"Passion is the difference between just being good and becoming our best. - IRON COMPANY®”

Passion defines art. Without passion there is no art. The passionate artistic mindset can manifest in just about any human activity. My wife is a passionate horsewoman, a horse trainer teacher and a competitor. She is so immersed, so marinated and fanatical about horses that two to three times a week deep into her night sleep she will suddenly and unexpectedly start talking loudly and clearly, still completely asleep…TCK! TCK! (A loud sound she makes to get the horses attention) "Leg yield LEFT! LEFT! That's it! Now CANTER!" TCK! TCK! Then she fades back into nonverbal state. She rides in her sleep. This is one clear indicator of her passion for horse riding. Passion, for our purposes, refers to a depth of commitment. A deep commitment creates long-adherence generating tangible results. Results regenerate commitment.

J.P. Brice and I got into a long talk about his take on deep commitment. His phrase is "forged" passion, this, he feels, puts a finer point on passion. "Forged passion is sustained passion that strengthens and matures over time. Sustained passion morphs over time – this mature sustained passion that improves with age like a fine wine is forged passion." In J.P.'s case his passion started as a young boy that sought to transform himself from a normal boy into a superhero. His tool of transformation was the barbell. He would train four hours a day, five days a week, forging his body like a blacksmith. J.P. would use a barbell to beat an ordinary chunk of human ore mercilessly, transforming it into a work of art. J.P. transformed himself. Over the next decade he used forged passion to add 100 pounds of muscle. It was this passion for fitness that fueled him to expand and pursue his dreams and in 1996 became one of the first online retailers of fitness equipment. IRON COMPANY was born.

True passion is solar powered and because it is frictionless it is infinite. Willpower and all the other disciplines of the mind are, by definition, finite. Passion reenergizes itself. One of the most overlooked aspects of true passion is that real passion, begets real results. Results revitalize motivation and motivation enables us to redouble our effort. Tangible progress revitalizes passion and passion is the fuel that strengthens commitment. Results are the fuel that keeps passion smoldering. Forged passion is passion matured. What's your "forged passion"?

About the Author
As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of numerous books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book “Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method" and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.