Twelve Years For One Win

This past weekend my wife Amy won her first ever overall state title in the IFBB Fit Model division, twelve years after she started competing.

Not two.
Not five.
Not even ten.

Twelve.

In all that time, she’d never won anything. Second places. Thirds. Plenty of times she didn’t place at all.

Last year she competed at the Amateur Olympia in Las Vegas - the biggest amateur bodybuilding stage there is - and didn’t even make a top callout.

Less than twelve months later, she’s a state champion.

But that’s not the unique part of this story. Plenty of people have persevered for long periods of time to get their desired result.

The unique part is that the title she won didn’t exist when she started.

For the first ten years she competed in the bikini division, and was measured against a standard that was never quite right for her physique.

Then the rules changed, as they often do in sports, business and life.

The Fit Model division was introduced in 2024 and it suited her better than bikini ever had.

She gave herself the opportunity to win because she was still in the game when the game changed.

But here’s what matters even more.

She was also twelve years better.

If she’d shown up in year twelve as the same athlete she was in year one, the new division would have meant nothing. She’d have been unprepared for it.

Every failure along the way got examined, year after year, after year. The Olympia result last year became the reason for the changes that produced the win this year.

So there are two parts to this, and you need both.

1. Stay In The Game Long Enough For The Conditions To Change

You can’t position yourself for an opportunity that doesn’t exist yet. You have no idea what will be available in 2, 5, or 10 years, because a lot of it hasn’t been invented.

The only thing you control is whether you’re still there when it arrives.

2. Be Worth Something When They Do

Opportunity doesn’t reward attendance. It rewards whoever is ready at the moment it appears.

Everyone who quits at year eight never finds out what arrives at year ten.

And everyone who stays but stops improving is standing right there when the new opportunity arrives, unable to take it.

So don’t just stay in the game.

Stay in it, and be better every year you’re there.

Because you have no idea what’s about to change in your favour.

If you know someone who would benefit from reading this, please forward it to them. It may change the trajectory of their life for the better, and the catalyst could be you.