; we need experience hard things (the hard that we choose AND the hard that chooses us). Depending on our definition, there’s a sort of suffering that comes with sculpting because as Carrell suggests, we are both the marble and the sculptor. In the process of choosing hard things and pursing growth, we must be willing to endure pain, discomfort and loss. With each chisel, we lose part of who we were and get closer to the person hidden beneath the marble, waiting to be revealed. This process might look different for every single person on this earth but the choice that we make is the same – suffer the pain that comes with potential or the pain that comes with regret. Each decision that we make is bringing us to closer to or farther from the best version of who we can be.
Without making suggestions for you, let me just say that sculpting the person that we’re becoming is an imperfect process and one that I still struggle with very much. The world is full of distractions and temptations and I have a growing awareness of the weakness (and strength) that we all deal with as human beings. In the sculpting metaphor, I would argue that the finished product is not as important as the fact that we are each making the challenging choice to pick up the chisel and chip toward the best that we can be (which looks different on any given day). As you think about what sculpting looks like for you, just remember that even the smallest decisions matter more than you might realize in the moment (broken windows) – keep an eye on the details.
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If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading and for even considering the discomfort that comes with sculpting. Our growth is something that we must continue to choose and something that never gets easier because our limits will always be limits and pushing past is hard. If there’s any way that I can help you in your path toward full potential, please don’t hesitate to reach out and/or join the Hard Things Club where we pursue growth together.
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”
Abraham Maslow
Keep scultping!
Joe Rinaldi
IG: @joearinaldi
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