Harlon, Daemeon, and more to follow I’m sure. What do they have in common? Public accountability. Each has looked at where they are and not been satisfied. Each has begun the journey of self improvement. Each has stepped forward and said “Roc, I’m going to be held accountable for myself.” Each has shown commitment, discipline, dedication and balls of steel.

I mentioned in the recent Voices from the Void podcast interview that something I have personally struggled with is showing my own beginnings, showing my Day 0 picture. It’s vanity, pure and simple. Will the ladies be disappointed if they see the real me? Will the men criticize, laugh, insult?

Roc Wieler is a hard image to live up to.

So this morning I manned up. This morning I took pictures of where I am today as compared to where I was then. Even though I am my own harshest critique; even though I still have much further to go in my own journey of self-improvement, I have to walk the walk.

Consider this my public accountability.

Roc Wieler – Day 0

There I am, summer of 2008.

I look back now, trying to remember my state of mind then. I was still a happy person, at least outwardly towards others. I will still good at my career. I still had friends. I still had a wonderful and hot girlfriend, so I must’ve been doing something right obviously.

I had every excuse you could imagine to rationalize why I was completely fine where I was, why it was ok for me to just continue being the guy you see in those images. At the end of it all though, I wasn’t happy inside with myself. I wasn’t content with what laziness and apathy had allowed to cultivate.

It’s damn hard to make change in yourself. The first steps are the most terrifying, the most challenging. It’s overwhelming and it’s so easy to give up, so easy to slide back into familiar and comfortable routines.

That’s the danger.

I had to keep telling myself “What I had done to get there obviously wasn’t working.” It was my mantra, my motto, something to motivate me. Eventually my mentality changed into “Never start a fight you can win.” For me, that was about changing my life in every way, always pushing myself to my limits and beyond, always developing myself in some way I never thought I could achieve.

I proved myself wrong on an almost daily basis.

Eventually, new routines, new habits replaced the old, and I’ve never looked back. The challenges I give myself to overcome, the mountains I now push through instead of going over, they get bigger and bigger and I have come to the self-assured realization that there is nothing I cannot accomplish. Some see that as ego, and that is their choice. I see it as a driving and intense passion, a willingness to do whatever it takes to become the very utmost that I can, to push myself into my potential and then expand it.

Here I am today. Much has changed, but there is still a long road ahead of me. Three years I’ve been at this now. I’ve learned so much, grown so much, but it’s called a healthy lifestyle for a reason; it never ends.

And one thing I can count on is that I will always keep pushing myself harder and further than even I can imagine today.

You can too.

Roc Wieler – Day 1095

Who’s next?