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Eric McAlister

6/22/23 —The Off Days

It’s early and the alarm on your phone is going off telling you to wake up. It’s winter and cold outside, you’re sore, tired and want to roll over under the covers.


It’s early and the alarm on your phone is going off telling you to wake up. You’re stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, you had a fight with your significant other or your family.


All you want to do is hide in the house, binge your favorite streaming service and hope someone throws you a life line.


Here’s the secret: get up. Just get up and get those feet moving.


I’m not telling you to ignore those feelings you’re feeling. I’m just telling you to get moving.

Have you ever gotten stuck in mud? Like, actually? The longer you sit in the mud, the more the weight of the vehicle sinks in. If you wait too long and you spin the tires, you only dig yourself in deeper.


Our minds are the same — the longer we sit just spinning our wheels without taking real action, the deeper we dig. Our minds begin to create storylines that don’t exist and we begin going down rabbit holes that aren’t even there.


Life isn’t one constant speed and that’s okay. Sometimes, we’re flying, other times, well, not so much. Life is a game of inches, and every step forward is a good step.

Throughout my career, there were plenty of times I wanted to give up and quit. It was too hard, it was never going to work, I was wasting my time.

Just keep those feet moving.

You don’t achieve the goals you set forth for yourself magically, it’s about the constant movement. When I first went to college, I had one goal — to play professionally. My first year I sat out. The next two years I barely saw the floor. My third year was riddled with injury but I kept my feet moving.

I went on to play ten years as a pro. I had been waived by teams, suffered injuries, set backs and failures. I also persevered and as a result, ten years later, I have the blueprint for the rest of my life — you guessed it, keep those feet moving.

Ed Mylett often talks about the power of one. He tells the story of how his father quit abusing alcohol by telling his son, “I’m not going to have a drink.” When Mylett replied asking for how long, his father told him, “I’m not sure, but at least one more day.” Every day since, for one more day.

When we have huge goals, we can become overwhelmed, anxious and stuck. Sounds like the alarm is going off and feels like the warm blankets are holding you down. Starting to make sense why you’re having an off day?

Get those feet moving. Break all those dreams and responsibilities down. Put the work in and trust that you have the formula for success.

The only way to get there, is to get those feet moving.

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