These days we’re spoilt for choice with training programs.

There are countless franchises and independently owned gyms out there doing a great job keeping people motivated, delivering results and yet when another gym opens up with a flash new name or celebrity endorsing the program it gets people questioning their current training and wondering whether it’s enough…

I recently read a story by Russel H Conwell called “Acres of diamonds” which describes this phenomenon. Here’s the short version:

There was once a man named Ali who owned a who owned a large farm with many orchards. Ali was perfectly content with his life on the farm until one day a local priest told him how God had created diamonds and that finding just one even the size of his thumb could make him enough money to buy the entire country…

Upon hearing this Ali then spent the next 10 years of his life travelling Palestine and Europe to not find a single diamond. In a fit of despair he then threw himself into a raging river and drowned. Soon afterwards the person who bought Ali’s farm after his death was visited by the same priest who told Ali about the diamonds. During his visit the priest noticed a small diamond on the mantelpiece and asked the new owner of the farm where on earth he found it. To which the farm owner answered “There’s a brook that runs through this farm and it’s full of them”

Most people are sitting on their own diamond mines (gyms) in my opinion and the surest way to lose it is to get bored become over ambitious or to start thinking the grass is greener…  

Find a goal to focus on, devote your time and resources to it and excel at it!