Dare to Compare...

Which is the better Looking Post WOD face???

In your FITness, Career and the other important areas of your life it is easy to compare what you want to what others have...Or is it?

"I wish I could do as many ____ as he/she can!"
"Why can't I go as fast in the ____as he/she can?!"

Also, in life and career:

-"I want to be rich and famous"
-"Why can't I catch a break like, _____ can"

We are all fascinated by celebrities, athletes and people of stature and the achievements they have accomplished. Even your friends you CrossFit with or people you admire that are not necessarily famous but have achieved FITness or career levels that you 'wish' to attain. It is easy to compare them to our personal achievements and beat ourselves up for not being in a similar position.

But are you doing a FULL comparison???

If you haven't put in the blood, sweat and tears they have, can you honestly compare yourself to them?...Hell NO! What do you expect?

If you want the success and income of your Millionaire Next Door, how does your resume stack up compared to his/her? Have you put in the hours they have? What connections have you build? Do you put in the extra work to do what it takes..... Do you even KNOW what it takes to get to the Next Level?

If you are upset after a workout that had lets say, ring pushups, and the person next to you crushed you and your time, how does your CrossFit resume compare to theirs? How many WODs have you done compared to them? How sound is your nutrition? Do you work on your weaknesses? Etc...

If you want to hit a golf ball like Tiger Woods, how does your weekly approach to your golf game compare to his?

Speaking of Tiger Woods check out this post to help "drive home":-) this topic more;

It Takes a Lot to Be a Tiger

Think of Tiger Woods. He has been golfing since age three. You may flip on the US Open one Sunday afternoon, see Tiger valiantly trying to force a playoff on one leg, and you may still think, “Gosh, I wish I had a swing like that!” After the tournament, you go out to the driving range, grab two buckets of balls, and work on your drive. Monday comes around: do you go and hit three buckets? Tiger would. You see that Tiger has hundreds of millions of dollars in endorsements and winnings; you see the perfect drive Monday on his 91st hole that will put him in position to seal the tournament. You don’t see the Tiger that is at the driving range, fifteen minutes after dark, squinting through the night to see if his 300th iron shot of the day went to where he had planned. You don’t see all of the work he and his father put into his craft since he was three. You see the end product, which makes him less of a role model, and more a center of envy.

If Tiger’s principles, rather than his persona, were your role model, you would go out on Monday, hit three buckets of balls, then go again Tuesday and hit four. He should not be your role model because he birdied the 18th hole to force a playoff on Sunday. He should be your role model because of how he put himself in position to do so. It was the role Tiger’s dedication played in his success that should be your model. What if Tiger fails? What happens if Tiger Woods ends up double bogeying the 18th hole, not forcing a playoff, and loses? Does Tiger’s failure mean you should not admire the hell out of the fact he played with a torn ACL and two stress fractures—enough knee damage that would keep most of us on the couch asking if someone could please hand over the remote? Found from HERE

Next time your compare, don't compare only what you see, find out what you DON'T see, and if you don't compare to the work they put in...Stop Crying or Suck It Up!

P.T.S.!

Mental WOD 16: To Do List Don't Mean Crap Unless...

You execute it!

Knowledge is NOT Power!...Unless it's applied.

We all have great ideas. We all have great intentions. We all can PLAN AHEAD, but does any of it really mean anything unless we actually DO IT and PULL THE DAMN TRIGGER???

For the purpose of this post I am referring to starting a healthy new habit i.e. adding in an additional workout in a week, stretching, running, reading more, writing a blog, cooking your meals for the week, etc...

Everyone operates a little differently. So here are a couple options to see which principle or combination of principles will work for you to 'JUST DO IT!'

-Find Time: PRE-PLANNING is always a good idea. But until you work your new habit/To-Do item into your weekly routine CONSISTENTLY it will always be hard to implement.

-Make Time: Last weeks MENTAL WOD 15 is a good way.

-Find a Coach: One of the reasons why CrossFit works is because a really good coach is on your side. When you don't show up, they CALL YOU! And you magically show up. Not brain surgery just having someone in your corner will do wonders for your consistency.

-Recruit a friend: Find a friend that has similar drive, goals, and attitude. When they are down in the dumps, most likely you will be on and can help them through it, and vice versa!

For this week's Mental WOD not only start a healthy new habit but set yourself up for success. Post and your thoughts, comments, and questions...just P.T.S!

Question of the Week...

Accomplishing what you want out of life comes down to how important it is to you.  If its important enough, you’ll do it and the benefits will pay in spades.




What is important enough for you???

Mental WOD 15: Get Up 1 Hour Earlier

Human...Turkish Get-Up's in the morning???

Every morning I wake up (@645am most days) watch MY WIFE get up and go workout. And I...roll over and snooze for another 45min to an hour. I am so impressed by her work ethic and consistentency. Rain or shine she is up and ready to go, and she is not a morning person, trust me:-) And the results speak for herself. Today I was 'planning' on getting up with her, but the same old story happened...GRRRR!

So I am just gonna pull the damn trigger and do it this week and make it this week's Mental WOD. Plan to get up every morning 1 hour earlier than normal and add in a workout, journaling, prayer, affirmations, or anything that is going to promote you to be better and empower you for the rest of the day.

Why???

