What are you willing to sacrifice for what will make you happy?
What are you willing to give up?
What are you willing to suck at?
How many relationships are you willing to let fail?
How many parties will you miss?
How long are you willing to pursue this?
How honest are you capable of being with yourself?
How realistic are you being?
Do you think something is owed to you?
What will you do in the face of defeat?
I hear and see many people that say they want to go to the games or they want to go to regionals or nationals, etc.
The more successful you want to be in something the more you will have to sacrifice and give up.
Failure is necessary. Multiple failures are necessary. Most athletes have a hard time seeing where they lack. If you ask them to tell you about themselves as an athlete they will tell you all that they can do.
Very few if any will point out their weaknesses. Honest assessment of self is a huge advantage to an athlete and the athlete/coach relationship.
Remember your biggest weakness is your true highest level.
The other and most often overlooked aspect of what these athletes have happen is the mental game.
There are athletes that have already fallen apart even before they have stepped on the field. I know because I have been there. I have never competed at the Games or Regionals but I know that I get so amped up before the first workout every single time. Every single CrossFit competition I have ever done I bomb out on the first workout, always. It’s like my calling card.
It’s like I’m at the starting line of a race and I floor it in first gear and keep it there. However, after I have my moment of anxiousness I settle in and perform much better on subsequent workouts.
This is probably why I prefer team settings as well. I can have that nervous energy still and it will not destroy the chances of my success because others can help me.
I do not let this issue destroy me. I used to do it in road races too. I would hear the gun and everyone is running like they are in the zombie apocalypse and to escape their death. It’s so much energy and it’s hard to resist. I would swear at myself during these races, calling myself a dumb ****er and so on.
The point is I am aware of what it is like to feel defeated in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end. I have lost more times than I have won, it doesn’t mean I like it anymore. I have used losing as a tool.
There is a great quote, experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. I have a great deal of experience.
When I compete, when my athletes compete we have an understanding. Win with the humility of losing and lose with the excitement of winning. We play hard always, we go until the buzzer always. You never know what may happen, how you will fair. It’s much like in baseball, you ALWAYS run out a fly ball because luck favors the prepared.
Rich Froning was better than Graham Holmberg in his first CrossFit Games. He was, he was ready to win. He did really well in all of the other workouts. However, he had an Achilles heel in the rope climb. He literally just didn’t know how. He was the better athlete, just not the better prepared athlete.
Had he won there he has said he probably wouldn’t have competed again in CrossFit. He could have easily talked about the should of would of could of. Instead he trained the crap of his weaknesses. He destroyed them. He made them strengths. He was able to self analyze and win over and over.
How many years did Mat Fraser finish as the first loser? I remember an old Nike tee shirt that said on the front ‘face it’ and on the back it said, ‘second sucks’. I’m confident Mat feels the same. It sucks to feel that way, to be so close to think it’s there and then it is snatched from your grasps.
What did he do? He put his head down and crushed it. He’s a worker. He’s not blowing up social media saying how great he is or whatever, he puts the work in. The guy has a small closet like room in his basement with just enough space for his equipment where he puts his work in every single day. After the multiple gym sessions.
Josh Bridges is another big athlete that can win. I remember being at the games the year of weighted pistols and heavy deadlifts. I distinctly remember Josh doing the workout and getting very frustrated. He ended up throwing his sunglasses and belt and I thought in my head what a pouty little you know what.
I honestly have no clue what was happening in his head or life or anything at that time. Back then it gave me a sour taste as to who he may be, I have no clue of who he is and I shouldn’t assume anything about him like that, I was wrong to do so.
However, since then and like always Josh has been making sure to #paytheman as he likes to phrase it. He works extremely hard and puts in a ton of work and challenges his weaknesses.
All three of these athletes have faced adversity and what they did after shows their character, work ethic, drive, and determination.
They have all had failings just like every single one of us.
Will you choose to allow your failings to define you or will you allow them to motivate you.
There is this burden, that as you proceed through life it becomes heavier and heavier. The further you go through life the load of this burden slows you tremendously, it weighs you down. When the world seems to be zooming by and you are slowing the burden eats at you.
What if, the heaviest burden of life. It is something that could eat you up. Talking of glory days and what could have been.
Are you going to truly put it all out there and try, leave it all out there or are you going to leave it to excuses as to why?
It takes a big person to say either of the following, I do not want it that bad or that they did their best (your best isn’t the workouts, it’s everything else. Sleep, food, recovery, injuries, etc).
What are you going to do?