Come To The Training Ground

The Importance of a Growth Conducive Environment

Introduction

Here’s an important lesson I learnt from my football playing days. As a teenager I loved competition and playing football was my sport of choice. Despite my love for playing, I had a polarising sense of un-enthusiasm towards training. Game day gave me the opportunity to express myself and enjoy the game I loved to play, but there was no joy in training. I found it hard, boring and tedious. There was a sense of delusion I had in believing that I was good enough not to train. I still don’t know who told me that lie but unfortunately I believed it. In hindsight the real lie I believed was the notion of entitlement towards a right at the cost of stewardship towards a gift. In this case the gift was my love for football and my ability to play the game at a decent level. But the right was my entitlement to play no matter how I trained. What I didn’t realise was that every time I made the decision not to train hard, I was taking one step away from my potential. The truth is that the training ground is the proving point towards one's potential; but potential dies under the guise of entitlement.

The world has come to believe that people are entitled to simply do what they love as opposed to loving what they do. In my case I loved to play but I needed to see training as a part of playing; not a peripheral task that I could simply dismiss. Years later, my mindset changed when I made the intentional decision to join a gym and workout consistently for a prolonged period of time. I learnt this principle because I took myself from the playground to the training ground. The training ground is where true growth of any kind is formed because you can’t cut corners under the guise of temporary pleasure. Unfortunately, the culture of today promotes the playground over the training ground especially when it comes to health and wellness. The average young person would frown at an expensive gym membership but still pay double the amount on one bottle of alcohol on a night out. In the midst of all of this we have a generation of people walking away from their physical and mental potential at the hands of a culture that pushes the agenda of entitlement towards pleasure.

Blind To Your Potential

The intentional decision of taking yourself from the playground to the training ground will open your eyes to your potential while you enjoy the benefits of your growth. Before I used to workout consistently I was blind to how fast I could run and how strong I could get. The personal acknowledgement of incremental stages of growth removes the veil over your eyes blinding you from the realisation of your potential. When you can’t see potential, all you see is pleasure, leaving you stagnant and uninspired to take on real challenges in life. The moment this happens you begin to love the training ground you once used to run away from. The reason why people love training is not because they have special desires, it is simply because they are no longer blind to their potential. In order for the veil to be removed from your eyes, you need the faith to stay consistent with the willing expectation to witness the evidence of change.

Potential is defined as having the capacity to develop something in the future. Capacity is defined as the maximum amount that something can contain. Training is the sweet spot in between that stretches capacity and simultaneously brings understanding to potential. In any field, if you choose not to train you inadvertently shrink your capacity and shrink the threshold of your God given potential. Therefore if you have the desire to know how far you can go in a particular discipline, training no longer becomes an option.

The Enemy To Potential

When you believe you are smart enough, fit enough or healthy enough you eliminate your potential all together. The media usually pushes out messages to society that equate acceptance to virtue but it only results in regression. For example, “You deserve to be accepted as you are, therefore you don’t need to improve”. This line of thinking is damaging to your health, your education, your career, and your relationships. If you are born of flesh and blood, there is always room for improvement. This brings me to say: there are two tools of thought the enemy uses to blind you from your potential.

1. The first tool of the enemy is perfectionism. Perfectionism is sold by the world but the world can never set the standard for what is truly perfect. The purpose of training is not to attain your own idea of perfectionism, the purpose of training is to live in excellence. When you are told that you are good enough the underlying message being sold is one of perfectionism. Excellence is the understanding of your design as an imperfect being and living a lifestyle of growth brings understanding to the potential God has blessed you with. However perfectionism will keep you blinded, lazy and prideful. Furthermore, perfectionism rooted in self will keep your eyes away from who is truly perfect, God. Excellence is the understanding of your imperfection. If you can see your imperfection then you can also see your potential.

2. The second tool of the enemy is pleasure. People go to the playground to seek pleasure but people go to the training ground to seek transformation. Once pleasure is the goal of your life you will never get to experience the joys of pleasure being a reward. Your consistency in an area of growth actually creates pleasure but the enemy taunts you with a pleasure that already exists; this type of pleasure rarely rewards. Pleasure that comes in the form of a reward is fuel but pleasure that comes from an entitlement to be pleased becomes poison.

Finally, Take Your Body To Train

The intentional daily decision to take your body to train can appear in many ways. I use the example of training in the gym because it is one of the few places of accessibility where growth is non-negotiable. People who train consistently at the gym come in all shapes and sizes but beyond their outward appearance, they all share a common internal understanding. This is that their health is not a right they are entitled to; but it is a gift that requires stewardship. Furthermore, there is a common understanding of their individual potential for growth.

Taking your body to train is not limited to joining a gym and working out. Ask yourself if you are being trained spiritually too. I remember my walk with God being one of intimacy, safety and revelation; but because of this I told myself that I didn’t need to find a Church community. Once again this was the lie of perfectionism rooted in pride. I had to take myself to the training ground in order to humble myself in understanding that I can’t grow alone. Now the training ground is no longer a place that I visit seasonally or in reluctance, it is a place that has to be ingrained into my lifestyle.

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

James 1:3 NLT

With that being said, meditate on this verse and begin to ask God to reveal the areas of your life that are in need of transformation. For anything to grow in life it must be tested through faith!

From this day forth, consider how you can take yourself to the training ground. Have a great day!