I never thought that this day would come. Uncle Jake had me rest for two straight days in the morning instead of working out. The first morning instead of working out, he took me to breakfast. The next day we ate breakfast at home, and he started teaching me how to play chess—which seems like a really complicated game but is actually pretty easy once you understand it.
Then, after two days of rest, Uncle Jake met me down in the garage in the morning to work out.
“Today is the big day,” he said.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“You will see,” said Uncle Jake. “Now, get up on the pull-up bar and do one pull-up.”
“One?” I asked, not believing that Uncle Jake would only have me do one pull-up.
“Yes—just one,” Uncle Jake replied.
I jumped up on the bar and did a pull-up. I was a little stiff, but it did feel pretty easy.
“Now another one,” Uncle Jake ordered.
“Just one?” I asked.
“Yes—just one.”
I grabbed ahold of the pull-up bar and pulled my chin over the bar. Now a little warmer, I felt even stronger. Then Uncle Jake had me do one more and then one more and then one more. As I got warmer and warmer and more loosened up, I felt stronger and stronger. Then Uncle Jake said, “Now you are going to rest for about two minutes.” I stretched my arms a little and waited for the time to go by. Then Uncle Jake said, “Now. Jump up on the bar and do ten pull-ups.”
I should have known this was coming. But the weird thing was, instead of being concerned that I wouldn’t be able to do it, I felt really strong and like I actually could do it. “Okay,” I said.
I stepped up and grabbed a tight hold of the pull-up bar. Uncle Jake said, “Go,” and I started pulling.
One. Two. Three. Four. I wasn’t even feeling these yet. Five. Six. Seven. I felt a little tired but not too bad. And I was about to break my record! Eight. There were eight pull-ups. The most I’ve ever done IN MY LIFE. And I wasn’t done yet. I pulled again. NINE. Yes! Another record. I was a little tired, but I knew I had another one in me. So I pulled again and got my chin over the bar. “Ten!” Uncle Jake said. I dropped off the bar. And then I jumped into the air.
“I did it!” I yelled, and then quickly corrected what I had said: “WE did it!”
Uncle Jake gave me a high five and then said, “No, that wasn’t us. It was you. I might have told you what to do, but make no mistake: You did this.”
“Well, I couldn’t have done it without you, Uncle Jake,” I told him.
“Maybe so. But you did the work. You did the practice. You did the pull-ups. Well done, Marc,” he told me. And then he added, “Now get up there and do another set of ten.”
And I did just that! I jumped up on the bar and was able to do another ten pull-ups. And then I did another set of ten and then a set of nine and then two sets of eight, a set of seven, four sets of six, two sets of five, two sets of four, then three, two, and one.
And that was it! I was now officially a kid who can do TEN pull-ups. No more hiding from the pull-up bar in school. No more being embarrassed about being weak. This was real. As I thought about this, I looked at Uncle Jake and said, “Thanks.”
“No problem, Marc. And I want you to remember something: This isn’t just about pull-ups. You know what else this is about?”
I wasn’t quite sure. “I don’t know.”
Uncle Jake grabbed me by both shoulders and looked me straight in the eyes and said gravely, “This is about everything. Everything. Just think, two months ago, you couldn’t do any pull-ups. At all. Zero. Now you can do TEN. All it took was a good plan and the discipline to execute the plan. To DO IT. That’s what it takes. And you can apply that to just about anything. If you are willing to do the work—you can make things happen. And like I told you, no one else is going to do the work for you. Sure, you might get some help along the way. But you might not. Who knows? What we do know is this: Hard work and discipline are how you achieve things. You have to make things happen. And that is exactly what you did here, and what you can do with almost anything in life. Remember that.”
“I will, Uncle Jake. I will,” I told him. And he was 100 percent right. People say you can do anything you want in life. But what they don’t tell you is that you have to work for it.
With hard work, anything is possible.