7/13 Transformation Tuesday

Coach James and Kerri do burpees in the gym before we had the rig.

Tomorrow July 14, is the 7th anniversary of True Spirit CrossFit. It's hard to believe that we've been in business seven years! We started with such humble beginnings. We had only one half of the space we have now. We had only 3 coaches, Leslie, James and Noah. The first month we had only 6 members and we had 2 classes per day just 3 days per week. We've come a long way! 
I established this daily blog from the very first day and wrote about ideas, methods, strategies and tactics to help us all improve our lifestyle, physical and mental health. To celebrate our seventh year, I'm revisiting some of my favorite blogs. We will be  visited by a new blogger next week! Stay tuned:) 
Here's a reprint of a blog I wrote our first month about 

All too frequently we have the best of intentions to "get to True Spirit CrossFit & Yoga three times this week," or "eat 5 home cooked Paleo meals this week," or "only drink 3 glasses of wine this week."

However, by day 2 we are sitting at home with a glass of red wine and a bar of "good for you" dark chocolate feeling like crap because we "failed." 

You did not fail! You just didn't do the thing you needed to do before the thing.

What does that mean?!?  It means you didn't fail, you just didn't put the right sequence of events and choices in order. 

You can do the thing you want to do. You first have to learn how to do the things before the thing. To figure out how to do the thing, first think of the thing, then work backwards to identify all of the things that must happen first. 

See if you can imagine all the steps — each teeny, tiny individual step — you’d have to take to do the thing.

Draw yourself a thing-by-thing map, or try filling in the blanks several times:
“In order to ____, I have to ____.”

For example:
Get to the gym three days per week.
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• In order to get to the gym three days per week, I have to stick to a regular routine.
• In order to stick to a regular routine, I have to build that routine and put it on my calendar.
• In order to build that routine and put it on my calendar, I have to figure out how much time I’ll need for each gym trip.
• In order to figure out how much time I’ll need, I have to add up how long it takes me to pack my gym clothes, get to the gym, work out, and get back home.
• In order to put the gym on my calendar, I have to find three slots per week that offer the amount of time I just calculated.

And so on.

You’ll notice that there are a lot of things that have to happen here — things you probably never thought of at first.

Keep it simple; don’t get overwhelmed or try to attack this all at once.
All you have to do is tackle ONE small thing at a time, ideally the earliest, most fundamental step.

For instance, if your goal is getting to the gym, try just getting into the habit of using a calendar to plan your time this week.

During this initial skill-building period, you might not even make it to the gym. That doesn’t matter; you’re working on the calendar thing right now.

Next week, you’ll be able to do the next thing. The following week maybe you do the thing, before the thing, before the thing. You see? It's all about planning. 

Click Here for The WOD