extra rep

Tomorrow the UNC Women's Soccer team has to run the beep test. 

So I thought it fitting to write this post on beep-eve (if you want to call it that in some sick way). 

For those not familiar with the test, in short, you have to run as many twenty meter shuttles as you can in time with the beep. (I won't bore you with the details because less than 1% of the world will probably have to run it in their lifetime.)

You might be thinking, okay this post has no relevance to me - I'm not running the beep.

Well, okay. You might not be running the beep - but please read on. This post will help you gain appreciation, power, and control... 

Maybe not over the beep test but over an equivalent challenge that you will come to face in your life. 

Whether it be closing a big deal, completing a final exam to graduate, or writing a book. Everyone faces a "beep test" at some point in their life.

Despite the stigma attached to the beep, I am going to strip it of all it's emotional baggage and look at it scientifically. 

So here goes, the beep is... 

  A test of maximum effort. 

Simple.

I am not trying to sound like an idiot who has no emotional intelligence to how brutal the beep is. I have run it countless times, and it never fails to challenge me in a new way. That being said, I appreciate the way it can push me to my max, and I want others to see it in this way too.

Regardless of whether you are an athlete, author, or artist, the "beep tests" you may face in your life are similar - they demand all your effort, your best... 

They require you to MAX OUT.

Which is why no one can really fail the beep test. As long as you have given your maximum effort, you can't do much more!

Whatever your max is = success!

If you can finish the beep and say, I have given my all then you have succeeded. Then that's awesome - you should be proud that you have pushed yourself to the limit. 

However, the separation is made in how far you can push your max. 

Wait. Hold on a second, isn't your MAX pretty big? So you can't go further than that!!

Well, you can, with a little thing you can. 

An Extra Rep is a little thing. 

In the challenges ahead, use the Extra Rep principle.

To the athlete who runs the beep test, it is the extra run they make when they think they can go no more. To the author, it is the extra edit you make of the book. To the artist it is the extra brush stroke they add to the masterpiece. 

Whatever the Extra Rep looks like - it is a little thing that can have a not so little impact on the final beep test score, book, or masterpiece. 

But at the end of the day, once the running is done and anxiety is gone, it is only a beep test, it is only a book, it is only a piece of art. It does not determine the rest of your life...

To shift gears here, what determines the rest of your life is the quality of your relationships and your experiences.

In a way, life is one big beep test - a test of our maximum.

The Extra Rep principle can help you max out your life; from it you will always find appreciation, power and control in everything you do. And it is accessible to all. You just have to do extra, one more..

That extra hug, that extra text message, that extra yes, that extra visit, that extra walk. These are extra reps - little things - that so many people don't acknowledge because they seem small in comparison to everything else in life.

But I acknowledge them, and you will too.

I am obsessed with the little things. 

Not because I want to do well in the beep, but because I want to MAX out my life. I want to live the best life and I know the little things help me do that.

I uncover appreciation, power, and control in life by choosing to do just one more.

An Extra Rep is a not so little thing.