10 weeks

my weight training teacher said something interesting a few weeks ago. in talking about how we gain muscle and strength, he said that you really don't start to see major results until after about ten weeks.
technically speaking, i think this is my fourth time i've taken a weight training class. once, my dad gave me a hug at Christmas and noted that i felt stronger and bigger, and even after just a few days of class this semester i can feel a difference in myself, but i've never noticed myself looking particularly different. and if this ten weeks thing is true, that would make sense, since the classes run just about ten weeks. so, every time, i apparently just barely miss it.

i remember once reading an excerpt from brandon flowers, the frontman of the band the killers (and cool "i'm a mormon" guy). he was saying something to the effect that there were several instances where the band wanted to break for lunch or at the end of the day, but they kept working, writing, rehearsing, and that that would be when their music really went to a new level, and he said he hated to think what it would have been like if they hadn't pushed on, if they had just stopped where they were.

i think that's even a law of physics: a great amount of force is required to get an object moving from its inertial state, but once that has been overcome and the object is in motion, much less force is required for it to continue moving.

how many things in my life are like that? how many times have i put some effort and time into a project, a skill, a relationship, and then decided that nothing was coming was happening, nothing was growing, and decided it wasn't worth my time any more? have i put in all of the hard work only to move on just before the fruits began to show?
probably.

when an h.m.i. movie light is first turned on, it requires an immense amount of electricity to jump the gap between the two electrodes and create the electrical arc that produces the light. but once that initial arc is successful, it operates at a much lower voltage.

and so i'm working to be better about sticking with something and seeing what comes from it. because after those ten weeks is when it really gets good.