If It’s Important…

Categories: Blog Jul 08, 2015

There’s a popular quote floating around the intewebz from legendary wrestling coach and Olympic Gold Medalist, Dan Gable, which is, “If it’s important, do it every day. If it’s not important, don’t do it at all.”

Definitely a quote worth living by… Or is it?

“Importance” is highly subjective to the individual.

Is it important to pay your taxes?

Is it important to say “I love you” to the ones you do?

Is it important to run every day? Lift weights every day?

I would argue that just because it’s important to you doesn’t mean it’s beneficial to you.

Take drug addiction.

Important to the addict. Does it every day - probably multiple times per day. Definitely not beneficial.

Another: Eating vegetables.

Beneficial for sure, definitely not important to many people.

The point is, we also need to ask if the given task or activity is as equally beneficial as the emotional importance we place on it.

If it’s not, we probably should move it down on the list of importance.

Here’s an example:

Running.

Running is a natural human movement.

Except for the way most Westerners run.

(Just take a look at the shoes worn by most runners if you don’t believe me.)

Most amateur runners spend the majority of their week riding a desk. They lose their reflexive strength, and then they go out and run on a body that’s severely compensated - tight hips, tight upper and lower legs, and a midsection that doesn't work properly. In fact, 65% of all runners will be injured in any given year. Think about that for a moment: The majority of runners will be injured. And 50% of those injuries will be new injuries. The rest are recurring injuries - ones that haven't been rehabilitated. 

I’m not in any way shape or form against running (at least not the way it’s supposed to be done).

Like I said, it’s a natural movement. But why would you do something every day that statistically is going to hurt you?

My humble suggestion is if you want to run every day, and you’ve been riding a desk for any length of time, regain your reflexive strength first by doing the Original Strength resets every day. Do them for a quarter - three months. Then slowly add running into your “If it’s important” list.

Remember, just because it’s important, doesn’t mean it’s beneficial.

If you’re going to do something every day, then it should be both important to you AND beneficial.

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