Turn Up!

Turning up🏃💨

So this one is simple, this one is about well….. turning up and no we are not talking about popping bottles and hitting the clubs…. Though I wouldn't mind doing that as well. It sounds simple to say but there is so much more to it behind those two words. Whilst the world faces a pandemic, whilst we battle a myriad of stress (from financial, physical, mental, emotional and so much more), whilst we face uncontrollable situations, we must attempt to do one thing in order to change the outcome of our ambitions and goals.

That one thing?

Simple, turn up. What does turn up mean?

It means that we must through adversity turn up to what needs to be done. I will elaborate further as I write, be aware my writing style is like bar hopping, I jump from one topic to another but in the end just like a good night out, it’ll all fall into place and make sense.  

The concept of turning up has been something that has come and gone in my life over the years, it may be the same for you. Often as humans we have two options when life gets hard, we shut down or we turn up.

As stated, the concept of turning up has come and gone in my life as well whether it be during the tough times or the good times. Though currently in my life it is present and I can confidently state that due to the ‘turn up’ mentality I am feeling on top of the world. Whether I have a bad day or a good day, I know that I am one step closer to achieving my goals.

I have come to learn more about the turn up mentality through life experience. In addition to that this concept has been cemented into my mind due to my martial arts learnings, when we start turning up and just start the process, we will always get one step closer, it does not matter if the day before you did 200% of something and today you only did 5%, because that 5% is better than 0.

I have had the privilege of studying a martial art since I was 16 and through the years of training, I have had to take many years off due to varying factors and when I look back at it, I realise that the times where I stopped turning up (not training) were some of the lowest points in my life, my progress and growth took a huge step backwards due to simply not turning up.

My love for martial arts🥊

Let me break it down, I started when I was 16, being a Tamil boy (also a bit of a hot head) growing up, my parents were not open to me starting any martial arts, they felt that it would fuel my anger more and get myself into more trouble than I was already causing. Eventually by the age of 16 I was able to join a gym and start training and let me tell you, I have never applied myself or focused as much on anything as I did with this sport.

These were the years where mentally I was at one of my strongest points, young, motivated, and always turning up. I was 15/16 waking up at 5am, getting my dad to drop me at the gym, back home by 7am, ready for school, then school and study then at 7pm training Muay Thai, come home dinner, sleep. I was hungry and that version of me was one of my favourite versions.

Then year 12 came, the stress of year 12 and young love (teenage relationship) took a toll on me and I stopped ‘TURNING UP’. I stopped turning up to the gym in the morning, I stopped turning up to training at night, I went from being 75kg of lean physique to 95kg and fat, I lost my motivation.

My Tamil parents were fine with me not turning up, as for them (being first generation immigrants), it meant I had more time to study (everything else came after that) but what myself and they did not understand at the time was that my Turning up mentality is what helped me do so well in school during year 10 and 11, my turning up mentality stemmed from my love for martial arts but it branched out into all aspects of life. The loss of this made that year go south and it carried over until I started university.

Challenges? No, they are opportunities! 🧐

New city, new people and there I entered into university. I realised I was given this opportunity in a new city to re-shape my mindset, I was given an opportunity to face new challenges and overcome them in a new situation.

I attempted to get back into fitness and started to apply my turn up mentality. I started step by step, one small change at a time and what I realised was that when I started to put it to practice, all aspects of life simply started to improve more.

Imagine being in university, getting up before 5.30am (rain, hail or shine) getting to the bus stop in order to get to the gym by 6am, finish up at the gym, catch the bus back to get ready for university, get home, get ready, catch the same bus back to uni, then finish uni and go to training and then go to work day in day out.

This was the turn up mentality.

I think that one  of the moment important lessons I have learnt over life is that turning up is the only way you are going to achieve things. Whether it be turning up to the gym, to university, to work, to your hobby, for your friends or family, whatever it may be, you just need to turn up, because once you turn up, you have already accomplished something, you have already jumped over the first hurdle.

Life will continue to throw challenges at us, though if we are able to just turn up to what we need to achieve, we will always be moving forward, one day we will take 10 steps forward, and another day it may be half a step, but as long as we continue to move forward, we will be continue to grow, continue to succeed and continue to change OUR world. 

Let's turn up!

Prak

“I play badminton at a competitive level and it’s really helped me get through the high intensity training sessions. Gives great focus and that extra energy. No negative side effects and it tastes amazing too! Highly recommended for anyone in the fitness space.”

Athi Selladurai: Professional Badminton Player - Australian National Team