“What it comes down to is that success demands singleness of purpose. Some call it mental toughness; I think it is singleness of purpose and, once you have agreed upon the price that you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to forget that price. It enables you to ignore the minor hurts, the opponent’s pressure and the temporary failures.”
– Vince Lombardi
50-40-30-20-10 reps of Wallballs and Box Jumps, for time.
I was looking through quotes I’ve used before for our “Awesome Words” section in the daily WOD post, and this one stuck out to me because I think it’s so relevant to today’s leg-and-lung blaster.
Singleness of purpose. When Coach Lombardi equated that with mental toughness, a more widely-used term, I thought of the other way that I’ve heard this put before — Tunnel Vision. Having Tunnel Vision in some situations might be seen as a bad thing — in a team meeting or conversation with several people, for example. But in the face of an old-fashioned Stamina workout, where you know it’s going to hurt and you have to get through a tremendous amount of work to make the pain stop, I can’t think of a better mindset.
Let’s also add Goal-setting to the mix, and call the best mindset for a long grinder “Goal-Oriented Tunnel Vision”. You know the task at hand — your amazing CFKI coach has briefed the workout and you’ve computed the total reps (150 of each). Rather than taking a trip to Negative Town like Sally Sobstory who is literally spewing negative emotions out of her mouth, you use Goal-Oriented Tunnel Vision to chop-up the first set of 50 Wallballs into 5 sets of 10. At “3-2-1-GO!”, focused on your first micro-goal of 10 Wallballs, you get to work. Easy day! But when the negative thoughts of “I’m so tired”, “There’s no way I’m getting through this”, “Look at David, he’s crushing me!” inevitably pop into your head, you acknowledge that these are unhelpful, negative thoughts, and instead snap your focus back with “I got this!” “Only 10 reps, I can do it!”
You mark your progress with chalk on the floor, stand back up, and continue setting and meeting your goals until your trip through the Tunnel is over, and you emerge stronger, both physically and mentally, having practiced positivity and Goal-Oriented Tunnel Vision, and achieved success, cementing the process in your mind for next time!
It’s important to note that this mindset is not just applicable to long workouts, but can be relevant to anything in life that seems insurmountable — a huge work project, or even a massive pile of dishes in the sink. Set your goal at one dish, and get going!