No Pain No Gain

“It is doubtful that God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”

A.W. Tozer

I’m guessing that when most people read the title of this post, they’ll assume it’s about burpees.  That’s a reasonable inference, however, it’s about something more.  I ran across this great post on Craig Groeschel’s blog today in which he included the above quote from A.W. Tozer.  There are going to be times when we have to stand alone (not without God, but without the support of people) in order for God to test and season us for use in his Kingdom.  This shouldn’t surprise us.  Every hero in the Bible went through times of seasoning with some success and some failure before being made of use to God.  It’s of course much easier to talk about this when things are light and easy and more difficult when things are tough.  But, as my friend and pastor Blake Holmes has said numerous times, “If you’re trying to figure out your theology when you’re in the hospital room, it’s too late.” Not that you can’t figure it out at that point, but if you’ve already got it figured out, you can stand in victory rather than wallow in despair, even in difficult times.  

Now, how is this related to The 99 Day Challenge? Excellent question.  Thanks Mom.  

Up to now, The 99 Day Challenge has been about one person (me) pursuing one thing (99 burpees on the 99th day).  However, in the future I have a vision of this site being something much more than that.  I would like to see it become a place where individuals or groups could create their own challenges – physical, spiritual, relational, etc. – and chart their progress for all the world to see.  On a personal note, I’ve found that the encouragement I’ve gotten in my burpee challenge from people on Facebook and Twitter has been significant.  It’s great to log on and get all these encouraging notes on my Facebook wall or Twitter account.  So, I think that other people would want that to.  By creating a community on the web specifically geared toward the 99 day challenge, I think that encouragement will only be accentuated and more focused for other people who take on their own challenges in the future.  

For now, this site will chronicle my successes and failures in this one challenge.  In the future it will be about more people being challenged to do more things. 

Are you ready for the challenge?

Confession of a Burpee Failure

I forgot to do my burpees on Saturday. I know. It’s horrible. I’ve let down my fans, my family, and worst of all THE ENTIRE BURPEE COMMUNITY. So now what? Let me explain what I’ve done to make this right.

First, I’ve written a full apology to the US Burpee Association letting them know about my failure and asking them to discipline me with the fullness of all their authority. I don’t know what that means, but it sounded apologetic and humble. We’ll see.

Second, I issued a full and complete refund to everyone who bought the “Les is Going to Make it All the Way to 100 99″ T-shirts and coffee mugs. You know who you are.

Third, I slaughtered a sacrificial lamb. I don’t really believe that part was necessary, but there was a sort of “Lord of the Flies” purity about it that was unmistakeable. Way better than a good cry or a stiff drink.

Finally, I made up those burpees by doing 17 on Sunday morning and then 18 on Sunday evening, more or less getting myself back on track.

So, now I believe that I have made my peace. I’m not perfect and the 100 99 day challenge isn’t either.  I’ll probably miss a few other times in the future.  Don’t let that ruin this for you. The challenge isn’t about perfection, but about life change and I do think that I’m on the right track for some serious life change through this.  I’ll let you know as we go along.

15 is More Than 14, but 12 Doesn’t Seem to be More than 11.

Did my 15 burpees yesterday. Didn’t want to . I keep waiting until the end of the day to do them when I’m already in bed, not wanting to get up. But my sweet wife really does encourage me (not naggingly) and I get up and do them.

It makes sense to me that it should get a little harder each day to do the exercises because I’m adding one repetition each day. However, on some days, even though I’m adding a rep, it still seems easier than the previous day. I realize that there are a ton of variables to account for and that there are all kinds of reasons that can happen, but it still doesn’t make sense to me. Perhaps I’m being a bit too linear in my thinking? Wouldn’t be the first time.

Shout Out:
Today I want to give a shout out (is that still a term we groovy people use?) to Jason Williams or J-Dub. Jason encourages me every day on Facebook when he sees my annoying status updates about burpees. Thanks for the encouragement, Jason.

Burpee Video

Here’s the number one video that comes up on YouTube when you search for “burpee.” If you’re wondering what this is all about, this it. 

I’m not responsible for the Joan Jett song.

Day 13 – Still Going Strong

Thanks for all the support I’ve gotten on Twitter.  At some point I’ll get this here blog all twittered up and ready for the county fair.  No wut ah mean?  In the meantime, here’s a little report on Day 13 yesterday.  

I actually split my burpees up into sets for the first time.  I did 10 and then 3 with about one minute or so in between.  I probably could have done all 13 just fine, but I know I want to introduce the idea of sets at some point, so I went ahead and did it last night.   

Burpees are hard but they’re doable.  It’s great because I can do them in a confined space like my office or anywhere I might be other than my car.  I might be able to do them in our minivan except for the little leap at the end.  It’s possible, but not preferable.  

Speaking of the little leap of the end, that’s the only part that I really don’t like.  I don’t mind the squat thrust and I don’t mind the pushup.  I’ve never been much of a leaper and my little bird legs just get worn out by about number three or so. The leap is the part that sort of wipes me out.  Ya know? I guess that’s why it’s there.  If it was easy, they wouldn’t call it a burpee.  Or maybe they would.  I’m really not sure why it’s called a burpee.  Regardless, I would leave the leap off if I could and still call myself a man.

The long and the short of it is that I’m still going and feeling pretty good.  We’ll see how I’m feeling on day 50.

Why Not 100 Days?

Simple.  I couldn’t get that domain name or anything else like it.  It was going to have to be something like: 100daystoimmortalgreatnessforalleternity.com or something like that.  I didn’t have the energy to type that every day after doing all my burpees.  So.  Here we are with a 99 day challenge.  I don’t think one stinking day is going to kill anyone.  If so, let it be me.  I’ve got insurance.

Another excellent question: “Does this really warrant a full blown website?”

Another one like it: “Weren’t you annoying us enough with all your Twitter traffic about how many burpees you did that day?”

Let me answer both by saying that I hope that the 99 day challenge will become a big part of my life.  It’s a great motivational tool.  I’ve already stuck with this much better than I have any other exercise program I’ve tried since failing to complete the Houston Marathon while not being able to breathe due to the flu.  (Seriously, I tried to run a full marathon while I had the flu.  Idiot.) 

The dream is for this site to be about a lot of people taking on challenges and completing them, thus becoming better  more confident people.  So, read on and enjoy.  There will be many posts about burpees in the coming days and then some about the future of this site and what it will become.  God only knows.  Seriously.