Readers on this site, safely anonymous behind their computer screens, keep attacking Trent and nitpicking silly points.

A higher-quality readership would make this site much more beneficial. Sifting through streams of venom to find a few useful comments is deflating and tiring.

It’s not at all my intention to criticize anyone who wants to get fit, or who is out of shape. It just concerns me (for Trent’s sake) that he’s not that much older than I am and seems so unhealthy despite specific goals to improve his physical condition. And maybe I don’t know all of Trent’s situation…from the article, it’s impossible to know. I just want to know more. What’s his current physical situation, and what’s he doing to hurt himself. If he’s overexterting himself, maybe he just needs to tone it back rather than “giving up” and changing his ambition to “walk daily.”

But I’ve been there with the fitness battle and being judged by others, well, it just doesn’t feel very nice. And it isn’t very helpful.

He has said often that his top priority is being a good father. So, on the micro level, he overextended physically & paid the price so as not to disappoint his son.

Maybe he could have set a better example for the kids by admitting his back hurt, and encouraging them to work on aspects of soccer that would not require the coach to run up and down the field. That would require taking the flexibility he uses to care for sick kids and applying it to coaching . I see that as less discipline not more.

Judgement doesn’t help. Not one bit.

Also didn’t you say you hurt your back gettingout of the shower? Now it was from a workout and kids soccer. Which one was it really.

I am two years older and would be miserable if I was in your condition. You had better get it fixed before it’s too late!

But I was glad to read your thoughts as usual – hope the back has recovered.

The idea of lowering your expectations reminded me of something that one my therapists said. It’s the idea of setting progressive goals. A good example with physical fitness is following the Couch to 5K plan. It’s starts with an assumption that you don’t run at all. You run 3 times a week, each time doing a little more running (and a bit of walking). It’s been really helpful for me because when I was trying to get fitter, I blew out my knee over-doing it. C25k forces you to pace yourself. Same idea works with finances. If you spend all your money on paying off debt without putting any in savings, then you “blow out your knee” whenever (when!) an emergency comes up>

That being said, I don’t think the problem with these specific goals are that they are too high, but too generic.

The answer to ” Instead of saying I want to be an incredibly physically fit person,” shouldn’t be ” “I want to be a person who goes on a walk every day.” etc.

It should be someone who weighs under x pounds, can do a pullup, walk a marathon.

I’m kind of surprised about your physical condition. If I recall, you’re all of 34 years old…I’m not really all that far behind you, and I’d be gravely concerned for my well-being if I couldn’t workout and jog up and down a kids soccer field for a couple hours. I’m not trying to toot my own horn, I’m just speaking from my own perspective. I know you have so health concerns/issues that might prevent you from doing these types of things, or make them more challenging. Maybe if we knew more about what you’re up against in terms of your physical health, I could offer a better comment. I just know that, myself, being a few years younger, I’ll be running a marathon, climbing Devil’s Tower, learning how to ride a unicycle…I’ve climbed mountains, jumped out of airplanes, yada yada. Really, if in 4 or 5 years I found myself laying on the floor because I’d exercised too hard, I’d be worried.

Maybe it’s just a matter of having gotten out of shape that you’re in a place where it’s difficult to get back into shape, and you’re trying to hard and overexerting yourself. I guess, if you’re doing P90X or something, I could maybe understand why you’d be tired. Some more details would really help (me) fill in the gaps.

Sorry for the rambling comment…I really would like to offer some advice but I just feel like I don’t know enough about the situation. But maybe that’s not really the point of the article at all…

Regardless of what my ultimate goal is with my music, I suffered a setback this week that seems fairly similar to Trent’s example of the pulled muscle. But it hasn’t caused me to start “loathing myself” or to think my goal is impossible. Sure, I sat around feeling sorry for myself for a few hours, but then I started thinking about how I can learn from the experience and do better in the future.