“Who looks outside dreams, who looks inside, awakens.” Carl Jung

At one time, this line of thought for me was so foreign. I learned as a child, to rely on God for the insides. That all I needed was prayer, go to meetings and knock on doors. Everything else will work out.

From a young age up through high school, 3–4 times a week, my attire was a dress shirt, tie (sometimes), slacks, with penny loafers on my feet and a Bible in my hand. Knocking on doors selling watchtowers and awakes magazines. My life had two faces. A face of entering segregation during my school hours, and wear race blindfolds as a Jehovahs Witness after school. Now, add to that blindfold, whispers from a Mom and Pops who were from the South. You can just imagine me peeping through the blindfold hearing them think out loud. Does this make sense? For me, it didn’t.

What did I learn from wearing the two faces?

I learned that those faces came from two different places. The inside or spiritual face of inspiration I created out of the mere “act” that I believed in a God or higher power. Then there was the outside or fear-based face I crafted from living in the world of segregation, uncertainty, and inferiority. That face of fearlessness worn from knocking on doors selling magazines to filtering through the halls of a segregated school system surrounded by people, energies who never wanted me there.

So the question today is, “What does all of this mean?

It meant that I had a lot to “workout.” With nowhere to turn, I took all that to the gym. There I could stuff it away. I was free to continue to work toward what I thought was the walk of fearlessness. As the years melted away, my internal screams began to expose the darkness of my external pursuits. My greatest fear came to light. I realized that all of my outside stuff was B/S. Uh-oh! I was afraid. Internally, I dreamt of the love, admiration, and acceptance of outsiders but without doing any real work on the inside! I wouldn’t dare go inside! Oh no. In my mind, I stopped believing in a God or a higher power or whatever you might want to call it. Hell no. I am not going there. There were moments for me where I felt like that Snickers commercial. “You wanna get away.” That was me.

My solution? Like most of us do. I begin to drink the elixir of life. Sex, alcohol, and life. I would pursue making little deals in Real estate, Films, whatever. Just party like it’s 1999 and “it” will all work out. Whatever “it” is.

It’s an inside job!

After years of missing the mark, I began to question what was going on with me seriously. I decided to stop lifting weights. I quit everything! Except for eating. I started lifting whole Cherry and Apple pies with a vengeance! Ice cream a la mode was the fix. Cookies, bread, you get the picture. Why? I realized there was a hole and it needed filling. Besides, all inside work is making me hungry. So I may as well eat. No longer concentrating on my physique gave me the opportunity to focus. It was now time on my insides. This focus demanded that I stop falling for everything outside of me. Women, liquor, and weights! WTF!

I begin to study metaphysical healers, men, and women whose walk I admired. I started to read. I began to meditate. I began to actively listen when people were talking to me and get this; waited for them to finish before I responded. Crazy huh! I started to care for others. WHAT!

One day, I stopped eating cakes. I began to eat muffins, bran muffins. Then I went to oatmeal. Then I cut out all cakes, all cupcakes and even slowed on the oats. I found this thing called The Daily Burn. From there I began tracking my food. Macro Nutrients, calories, proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. I started to study with NASM. I wanted to understand my body. I created change inside; now it was time to turn my attention outside. I began to learn the requirements of an inside job.

At two years old.

At 50 years old, or 2 years free from mind-altering substances, I was at a crossroad. Where do I go? What do I now do with my life? My long relationship with external substances was no longer an option. They were replaced with new ideas, thoughts, and convictions. I was a baby in mind, body, and spirit. My age at the time was two years old! Lol!

I had a passport. So I decided to leave America. I then traveled and lived in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. While there, my soul was lead to invent my training tool.

It was my version of a sandbag. I have even developed Sand bag training routines for it. I found my gift. I named it E.i.O.G. 1 bag. Short for the Earth is Our Gym bag.

For me, I am just getting started. Perhaps you just began your journey to recognize your gift! Maybe you have heard that voice from inside. Keep listening. You will listen to everything when its time. It could happen when the fog of life is so thick that we must find fog lamps. Keep looking. Why?

At eight years old

Today, at 56 years of age and eight years removed from mind-altering drugs, I have done the unthinkable. I have one patent pending, created a product that people purchase, a system of training that works, published a training manual, a couple of websites and now this blog. I have been 6% body fat back up to 20%.

Now I am back in Los Angeles. I have been with a home and homeless while here. I have been many things, called many things done many things and loved many. That’s okay. I have found my passion. I will not stop striving to share what Train, Track and Transform has meant for me and can mean for you.

Today, I say this to myself; I say this to you. Its never too late to slow down. Find those fog lamps. Gear down and go inside. All real power, the sun, the giant trees, our earth, has an untold power that began at its core. We cut from the same material.

Begin with your core. Go inside. Stay inside. Root out the cavities and cancers in your life. Love your self like it’s your job instead of your job like it’s your life.

I can breathe now. It’s time to manifest what my friends I met in Singapore, Bali, and Malaysia faithfully empowered me to create Earth is our Gym and the T3 Power Ready fitness system. I dream less of the external. What is, is. I work more for the internal. There is it all makes sense.

Respectfully,

Thomas Andrews

Creator / Owner / Trainer

T3 PowerReady offers more than just our all-in-one exercise equipment. We’re building a fitness community one blog post, one fitness class, & one member at a time! Contact us today to schedule a free health & fitness consultation to learn how you can “Stay Ready, so you don’t gotta get ready.”