Get up one hour earlier than the rest of your household. Gain clarity on your priorities and start your day empowered. "Use the time as an inspirational hour—reconnect with you mission, core values and review your goals," says Robin Sharma, motivational expert and author of The Leader Who Had No Title. "This will build deep focus against distractions as you move through your day." Or spend your hour meditating, visualizing achieving what's most important to you, writing in a journal, listening to music, reciting  affirmations or exercising.

Just DO IT early birds!

What will you do with you extra hour?

P.T.S!

Cherry Picking YOUR Life...

The short-shorts 630p crew at CF 818

Yesterday we talked about Cherry Picking your workouts and why NOT too. Today, we will tackle what are some areas you 'cherry pick' and why.

Below is a quote from Frank I. Luntyz author of,  Win: The Key Principles to Take Your Business from Ordinary to Extraordinary. Frank discusses one of the 9 P's of Winning in Leadership and in Life.




Principled Action
What good is winning at work if you lose at life? The concluding chapter puts in perspective the essential nature of a set of the guiding principles that define true winners. It focuses on those who gave up their morality, humanity, and decency in the chase for success—and how they fell from grace because winning wasn’t just everything, it was the only thing.

I have often said that how you CrossFit says a lot about how you live your life? If you cheat in workouts, more often you will cheat at something in your life. If you skip a workout because of fear or you feel inadequate, you will skip other important areas of your life.

And just the opposite is true. If you push yourself to your potential, you will do the same with your life. If you are disciplined, consistent, focused, caring and helpful, that bleeds to other areas of your life.

If you are serious about your health and fitness (i.e. you are a CrossFitter) you are 'most likely' serious about all other areas of your life.

It amazes me how some people are so successful in one area of their life and lack so much in all other areas of their lives. I know close personal friends and family that retire very successfully and have tons of time and money to do anything and everything they desire, but spend most of their time paying for medical bills and restricted to a sedentary lifestyle because they worked too HARD during they careers.

Putting too much time in one area of your life to achieve a high level of success with letting all others areas of your life go by the wayside, is not the path to take. You will pay for it later in life...LITERALLY!

As we are taking a LONG-HARD look at our lives this week. I encourage you to prioritize ALL areas of your life (faith, family, health, education and wealth).

Lets here where you are today and how you are planning to take control of your life.

P.T.S!!!

Cherry Picking, Ducking, and Avoiding WODs...

This includes Cherry Picking Warmups...YIKES!

Here is my post for www.crossfit818.com site today.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
Frederick Douglass

It's confession time!


How many of you have cherry picked a WOD? (Cherry picking is knowing what the WOD is before you attend a class, and deciding NOT to go because you are scared, worried, think you can't do it, etc...)

Here are a few reasons why you should NOT cherry pick WODs:

1- You will continue to NOT improve and your overall fitness and results will suffer: The great thing about CrossFit is it exposes your weaknesses. If you are weak you will get stronger (anything with the barbell), if you are uncoordinated you will get coordinated (i.e. Double Unders), if you get gassed with your cardio you will get better (running/rowing). Your lack of proficiency in one area is holding back your overall results. CrossFit is the perfect way to improve because not only are you practicing the movement, you are getting great coaching, and you are being tested and in an environment where you will only build the skills to improve.

2- Your friends will surpass you: Because they don't cherry pick WODs your friends and fellow CrossFitter's will get better than YOU! You may be stronger than them now, but as they continue to progress in all other areas of their fitness they will eventually crush you in future WODs and that is NOT fun.

3- Your a role model: "No I'm not, I just want to get a good workout"...B.S.! I have noticed that if you care enough to cherry pick WOD's your other CrossFit friends will notice too. Remember when you were in grade school on the playground at recess playing pick up basketball and there was always that one kid who would shoot every time he touched the ball, and would NEVER play any defense! Then, when your team was playing defense and the opposing team would shoot the ball, he would 'cherry pick' and run to the end of the court and ask for the pass just so he could shoot again...and you would be like "Hell No, that chump doesn't play any defense"! Well that's the same as cherry picking WODs:-) You don't want to be know as the guy/gal that avoids what they are weak/or feel inadequate at, you want to be know as the champion/the fighter/ the person who adds to the community and is a driving force to help lead, teach, encourage and inspire others.

Next time you are looking up what our Workout Of the Day is, and you before you think ahhh I can't do... stop, drop and sign in for that class ASAP!

Onward to ELITE Fitness!

P.T.S!

Metntal WOD 14: Check YOUR Engine Light

It takes discipline to balance your life. You should be disciplined with your faith, family, health, education and wealth. You should also be disciplined with your play and your rest.

For the last couple of weeks I have be on a blog vacay. I used this vacay for a time to examine where I am at with my life, where I want to be going, and what I desire to be doing? And I'm still in the midst of that:-)

Too many of us let life take control over us and our thoughts. Sometimes it is NECESSARY to stop your routine and re-examine everything you are doing and where you want to go. If you don't, you could wake up and 5, 10, 20 years have gone by and you won't know where the time has passed. And it that's the case most likely you haven't accomplished the things you have wanted too.

Consider this post your courtesy B-Slap! Or friendly wake up call...

This week's Mental WOD. Is to take a step back and set some quiet time aside and examine everything that is going on in your life.

Your job/career?
Your health habits?
Your family life?
Your personal development?
Your daily thoughts?
Your weekly routine?

Take a long HARD look at everything that is going on with you. Is it aligned with where you want to go? Do you even know where you want to go???

P.T.S!!!