Attention. Row.

The Rowing Machine: A Metaphor for Excelling in Life

The cardio room is dark and cold. A lone fan sits between some empty treadmills. No one comes in at this hour. There at the front, staring directly into the mirror, is the Concept 2 rower. Water bottle sat down, headphones dialed into music, feet clipped in, damper set.

And just like in life, it begins easy and fluid. The heart barely notices it's been pulled into this meeting, the muscles slowly wake up. Then you start opening things up. The system comes to life. Sweat starts beading. You hit a first interval. Still confident, but the time grinds. Your brain does a quick scan of what's ahead and suddenly panics about how many efforts to come. Should you slow down and save something?

First break. Finally. The body feels it won a major battle. But the war just began and there wasn't enough time to catch your breath.

Three, two, one, again. And again. And again.

Several intervals later the physiology is in a bar fight with your brain. Legs are carrying bags of lactic acid, lungs are hunting for every morsel of oxygen, heart is testing its structural integrity. And your brain is panicking. Rest, three, two... repeat.

In the final moments, you realize how continuing just one more second is the same as asking to climb the entirety of Mount Everest. In this moment rest is the only thing it can do. You finish the workout. Screenshot your intervals, maybe share with a friend. You walk out a conqueror, though nobody even knows you just returned from war.

In the next 24 hours your hands hurt, your muscles try to rebuild from the carnage, your mind stays in a tug of war between finding anything else to focus on and realizing the hours are counting down until the next deployment to the erg. Then the time comes, and you strap in, grab the handles, and do it again. And again. And again.

The machine never changes, but you do. The output is irrelevant to anyone else, but you continue to engage. You do it again. And again. Every time making a mental choice to strap in, to make that first pull and commit until the last. And again... and again.

Because that's not just rowing. That's life.

Start Anywhere

Excellence begins in unlikely places. Sometimes it's an unairconditioned tent in Kuwait during the summer of 2003. Sometimes it's a dark cardio room at 5am. Sometimes it's a garage, a basement, an empty office. The conditions are never perfect - too hot, too cold, too early, too late. But that's the first lesson: excellence doesn't wait for perfect conditions. It starts wherever you are, with whatever you have. The only common thread is the willingness to begin.

The Physics of Progress

What makes rowing such a perfect metaphor for excellence is rooted in physics itself. On an indoor rower, the relationship between speed and effort isn't linear – it's exponential. Think of pushing a boat through water: at low speeds, a small increase in effort yields a noticeable improvement in pace. But as you get faster, water resistance increases exponentially. To drop your split time by just two seconds at higher speeds might require double the power output.

This exponential relationship creates a natural filtering system that separates the good from the great, the committed from the merely interested. It's why becoming elite is so challenging, and why so few make it to the highest levels of any pursuit. The better you get, the harder it is to get better.

The Trinity of Excellence

The rowing machine gives us three elements must align for superior performance, which translate to life:

1. Technical Mastery: Raw power without technique is wasted energy. The most efficient stroke comes from perfect form, timing, and rhythm – much like how the most successful professionals must master the fundamentals of their craft, whether in sales, academic research and writing, or even the arts.
2. Build Capacity: Strength and endurance form the foundation, but they must be built systematically and progressively. There are no shortcuts, just as there are no shortcuts to building real expertise in any field. Put in the time to build the work capacity that elite levels demand.
3. Mental Fortitude: Perhaps most critically, the mind must be trained to embrace discomfort. The ability to maintain technique and power when every fiber of your being screams for rest – this is where champions are made. Say nothing of the grit to go back again, and again, knowing what’s coming. Every field has its version of these mental tests, and they demand a warm embrace.

The Consistent Choice

What makes rowing such a powerful teacher is its simplicity. The machine doesn't change. The physics don't change. The only variable is you and your willingness to engage with the discomfort, to show up day after day, to embrace the grind when no one is watching.

This is the essence of true performance in any field. Excellence isn't about the occasional burst of brilliance – it's about the daily choice to engage with difficulty, to push beyond comfortable limits, to maintain focus when fatigue sets in.

The path to excellence in any domain follows this same pattern: consistent engagement with increasing challenge, technical refinement under pressure, and the mental strength to persist when others would quit.

So, we return to the dark room, to the lonely machine that asks only one question: are you ready to begin again?

Attention. Row.