NC State Championships

The NC State Bodybuilding Championships were this past weekend and I'd like to congratulate a couple of my friends for some great showings. Kevin (as in 'my diet guy' Kevin) won the HW open and masters (over 40) class, and Micah placed 3rd in a really tough light-heavy class. Nice job guys! Kevin was full and grainy hard and Micah was sliced to the bone (Kevin did his diet as well).

This show brings up a lot of memories for me. In 2003 I placed 3rd in the light-heavies to Van Anthony (now an IFBB pro) and Shaun Crump. Tough class! In 2005 I went on to win the overall, and to date, that has been the highlight of my 13+ year bodybuilding career. Up until that point I had never even won my class - let alone an overall - so you can imagine how I felt. At dinner afterwards I even started to tear up as it all set in; and while some people thought something was wrong, my buddy Steve just looked at me and nodded, knowing what was going on.

What I'd like you to take away from that story is that you should never give up on yourself. Ever. I competed for over a decade without a win. Think about that. But I kept coming back, and you can do the same - whether it's in bodybuilding or some other pursuit in your life. Hard work, discipline, and sacrifice will eventually pay off if you give it enough time.

One of my favorite quotes by Thomas Edison relates directly to this:

"Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up".