Good Competition vs. Bad Competition

With the CrossFit Open in full swing something very good or something very bad can happen to you...

You can become motivated beyond what you ever thought possible.

--OR--

You can fall into the bermunda triangle of COMPARING yourself to others, their scores and  begin to
question your training, success you have had thus far and began to self sabotage yourself.

The CrossFit Open is a way to provide context to your training and gives you purpose behind everything you have been working for in the gym day in and day for the past year.

Good Competition

Competition can bring out the best in you. I fully believe that you can not recreate the enviornment, intensity and your highest level of performance during the heat of this great competition. Participating will put you in the game with  60,000 plus competitors and can result in raising the expectation for yourself. You will operate at a much higher level because everyone else is operating at a  much higher level. And by you pushing yourself you in turn will push others  around you. It is infectious!

Competition can you show you the light to your potential. You can be a part  of something much bigger then yourself. You can see how people really not that  much different than you can put up extroridinary numbers.

Competition shows you exactly where you are at today. The mantra of the open is "prove your fitness". Everything you have done up to this point will result  in exactly how you 'should' perform in the games. This can be very empowering  and motivating. All of the metcon's, strength work, running, mobility you have done over the last year will show up no matter what workout is announced 2/29/12  @5pm PST. So if you are not satisfied where you end up with your scores and  goals, consider this is your BIG WAKE UP CALL! The kind of wake up call that can  be a life changing and transform you into a more motivated, focused and dedicated athlete. Not to mention a all around better person:-)

Bad Competition

It is very easy to NOT check your ego at the door. With the highend focus and  atmosphere the Games
season provides do not let yourself fall into the trap of  COMPARING yourself to others performances. This kind of comparing is you  actually judging yourself against people that you know very little about.  You have no idea what type of work these people put into to produce their results.  You don't know what kind of athletic background they have. You can't compare  yourself to someone who is a former competitive gymnast, or has been  weightlifiting for 10 years, or played college sports, and you just started  CrossFitting 6 months ago?!?!

You are exactly where you are supposed to be. All of you efforts you have  done in the last year, all of your training prior to CrossFit, your entire  fitness/sports history has brought you exactly where you stand today. And the  same goes with the people you can't help but compare yourself too. Be proud of  yourself. Your progress. Your results. The potential you have. If you feel the need to compare yourself to others there are plenty of stories on the games  site. And plenty of success stories that have people with far less  physical advantages in life than you.

My hope is you use the 2012 CrossFit Games Open as a measuring stick for  yourself. I hope you use the positive energy of 60,000 plus people across the  globe to catapult your mental and emotional inspiration to a level you never thought possible for yourself.