 Sofie flies to the top!
Sometimes the anticipation of a thing is worse than the actual thing. You may spend hours, days, week obsessing and over analyzing what to say or what to do, and when it comes time do actually doing the thing, you're exhausted. That's because you've worked yourself up over something that you can easily control. I sometimes do this when I'm training. I might be halfway through my snatch workout and I'm worried about those 3 sets of heavy cleans I still have to do. Or I might be in the first 5 minutes of a 30 min AMRAP and I'm freaking out because it's already hard and I'm not sure how I'm going to get through the entire workout. Worrying about the future is called anxiety, and anxiety does us absolutely no good. We can't predict the future, we can only control ourselves right now. You have no idea whether the thing you want to do in the future, e.g. compete in an event, have a difficult conversation, attempt a 1 rep max, etc. will be successful or not. There are thousands of factors that can influence the outcome. However, there is one thing for sure, one hundred precent, you unequivocally have control over and that is your thoughts and actions. If you worry and allow yourself to go into the dark hole of "what if," you will certainly stress yourself out. Your stomach will hurt, your hormones will get out of whack, and you will probably have a difficult time with that thing when it finally arrives. If you control your thoughts by recognizing that they are just things and are not the truth, then that thing in the future might not be so big and scary. Your thoughts are like clouds, just a thing that comes and goes. Just because you think something doesn't make it true. This holds for negative and positive thoughts. You can help achieve a positive outcome of future events by focusing on your actions, your words and letting go of your thoughts. If you have anxiety about a thing, take 10 deep breaths then visualize yourself successfully doing that thing. When you're faced with doing something difficult, lean in. Take some deep breaths, let go of the worry about "what if," do the work and you might be surprised at how fantastic you feel when you finally get to that difficult thing. Good luck!
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 Val and Maelin "enjoy" weighted wall sits.
Yesterday I shared with you a great podcast from Jason Khalipa on mindset. One of my favorite mindset and mental toughness teachers is Navy Commander Mark Divine with SealFit and the Unbeatable Mind project. I have had the pleasure of working out at SealFit with actual Navy SEALs, attending Kokoro yoga classes, and reading most of Commander Divine's books. Commander Divine is a rare man. He's a retired Navy Seal warrior, a CrossFitter, a yogi, a devoted meditator, and a mental toughness mentor. All things to which I also aspire. One of the best lessons I've learned from Commander Divine is to feed the my courage wolf. He writes about this American Indian parable in his blog post What Wolf are You Feeding? In this parable, we have two wolves who reside inside us. In our mind is the fear (or hatred) wolf and in our heart is the courage (or loving) wolf. What type of person we are is dependent upon which wolf we feed. Doubt, self loathing, negative thoughts, etc., all feed the fear wolf. Compassion, encouraging others, and forgiveness feed the courage wolf. According to Commander Divine (and this is what he teaches aspiring Frogmen in his SealFit program): "Feeding the wolf of love and courage makes us more kind, patient, tolerant, powerful and present. We will avoid conflict and be better leaders. We won’t hesitate to lean into the hard tasks; fear will cease being an influence in our lives." The nice thing is that by feeding the wolf of love and courage we will be simultaneously taming the wolf of fear. How can we feed the wolf of love and courage?
I challenge you to notice which wolf you feed. Which wolf do you feed when you're driving to the gym? Which wolf do you feed right before the coach yells, "3,2,1, GO!" Which wolf do you feed when the workout gets really, really hard? Do you feed the courage wolf and lean into the hard task? Do you feed the fear wolf and convince yourself it's too hard, too heavy, too...whatever. Feed the Courage Wolf. Feeding this wolf will make you happier, your family happier, your friends happier, your coaches happier, the world happier. I have written several times about the importance of competition. I heard it said that competition develops character. I completely disagree. Competition reveals character. Last week I competed in the National Masters Olympic Weightlifting Championships. This is the competition where the best Olympic Weightlifters (Snatch and Clean & Jerk) who are over 35 in the US compete. I placed second and I couldn't be happier. An Olympic Weightlifting competition always starts with the snatch. I was so high key that I threw my first snatch right over head and damn near into the rafters. I had just 2 minutes to come back and try again. My second snatch was a no lift. My arms bent ever so slightly once the bar was over my head. This was it! I had only ONE more attempt to make a snatch and stay in the competition. I was upset, mad, scared, and a range of other emotions in the 2 minutes I had to make my third and final snatch. My closest competitor and friend said to me, "You better make this snatch because this is way more fun when you're in the game!" So what choice did I have? I made the third snatch. It is during competition, when things are not going as you planned, when life throws you a curveball, that you find out who YOU really are. I am a competitor and being able to rise up and make it happen is something I value. But, the competition also revealed my competitor's character. She wanted me to succeed because a rising tide lifts all the ships and we still needed to chase each other in the clean & jerks. Chase each other we did! I ended up winning 3 sliver medals and a priceless lesson in perseverance. Luckily for YOU, you have the same opportunity with the Festivus Games on April 27. Today we are practicing workout #2. You still have time to register, and you better do it quick because we have only FOUR team spots remaining. We sell out every year and I want YOU to claim your team spot TODAY! Click on the image below to register for the Festivus Games on April 27.  Hope, as defined by Wikipedia, is an optimistic attitude of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes related to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large.
I have written a few times about how hope is not a plan. Hope is what we get to feel after we've put some effort and action towards our desired outcome. Hope is what we get to feel after we've made the sacrifices, the difficult choices, after we've done the hard work. I am thinking about this today because tomorrow I compete in the Masters National Olympic Weightlifting Championships in Salt Lake City. I am thinking about the months of training I have completed to prepare me for this meet. Am I hopeful? Yes, because I have an expectation of a good outcome based upon all of the training events. According to Beyond the Whiteboard I have logged over 85 training days and 172 hours of training since November. Hope is important because it's an optimistic attitude, and our attitude can have profound impact on our desired outcome. Our optimistic attitude is created by a series of actions we've taken to put us on the path toward our desired outcome. We should be optimistic after we've made the sacrifices, the difficult choices, after we've done the hard work. We should have hope that what we want is achievable. I have worked very hard and what I want is totally achievable. I have achieved new personal records in my last training cycle and I'm very excited to attempt those PRs again on a National stage. I hope you also have a big goal towards which you are working. It is a fantastic feeling to be on the precipice of a big event being fully confident and hopeful that all of your hard work will culminate in a few moments of extraordinary effort. I hope you have fun with today's workout. |
Special EventsApril 27 Festivus Games
May 4 - 5 Montana Spartan Race May 5 Give Big Gallatin Valley Gym Challenge May 10 Baseline & Beers May 11 Montana Craft Beer Week BEER OLYMPICS at TSCF June 22 OutWOD June 28 - July 12 Anniversary Throwdown July 13 Knuckle Buster OCR July 14 5th Year Anniversary Party Record your WOD on Beyond the Whiteboard.
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