Make not quitting a habit (NQM008)
If you are looking to get motivated and have never seen a Derek Weida video, you are missing out on one great resource. This guy personifies the never quit mindset, and setting short and long term goals and committing to them. His motivational content is unique, its humorous, and it is straight to the point without any filter or sugarcoating. He played a large role in my own journey to rediscover fitness and make me who I am today.
As a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, he was shot through the knee during a Baghdad house raid in 2007. After multiple surgeries and 18 months physical therapy, he was medically retired from the Army. This followed a dark period of depression and suicidal thoughts anchored by a leg that never really healed. Getting an amputation approved in 2011 released him from these shackles, and rediscovering physical fitness allowed him to thrive and make a huge difference in many people’s lives.
Derek has done a lot, from opening a veteran focused gym to a clothing company (straight legless). He is even part of a kick-ass band, Larrañaga & Legless. Support the crew and check out their debut album InspiMotiDgaf, highly suggested if you are looking for big gains and large pumps.
Together with Sean Endsley, a fellow combat veteran, he founded The Next Objective. TNO is a non-profit the provides grants to veterans for gym memberships, training, and event sponsoring. They are committed to empowering our returning service members to overcome obstacles and achieve post-military success. They have made a huge difference in many veterans’ lives.
If you need some motivation to get up and get after it, the following might help push you in the right direction:
The Team Never Quit crew did an awesome interview with Derek and dove deep into what makes him tick and what makes him drive forward. A few excerpts below.
Derek Weida – 82nd Airborne ‘Amputee-Extraordinaire’ – Hilarious YouTube Fitness Guru – Iraq War Veteran
On making not quitting a habit: “Everything becomes a habit, including quitting. If you do something too many times, it becomes a habit. The same with not quitting, it becomes a habit. When you get to that point, to the intersection, go left quit go right not quit. The more often you choose the hard and difficult path of going right, the more you will go right in the future. It becomes a mindless thing, it becomes who you are, because you have made that decision so many times to not quit, it becomes a habit and you don’t think about it anymore.”
On sucking it up and just getting it done: “I fell a thousand times, working with dumbbells, just learning how to use my body all over. But I never stopped to think about how shitty it was, it was just “I have to do this”. I wanted to be this person, I had the idea in my head of the things I wanted to do and the person I wanted to be, and so I had to take that road to get there. I didn’t really think about and I just did what I had to do, and it sucked and it was hard, but here we are.”
Treating fitness and health as a foundation: “People who incorporate it in their life (they treat is as yet another obligation) vs the workout is part of who they are (like eating, sleeping, breathing). If you think about it as something that helps me exist vs looking at it like an extra activity (like I have to go do this extra). It takes the pressures and stress away. When the stressors of life come around, the things you see as an extra activity is one of the first thing that gets axed off the schedule. Treat it as a foundation. If you lose everything, you always have a foundation to fall back on. Something you can always have, it makes you feel good about yourself. You’ll get to a point of instead finding an excuse to get out of it, you will find excuses to stay in it.”
On the Next Objective: “The one thing that pulled me out of my dark slump was finding a purpose. There is a difference between working out for just fitness and working out for a purpose. Sign up for a competition, a race, or commit to a goal amongst friends. It will give you something to work towards. That’s how the Next Objective got started.”
One small step at a time: “Almost everyone on this planet has this vision of the person they want to be, but when we screw up too many times for too long, and the weight of those burden feel too heavy, you just have to forget about all that and tell yourself “I am going to start today”. One small step at a time. It’s a journey, a long one, and enjoy every single step of it. It’s a slow process, but START TODAY, just start doing it.”
