Why I Opened Axis Strength Training.
-Jason Sweet.
It all started with a kid who was afraid of the dark. What does this have to do with why I opened a gym? We’ll get there, follow along.
As a young kid, I was afraid of the dark. I would lay in my bed and my brain would conjure up images of horrific monsters waiting in the dark corners and under my bed waiting to get me. I would lay frozen in fear with my head under the covers thinking of all the terrible things that were going to happen to me. Until one night, I was sick and tired of just laying there in fear. I asked myself, why am I just laying here waiting for these bad things to happen. If they were going to happen, let’s just get it over with. So I decided to jump out of bed and stand in the middle of my dark room and wait to be attacked. As I stood there a funny thing happened, fear was slowly disappearing and a new confidence was being created. I may have even started mocking the vicious monsters that were not coming to get me.
That experience as a child sparked something in me that has served me well throughout my life. I developed a habit of facing fears. If I felt myself fear something, I would make myself face it, knowing that the fear would eventually go away and confidence would take its place. Some examples of this are, joining the military while the Gulf War was active on television and becoming an Airborne Paratrooper even though I was afraid of heights. This habit of facing fears continued when I left the Army and moved back home. I knew that I had a fear of public speaking so I signed up at the local college and took a public speaking class. Eventually this habit of facing fears led to opening Axis Strength Training. Owning a gym had been something that was building in the back of my mind but the thought of going through with it scared me. Thoughts like, I don’t know how to run a business, who would want to go to my gym, there are already gyms in the area, the economy sucks, people in this area don’t care about fitness and the list went on and on. Most of all, I was afraid of failing. How embarrassing would that be? To be ridiculed by all the doubters who would now be right. Ugh, what a terrible thought, but since I had made a decent life out of facing fears, why not take a chance with this one too, so I did. Many times I thought all of those people that told me it would never work are going to be proven right. It was hard, I thought I wasn’t going to make it, how embarrassing! Although I had those thoughts, I knew that I would rather face the fear than to let it get the best of me and regret not trying for the rest of my life.
Fast forward almost 10 years and Axis Strength Training serves nearly 150 people. We are a thriving community because of all of the people who have supported Axis throughout the years. I am forever grateful to you all!
Axis Strength Training is here today partly because a little kid decided to start facing his fears. My advice to you is this; If you fear something, run directly into that fear as if your best life depends on it!
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