Sunday Story…More is…

Not better. More is well, just more. Better is better.

We live in a culture where more is equated with better. If one is good, two is better. If the meal is good, super sized is better. Why, if I like it and I get results, shouldn’t I get more and better results by doing it more?

This is the horns of a dilemma. Should we practice more to get better? Of course but only if we practice well, with intention, and with an eye to improvement. Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. This mindset that more is better permeates some of us. If running a mile or two is good, why not a marathon? Why not an ultra marathon? Why not a triathlon? Why only work out once a day if I could work out twice? Especially if I am getting results with once a day.

The reason why not varies from activity to activity but the bottom line is this: if you want to get better at something you need to practice at getting better. Adding more is not the same as getting better. If I just do 20 instead of 10 but all of them suck then I just ingrained twice as many bad ones into my habit. And that is a bad thing.

In the exercise world that I spend a lot of time in, rest is where you make gains. If you don’t rest your body can’t recover and you just get more and more beat up. And then you start going backward, lifting less weight, and getting slower. For type A people this idea is in direct opposition to the way the world works for them. Harder, faster, more is how they live. And harder, faster, more will get you hurt and unable to perform. I take my rest every bit as seriously as I do my workouts.

This concept carries over into the other areas of your life. Adding more things into your daily schedule isn’t the answer. Scheduling your kid’s lives even more closely isn’t the answer. The answer lies in quality not quantity. You need time to rest and reflect and recover and rejuvenate. You need time to assimilate all the things you are doing into your being. We all need to find the balance between work, play and rest.

Now that I have said all that…when you work, work hard…really hard. Intensity is the key to this idea. You don’t need to work more; you need to work more intensely. You don’t need to exercise for a longer length of time; you need to exercise more intensely, with more focus and concentration. When you are eating dinner; eat it mindfully and with intention. More is not better, faster is not better, more multi-tasking is not better. Better is better. More intensity might be helpful though!

Don’t have more, Be better.

Namaste

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

Sunday Story...The Arena

I have been competing in things since I was about 6 years old. I guess at this point I am just going to have to admit that it may be in my blood. There is something about getting out there and putting your training and practice on the line in front of God and everybody.

As I get older I am finding less people who want to compete. I suspect there are several reasons for this but I think it boils down to just 3:
#1 Fear of Failure
#2 Lack of Drive
#3 Inability to trust the training
The fact of the matter is this: these 3 reasons may be permeating your life in more places than the competition field. Let’s look at these 3 in reverse.

#3 Inability to trust the training
You are doing whatever you are doing. If you are running, or cycling or lifting you are training. Training to get better, more efficient, faster, and stronger. You need to measure your results. You need to track your progress. You need to know whether or not what you are doing is working and giving you the results you are looking for. Part of those measurements are based on what other people like you are doing. You might not want to measure yourself against the Olympic champion (too disappointing) but you really should measure yourself against your peers. Trust your training.

#2 Lack of Drive
As we age it seems to be harder to “get up” for those 100%, all out efforts that were so easy in our younger days. It is so much easier to just coast through and let contest day pass by. It is so much easier to watch other people lay it all out and wish you were there, or realize after that fact that you easily could have beaten those contestants. But you didn’t, you didn’t enter, and you didn’t suit up for the game. Your drive is in park. The true spoils belong to the one in the arena, beaten but not defeated, bloodied but not broken.

#1 Fear of Failure
This is the big one for all of us. It is the reason we don’t start new things. It is the reason we don’t ask the girl to the dance, try to set a new personal record, or start a new business. We are frozen in place because it is easier to do nothing than risk your definition of failure and success. Failure is a matter of perception. If you get out on the field of play you are going to learn something about yourself at the very least. There are lots of lessons to gather from the field of competition that are not going to come to you in the practice area.

It takes something to grab your ego and put it on the line.
Getting out and competing tells you where you stand.
The only failure is in not trying, not making the attempt.

Find an arena to compete in and you will be surprised at the increase in focus your daily practice has. By the way all of the above applies to performing…singing, acting, dancing…anything you may have to do in public and risk the slings and arrows of the non-participant.

We all like to win (including me) but the real joy is in the preparation, the getting ready, the focus, and the path to the contest. The contest is the icing on the cake.
See you on the podium!

Namaste

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

Sunday Story...Born to Fail

We are born to fail.

Think about it. Every day we get a little closer to extinction. We are born to grow old and ultimately, to die. In our day to day lives we are afraid of failure. It seems to be ingrained into our psyche. Many people go out of their way to avoid failure, always taking the safe way, the easy way.

Yet the question we really should ask is this: What would you do if you knew you could not fail? Just imagine…everything you attempt is a success. Every interview, every financial venture, every workout, every diet, everything in your life is a success.

Here is a news flash for you: You cannot fail. You are successful every time you leave the house. Let’s shout that right out: YOU CANNOT FAIL. Never. No Failure.

Wait a minute…in the beginning you said you were born to fail. Now you are saying you can’t fail? Aren’t those two things in opposition to each other? Those things can’t exist together can they? Can’t they? Why not?

