Sunday Story…No crap reps

When I am doing an exercise my mantra is to do it as perfectly as humanly possible. Not to the best of my ability but the best that it can be done. This is not always possible but that does not stop me from trying to get it done that way. I do not want to do any “crap reps”. I want every movement to exemplify the standard of movement so when you see it you say …”that is how it should be done.”

The gym or the box or the dojo is a microcosm of life and the world. We are there to learn about ourselves and how we will perform and live in the greater world. If I can’t perform the movement to perfection, can I perform it to the absolute best of my ability and can I improve that range of motion every time I do it? This is also true in the rest of your life? Are you doing “crap reps” in some place in your life?

Are you doing each thing in your life to the full range of motion and meeting the standards of movement…in your relationships?...on your job?...in your parenting?...in your interactions with other humans? Are you meeting your own standards if you can’t meet a greater one? Are you improving all the time in those places? Are you willing to deeply look into where you aren’t and why not? Are you going to do the work it is going to take to make the changes to do so? Are you going to call yourself out for not performing to standard…are you going to “no-rep” yourself in some part of your life?

I am. I have recently been “no-repped” around some parts of my life and getting “no-repped” sucks. I have been excoriated for not walking my talk in a number of areas of my life. That I had compartmentalized pieces of myself and if I was going to really be all I could be I needed to bring myself into complete integrity. This is the inquiry I am currently in. I am reviewing some internal tapes of my life and will be making some shifts in order to bring my standards up to the required range of motion. It is going to hurt, it is going to be unpleasant but in the end it will be worth it.

Many thanks to the person who called me for my “crap reps”…you know who you are. Even though I didn’t want to hear it, I heard you and I am on it.

Look around your life and don’t let “crap reps” pollute your life either. Someone is watching.

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-story.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…The Map

Your program isn’t working. You show up, you work pretty hard (you think) but nothing really changes. You still aren’t fitting into the clothes you want, you aren’t hitting your performance goals, and things just aren’t working well.

There are a couple reasons for this:
You don’t know where you are.
You don’t know where you are going.

Those 2 things, coupled with a lack of stringent discipline have you stymied.
What are you going to do about it?

First…where are you? What are your measurements? What are your current performance metrics? Do you know what your weight on a back squat is? Do you know how fast you run or row a specific distance? Let me make this simple…if you don’t know where you are how can you get where you want to be?
Second…where are you going? What are your specific goals? What do you want to be able to do? What do you want to look like or be like? If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?

Backing into your goals is simple, really. If you want to do 20 pushups and you can only do 10, creating a path to 20 isn’t that difficult. Staying on track isn’t that hard…we have discussed that a lot over the last few weeks. When you have concrete goals keeping your eyes on the prize is a lot easier. So is working hard, grinding another rep or a minute or a workout. Sometimes you have to push really hard…hard enough to find a new place inside you; a new way of being. You have to give up who you are to be who you want to be.

You say you want to get into that bikini or that pair of jeans or lift that weight or do that thing…but you have no idea how close or how far you are from that metric. If you don’t know that you have no idea what the map is going to look like to get there. Getting to New York City is a lot different from New Jersey than it is from Los Angeles.

Figure out where you are.

Figure out where you want to be.

Draw a map of how to get from there to here.

3, 2, 1 Go!

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Laser Focus

Let’s talk motivation. Why is it that sometimes it is easy to stick to your program, easy to keep your eyes on the prize and other times all it takes is one little distraction and poof! You are off your goal path.

Motivation is a funny thing. What works for one person doesn’t work at all for another. What works for you this time won’t work at all next time.

Sometimes it is the nature of the challenge. Sometimes it is the motivation itself. Sometimes it is your nature. Yep…I just went there. You are a quitter. You have been training yourself to quit stuff all the time. So when the going get a little rough, when your partner doesn’t show up, when daylight savings time comes or goes you decide it’s easier to give up than it is to show up.

I get it. You start something and then the next shiny thing crosses your path and zip…there you go. Off to the races after that thing like a kitten running from room to room chasing imaginary mice. You can’t do that and be successful. You can’t do that and hit your goals. You can’t do that and finish anything.

Here are some concrete tips to maintain focus:

Just do it. You aren’t “feeling” it today? Tough luck, suck it up buttercup and do it anyway. No matter what it is, you will always feel better when you are done than if you don’t do it at all

Celebrate how far you have come, not how far you have to go. You started; you made progress…do the happy dance. Lather, rinse and repeat. Realize that the plateaus are not losses but the new take off point.

Break it down into small pieces. You eat an elephant one bite at a time. Looking at writing a novel can be daunting but one page? Not so much. Every journey begins with a single step.

Burn the boats. Make it so you have no choice but to be successful. I used to snow board shirtless and in shorts (in the spring!) and if I fell it was like hitting the asphalt with bare skin at high speeds. I called it an exercise in focus. You can’t fall. Falling is going to be costly. Your focus will get much sharper if you have no choice but to succeed.

Focus is the key to staying motivated. If you can’t stay focused your motivation will wane and disappear. If you flit from thing to thing you will always be frustrated by your progress, of lack thereof.

Learn to maintain laser beam focus and all of your goals will be in sight.

John Mariotti

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

775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Hardest Change

Change is hard, we already know that. It is always easier to stay the same, to maintain the status quo, to continue on the same path. Finding a new way to do things, looking to be different than you are, these things are difficult.

These last few weeks we have laid out some strategies to make the shift more successful. Things you can do to make change easier to accomplish. These strategies are great and will go far in assisting staying on the path you have chosen.

Obviously we are assuming you have taken the first step and decided change is in order. Whether you are getting more fit, losing weight, going back to school, or shifting your thought processes, decision one is making the decision to do something different

Figuring out how to change, the nuts and bolts of getting fit, or eating well, or meditating is decision two. Do the research, do your due diligence and figure out the best strategies for success.

Making change permanent is where the rubber meets the road. This is when it gets a little dicey. You can decide; you can figure out the how but can you figure out how to stick to it weeks and months down the road? Months later when your gains have slowed down and the weather has changed and the gym isn’t as fun, and your favorite birthday treat is calling your name, what then? How are you going to keep on track? How are you going to maintain your motivation to stay the course?

Willpower is a muscle just like your biceps. The more you use it the stronger it gets. BUT you can also exhaust that muscle. And when your willpower muscle is tired you will slide back into your old habit and patterns. We need to make your new lifestyle bulletproof. We need to ingrain the new you with tools and tricks to easily and seamlessly stay the course.

Tool #1…See change as good and constant
Trick #1…Shift something often…instead of a 5:30AM class go to a 5:30PM class once in a while.

Tool #2…Enjoy the path
Trick #2…Reflect on the journey often. Journal or blog about it. Get gratitude for how far you have come.

Tool #3…Reward Yourself.
Trick #3…Rather than reward goal accomplishment reward time “in” or just because the path has been so much fun. Reward yourself with something that recognizes and honors what you have been up to!

Tool #4…Ask for recognition
Trick#4…Too often we don’t know how far we have come. Ask someone close to you to reflect on the old vs. new you.

Tool #5…Help
Trick #5…Use what you have learned on your journey to help someone else. You are like an explorer who has already walked the path, you have a map, and you have experiences that others can benefit from. Share it!

Call me…let’s transform something!

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com