April 2012
13 posts
3 tags
Don't Surrender
“That’s just the way it is.”
Ugh. Raise your hand if you hate that saying.
“That’s just the way it is.”
What an excuse for mediocrity. A rationale for piss-poor performance. An acceptance of crap.
Those words are a symbol that you’ve given up, or that you won’t try harder, or that you just don’t care anymore.
Don’t do it. Don’t...
3 tags
How to Become an Overnight Success
Work. Really hard. For years. And when a door opens, run through it. When opportunity presents itself, don’t just grab it — knock it down, toss it on your back, and sprint until you’re ready to throw up. Suck in more air and run even harder. Ignore the pain and head for the light. Run as if darkness itself is chasing you and failed steps will take your soul.
There is no such...
3 tags
Kick Your Own Butt
Kick yourself in the ass. Go ahead. You know you need to. You know there is something that you should be doing, and yet you’re not doing it. There may be a whole list of things.
I’m like you — I’ve got a list idling over there on the “Ignore” setting. And a whole list of lame excuses to go with it: too busy, too many commitments, too much blah blah blah.
The...
3 tags
We Tell Ourselves
We tell ourselves all sorts of things.
“This weight is too heavy for me.” “I’m not a fast runner.” “I’ve never been agile.”
Well, f*** that.
Every time you tell yourself bullshit, you’re limiting yourself. Just because something was, doesn’t mean it has to be.
I’m slow as hell when I run. What’s that mean I should do? Run...
3 tags
Failing, But Still Fighting
Failure is not getting back up. Failure is staying down. Failure is not grabbing the bar and going again, ever. You can fail, and not be a failure. Huh?
Failure is an end state—a finality, an acceptance of failing. But as long as you’re still trying, you’re not a failure.
Wait. Isn’t that splitting hairs?
No, not if you accept the path to success as a series of failures...
3 tags
Church Bells
Black bumpers. White chalk. Shiny steel springs. And a bar with some diamond grooves, sort of a faded silver and gray.
These are the tools of our trade, of our vocation, perhaps of our salvation.
The devout will bray about the superior qualities of this bumper or that bar. “Only in kgs” they will sniff. Their hands reveal an odd kind of exercise stigmata.
The newly converted...
3 tags
Hope For Someone To Chase
“Oh good, she’s here.”
How many times have you seen someone enter the class and you’re happy? Not because you know them or you like them (duh) but because you know they’re slower or weaker than you? Because you know you can beat them? Because you know you probably won’t be last in this WOD?
Admit it. You’ve done it. Almost everyone has. (Maybe not...
3 tags
Figuring Out What Not To Do
Figuring out what not to do: that’s a skill too. Something we forget about the importance of focus selection in our rush to do so much. And sometimes, that lesson takes a lifetime to learn.
I remember, soon after college, excitedly telling my sister about some saying like “Life is decided by what you do, not what you don’t.” I expected some big smile and nod of agreement....
3 tags
Alone at the Bar
I spend a lot of time alone at the bar.
Not the one with glasses of happy juice and tales of crazy nights, followed by mornings with fuzzy teeth and crumpled-up dollar bills in your pockets.
I mean the iron one, with bearings and whip and faded sheen. The one you can hold in your hands and load with your burdens and hopefully still lift to your chest and then over your head, before you drop it...
3 tags
The Cost
Bumpers forgive: this is one of the reasons we like them. When shit goes bad and we need to drop the bar, bumpers bounce. There is no permanent mark of our mistake, no forever heralding of our error, no scar that points to what we did wrong. No huge clang of metal plates announcing another failure. No dent in the wooden floor.
But we trick ourselves if we think they are safe.
No act — in...
3 tags
No Shortcut
Work harder. Work smarter. Love more.
That’s not the answer we’re looking for (any of us) but it’s the path to almost everything we want—in the gym, in our jobs, in our lives.
We like to think — we hope — there is an easier answer, a better path, a shortcut through what looks to be some dark and nasty woods. There isn’t.
Stop searching for the shortcut...
3 tags
Pick One
Everything is dangerous. The world is full of sharp, pointy objects and mean people. CrossFit sucks. Everything sucks. The best thing to do is nothing, because that’s the safest. And typing on the Internet. You’re safe there too and it requires lit&83 skill.
Darn it. It requireslots of some skill.
Or the world is wonderful and padded and full of fantastic people who only want to...
3 tags
Tired
Tired is all in your mind.
Tired is your brain trying to tell you to stop. To rest. To take a break. Be kind to yourself. Wait. Breathe.
Tired is the callsign of the underachiever. The watchword of the disappointed. The cry of those not bathed in their own success. Tired becomes its own excuse. “I’m tired.” “I felt tired.” “Could have done it, but I was...