We are all going to die. At that moment your body will cease to exist. Between now and then, though everything you do is a success. Sure businesses close and lose money, relationships end, goals aren’t met but that doesn’t mean they are failures. It just means the outcome wasn’t what you wanted or expected or attempted to get to.

Every sports team in the world wants to win it all…get to the big show, the championship, or the gold medal. No one starts the season expecting or planning to be mediocre. I don’t get up in the morning hoping to be average and neither do you. If the team ends up with a losing season are they failures? No…not if they learned something along the way and not if they did the work and enjoyed the process.
If your relationship ends was it a failure? Not if you learned something about yourself, the other person or who you are in relationship and maybe who you don’t want to be next time.

Failure represents the ultimate end of the venture. No more learning, nothing left to be gained is what failure really means. Just because you didn’t hit the mark you were aiming at doesn’t mean you failed. It just means you need to adjust your aim. There is always something to be learned.

I would exhort you to redefine failure and success. Everything carries within it the seed of learning, the secret of doing it differently, doing it better and doing it in a way that gets you closer to what you are aiming at. I would say you have failed if you didn’t learn anything from the attempt. Which means the rest of the world can see you as successful but if you haven’t learned something and applied the lessons you have failed.

Learn and grow rich…in experience, in effort, in lessons learned.

REMEMBER…YOU CANNOT FAIL!

Namaste

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

Sunday Story…Year in Review part 2

This is the continuation from last week’s story. If you didn’t read it go here: http://sunday-stories.blogspot.com/2013/12/sunday-storyyear-in-review.html
The second part of the process is to set the goals for the coming year.

Again we look for the answer to 2 questions:
1. What do I really want to accomplish in the coming year?
And
2. What do I need to do to accomplish the things in #1?

Again take a day or two to get 3-5 solid goals. These are your goals and if they don’t light you up you aren’t going to do them. You know you should make more money but maybe it doesn’t get you excited like volunteering at the local shelter does. If you put it down you won’t do it, you won’t be excited about it and when you look at it over the course of the year you will feel bad about not doing it and not wanting to do it. So only put down goals that get you excited. And to remind you…stop living out of the should box. Just because you should do something doesn’t mean you have to do it. Also you can always adjust your goals along the way. Maybe 6 months into the year you realize the goal isn’t quite right. So change it. It is your goal and it is your life…your movie.
Life planning will change your life. The intentional planning of a life will make all the difference in where you end up. Think about it…if you get in your car to go to New York City and only know that if you head east to get there you may or may not ever arrive. And if you do manage to arrive in NYC you will have no idea how you got there. Make a map…you can take side trips and detours but a map will give you a guide to return to.

I highly suggest breaking your list into several categories (use ones that work for you.) For example, financial, career, relationships, learning (education), and health are all good categories but, really, you want areas that work for you. Spend some time thinking about these things over a few days. Ideally, if you could disappear for a week it would be great. For most of us that can’t happen. For me, I put them in my brain and let them ferment for a bit and then sit down for a few minutes and let them all come flowing out with no filter. I let them rest for a bit; make sure there aren’t any others that need to manifest themselves. A day or two later I go back to the list and start whittling it down. If I start with 10 things in a category I am going to bring it down to 2 or 3 things. As soon as that is done I apply the S.M.A.R.T. principle to each one. Is it Specific? This is the difference between “I want to lose weight” and “I want to lose 5 pounds.” Is it Measurable? For instance increasing my net worth by 5% is measurable (as long as you know what number you are starting with.) Is it Attainable? Getting married and having a baby this year is only attainable if you are pregnant by March or so. Is it Realistic? It isn’t realistic to earn a million dollars this year if you are unemployed at present (there may be some special exceptions to this but I am not one of them.) Is it Time orientated? In simple terms do you have a time limit on when you will complete the goal?

I like these goals to be concise and simple. Things I can express in a sentence or two. Goals I can put up on my refrigerator or bathroom mirror. Let’s not write the Odyssey here. Here’s an example from 2013 from me…I will increase my fitness by at least 20% (over 2012) as measured by my performance in the CrossFit Open. Simple, concise, measurable, easy to state and easy to track.

I also suggest whittling these goals down to the 5 most important. You might be able to do more but for me any more than that and I feel overwhelmed. So get it down to 5 or less really important, exciting goals that have you want to get off the couch and get going, right now!
At this point you may be able to create an overall theme for the year and write a short concise one paragraph summary of what your desired outcome is for the year. You can’t do this until you have done the whole process though.

There is one more piece of this puzzle. After all this is said and done…take a hard look at the goals, the theme, and the paragraph and then fill in the blank with one word…Be ____________. Just a single word that would sum up all your goals and aspirations for the year. Be magnanimous. Be love. Be generous. Be learned. Whatever the word is make it a word you can really get behind and be excited about.

Resolutions and goals work. Life planning works. But they will only work when you are 100% behind them and 100% excited about the making the journey to the goals.

Be commitment.

Namaste

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com