Input and output. That is the general motion in which we live our life. What we get out of anything is a sum total of what we put in. It is true that in some cases we don’t get what we work for or what our goals are, but regardless of whatever external outcome we experience there is always an internal lesson to be learned.

This kind of reminds me of Zeno’s paradoxes. Now to be honest I don’t completely understand them, but the general demeanour of his work revolves around motion, and from getting from point A to point B. I read through most of it and had a hard time grasping the relevance of it all, but when you reflect on how most things function in life you realise the innate relevance of what he was saying.

One thing that I learnt from all of it, was that to get somewhere, or attain a goal you need to reach halfway point. Meaning that in all endeavours, there will always be a point where you have half of the distance you have travelled left in your journey. Now looking back on any goal setting experience, you could roughly imagine the work and path that you walked to reach your halfway point and the subsequent work and path to walk that is left in your journey.

Now you’re probably wondering why I bothered to explain that to you since it seems pretty cut and dry, and quite simple to understand. Well, for me, in a somewhat strange jump, this relates directly to the thought of never quite being finished.

You see we live life in such a way that for most of us there is an end game. A target, a point where we finally can say that we have accomplished our goal or finished our journey. I remember, after his sixth Olympia win in 1975, Arnold Schwarzenegger said that he was going to retire, but that he would never stop bodybuilding. Granted he came back five years later in 1980 to win it again, but he still maintained the art form long after his years on the stage.

But when he began to age and decided to embark on different things many others noticed that his body began to change as well. He gained weight and started to lose that once great physique that made him famous. In reality, this was all a natural result of him getting older, but I always felt a sense of disappointment, only because he couldn’t maintain something that made him so great.

The thing is though, years later, he began to change back and regain what he lost, proving everyone wrong, and thus, started to build back not only his body, but also his influence within the fitness industry.

You see most would think his bodybuilding career completely ended in 1975, then again in 1980. But he was able to market dozens of movies through his physique and his muscly demeanour long after that. Then when he lost it all, he got it right back. All because in his head, and somehow in the universe, his journey, his progression was somewhat unfinished. Some would argue that his life came back in full circle, but I disagree and instead say, that despite all he had accomplished, he still had decided to make use of what he had and further what made him great, even though he had accomplished all of his goals.

When I apply this in my own life, I compare any future goals to any goals that I had made in the past. Disappointingly I realised I half assed a lot of things. But even more so, I failed at so much more when I did give a crap. I think, looking back on those times, rather then sit there in defeat, maybe I should’ve carried on or tried again. The reality of giving up makes it much easier then trying to make things better, and therefore much more inviting. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that. Maybe I should’ve tried again. Or maybe regardless of the outcome of any goal that I made for myself, I should’ve thought about the larger perspective.

Many would think the halfway point in Arnie’s journey is halfway through his bodybuilding career. Others would argue it was at the end of that period and the next half was his movie career. To be really honest I don’t know if either of those perspectives are right. I can’t, for whatever reason, seem to pin point where his halfway point was or is.

And maybe that’s what it’s all about; no one knows when the end is actually going to come around, whether that be tomorrow or ten years from now. All we have to do is focus on that journey and make sure that despite everything, we should never really feel as though we are completely done. That there is always, more after.