Staying Locked In: What Christian Shenk Taught Me About Discipline, Sleep, and Choosing the Long Game

I've known Christian Shenk since we were thirteen, racing against each other at the Tri-State Cup back when our biggest worry was making the next cut. Since then he's grown into an Army West Point commit, and this fall marks his last "normal" summer before he trades civilian life for a very different kind of commitment. I knew going into this conversation that Christian would have good stories. What I didn't expect was how much of what he said would stick with me days later.

Eating well isn't about willpower, it's about routine

Christian admitted something a lot of us don't like to say out loud: he used to just not care what he ate, and it showed up in his times. What struck me was his fix wasn't some strict diet, it was smaller and dumber than that. He started chugging water with electrolyte powder anytime a craving hit, just to give his hands and mouth something to do besides reaching for a snack. He told me that after taking a month off swimming in August, his appetite actually got better on its own, almost like his body recalibrated once he stopped feeding it junk out of habit. I loved that he didn't dress this up as some big transformation. It was just: stay away from the snacks, drink water instead, let the routine do the work.

The busier you are, the more you actually get done

This was the part of the conversation that hit hardest for me. Christian described how he'd bang out his West Point application essays right after a workout, while he was still in "go" mode, rather than waiting for downtime. His reasoning was simple: once you're not busy, you don't feel like doing anything. The way he put it was roughly that the second you sit down and let yourself melt into the couch, you don't want to get back up. I've felt this exact thing with homework and reels, and hearing him articulate it so plainly made me rethink how I structure my own free periods. It's not about finding more time, it's about not letting yourself go soft the moment you have a gap.

Choose who you'll be in ten years, not who's comfortable tonight

Toward the end, Christian talked about staying "locked in," and yeah, he called it corny himself, but he meant it. His point was that when you're young you feel invincible, like you can always catch up later, sleep better later, eat better later. He said if he could go back to freshman year, he'd stop telling himself that and just start the habits now, because they eventually just become your normal instead of something you're forcing. That tracks with something I've believed for a while: the snooze button, the extra rewatch of a football drive, the scroll before bed, all of it is comfortable in the moment, but it's borrowed from the version of you that actually wants something bigger.

None of these three lessons are really separate from each other. Eating better, working while you're already in motion, and choosing long-term goals over short-term comfort are all just different names for the same discipline. Christian isn't following some rigid formula, he's just decided, over and over, that the version of himself in ten years matters more than the one who wants to sit on the couch tonight. That's a mindset I'm stealing.

— Anton