Say the Thing, You Never Know Who Needs to Hear It

I’ve been into lifting since ~2019, pretty late to the game, really. I was in my 40s when I got started. One day a year or so in, I got a compliment that planted a seed and quietly changed my plans and goals.

A guy at the gym named Eric came up to me and asked, “When do you compete?”

I blinked and said, “I don’t.” 
We both looked confused…him wondering why I wasn’t competing, and me wondering why in the world he thought I would be.

After a beat, he said, “You should. You’re the strongest guy I’ve seen here.”

That comment made my day, hell, my week, month, maybe my whole year. Not just because I didn’t see myself that way, but because I thought he was strong. Any gym rat will tell you: when someone you admire says you’re strong? That hits different.

That one moment planted an idea.

I’d always watched World’s Strongest Man and thought it looked cool as hell. But that’s where it ended, until Eric’s words lit a spark. Suddenly, I wanted to compete. I wanted to find out what I was made of.

I jumped into strongman training. Eventually, I hired a coach (still my coach today!) and signed up for my first competition as a Novice Heavyweight. I was so nervous. Quick aside: at the rules briefing, standing in a circle with the other athletes, for one of the few times in my life… I wasn’t the biggest person in the room. I had found my people.

I didn’t do great in that first comp however, 7th out of 11, but I was hooked.
Since that first comp I’ve done 8 competitions and checked off almost every goal I set for myself:

(✓) Podium and move out of the Novice category
(✓) Win an individual event
(✓) Qualify for Regionals
(✓) Podium at Regionals
(✓) Qualify for US Nationals
(✓) Compete at Nationals

I even qualified for the Arnold’s (yes, THAT Arnold), but an injury took me out of the running. That one’s still on the board.

All this to say: words matter. You never know what someone will carry with them or how it might shift their path.

I ran into Eric a few months back and told him how much that moment meant to me. He smiled and said, “Clearly I was right!”