20,000 of anything is a lot. Dollars, steps, hours, you name it and it is just a lot of volume. So, yesterday, when I passed the 20,000 mark for pull-ups completed in 2014, it made me pause and think about how I got there. It started with a goal of doing 100 pull-ups a day - targeting 25,000 for the year. The math worked - 365 days, target 100 a day; give yourself some cushion for days you cannot do them and then just start “pulling”. Reflecting on my progress I realized that when you set aggressive goals you have to be unrealistic and a bit naïve. Otherwise it is quite likely that you might convince yourself to not go for it. You would think about logical questions such as; What I would do if I was injured? What if I could not find a pull-up bar? How would travelling impact achieving the goal? And so on…… Basically I realized that for the most part I ignored the potential obstacles and pressed on.

As we all find out on this THPL journey – it is in the unknown, the challenge, the difficult, that we find the biggest reward. I have certainly found each of these issues along this journey to 20,000. In Miami I had to do pull-ups on the side of a lifeguard stand, and then there were days I had to do 200 to catch up for the days with no pull-up bar, and of course, I found out that the door jam works in a pinch as does the limb of a tree. Yes, it hurts (physically) from time to time and there were times that it was wicked hard to get it done. But, diligence and a daily commitment to the goal has taken me this far. 20,000 pull-ups and counting – it is not over yet.

Loving life and pull-ups for sure

Ciao

Joe