We’ve suggested on other occasions that Operation Pull Your Own Weight must be presented and perceived as an opportunity, a privilege instead of an obligation or a job. And to be perceived that way, it helps to make OPYOW a social affair, and to take advantage of the collective expectations of success that can be cultivated in the social setting. You can also tap into every child’s burning desire to become strong and avoid weakness, and all these are important stage setters for the next point we’d like to make.

It’s Automatically Built In

An automatic, built in lesson for OPYOW participants is the realization that nobody else can Pull Your Own Weight for you. Only you can take the responsibility for doing that. In other words, nobody else can do the work for you. Nobody else can eat the right foods for you. Nobody else can get enough rest for you. And nobody can avoid tobacco, alcohol, and drugs for you. If you don’t do these things for yourself, you’ll lose the opportunity to become stronger every week, every month, etc., and you’ll be inadvertently choosing to become weak.

You Can’t Cheat the Pull Up Bar

In an age when copying a friend’s homework is commonplace, even acceptable as long as you don’t get caught, YOU CANNOT CHEAT THE PULL UP BAR! If you fail to fit the workouts in, if you fail to control your eating and sleeping habits, and if you dabble in tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, the pull-up bar will tell you immediately, and in no uncertain terms, by denying you the progress you expect to make each time you grab onto the bar. You may even get weaker. In short, the pull-up bar pulls no punches.

Of Pull-Ups and Homework

And interestingly enough, like the other concepts we’ve talked about so far, the rules that apply to the pull-up bar, also apply to all the other aspects of a child’s life, including their academic achievements. That is to say, you may get away with cheating on your homework in the short term. But in the long run, if you want to get strong in readin’, writin’, and arithmetic, nobody else can do the work for you. You have to do it yourself…just exactly like the pull-up bar. You must take responsibility for the various kinds of strength that you develop, and do the things necessary to earn them. In the end your life is your life and nobody else can live it for you. The ball is indeed in your court.