“I didn’t come to class yesterday because the workout looked really hard.”
“The workout has double-unders and I’m not good at those so I’m gonna go to Open Gym instead.”
“Barbells scare me so I made sure I got to the gym today at 6am since we’re Snatching – I have to work on it, right?”
We always start with an inspirational quote, right? Well, here are three – which would you rather be attributed to you?
Life is full of challenges. Luckily, as CrossFitters we have a great opportunity on a daily basis to practice “leaning in” to these challenges – taking a particularly trying workout or movement head-on, and driving forward with aggressive effort. Then, as more challenges come up, in the gym or more likely in our lives, we are accustomed to taking them on rather than retreating into our safe area and hoping that the problem (our lack of double-unders or a big project at work) just goes away.
In the gym, it’s easy to back away from a challenge – you just don’t show up, or you change the workout to better suit your skillset. And when you do that, there is no immediate consequence – the problem really does go away. But think about when you take that approach in your life, a life full of consequences if you choose the path of least resistance. Don’t want to confront someone that you know is not doing the right thing at work? The company performance might suffer as a result, affecting your compensation, or worse. Don’t want to accept responsibility for your poor eating habits and make a change? Your health and fitness will continue to degrade until you don’t even recognize yourself.
So, what if you make a practice of not backing down from challenges, and use your opportunity with CrossFit to practice leaning in. When you step up to a physical challenge and fail, which will happen often, you will also learn something – you’ll learn what not to do next time! And each time the challenge presents itself, you’ll get closer and closer to success. You’re also practicing perseverance, and cementing that in your brain as a core value. Then each time a worthwhile challenge pops up, you know what your general reaction is going to be – “I’m going to take this on” – and you can spend your energy figuring out an aggressive plan of action, instead of having an emotional wrestling match with yourself on whether or not you can handle it.
Challenges present themselves all the time, in all aspects of our lives. Let’s all respond a little more often with “bring it on” rather than “where can I hide”, and learn and grow along the way.
Ryan
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