Your attitude about fitness crucial to your success Published Oct. 17, 2006 By Lt. Col. Gregory Williams 65th Communications Squadron commander LAJES FIELD, Azores (AFPN) -- How's your fititude? No, you didn't misread what I just wrote. As U.S. servicemembers, we are expected to be physically fit in order to carry out our assigned missions, regardless of what they may be. If you really think about it, we are much like professional athletes. Although our pay is drastically different, we are paid to exercise and keep ourselves physically fit. Every member of our country -- especially our fellow military members -- demand it. Would you want to face a tough situation with someone you know isn't fit or, worse yet, has a poor fititude? How many other professions, or dare I say jobs, allow you time to workout during your normal working hours without making it up later? Not many, huh? We are expected to keep ourselves fit, and are given time during our normal working hours to make it happen. How are you approaching it? The difference between many of us is our fititude. How you approach your fitness, or anything for that matter, makes a big difference in the outcome. Everyone has a bad day once in a while. Everybody wakes up once in a while and just plain hurts, physically that is. The thing you control is your attitude toward the activity. As a fellow military member, I'm here to tell you the difference is in how you approach it. I admit I'm not the best runner or the strongest person out there. I've personally told the Airmen in my squadron at least a dozen times that I really don't like to run and, on top of that, I run with the aerodynamics of a two-car garage door. The same goes with push-ups, sit-ups and other types of anaerobic and aerobic activities. The difference is my fititude. I won't mentally quit on any fitness activity or anything else for that matter. My body may be physically exhausted and I've had times where my muscles fail, but not my fititude. One personal goal I've kept so far is to never quit running on any course at Lajes. Yes, that means the hills, too -- all of them. Sometimes I'm not running much faster than you can walk, but I keep moving and giving my best effort. Do you really push yourself or are you the person who just gets by with the minimum? If you are in the latter category, raise your fititude. Several people in my squadron have approached me asking if we can work out more on an individual basis because they feel the workouts are too easy for them. My general answer is if that's the case, your fititude is too low. Kick it up a few notches. Run faster, go lower on push-ups; whatever it takes do it better. You completely control your attitude, so do it. Very few of us will do our mission alone. That's why it is vital that we work together as a unit: One team, one fight. What bothers me is seeing somebody who I know can do more and they just aren't. You owe it to yourself and everyone around you to correct the situation. No, it's not just your physical training leader's job to correct this behavior. The next time you see somebody you think isn't giving it their all at PT, ask them about their fititude. That includes me, too.