Sunday Story…Nuts and Bolts

So…if you are one of our remote readers this week’s story may not carry a huge interest for you. But if you are here in the Dallas region it is long overdue!

As most of you know we are moving into the space next door. As usual a move that we had hoped would be done by mid March won’t take place until May 1st (fingers crossed!) This has been our intention all along when we moved into our present space.

Our landlord, Mitch Fonberg, who many of you know, has done a great job working with us to get the space ready. The last thing is a new floor! Yes, we are going to float the floor up about 6” with concrete! This will solve our drainage problems and create a level floor from one end to the other. So we have more usable space. Also a new heat and air unit is going in now.

On Tuesday the Master’s qualifier will be done and my full focus will go on completing this project. There are still lots of little details to be covered, mats to be ordered and general things to do. BUT it is our intention to get moved next weekend.

Many of you have met Coach Lara Norton and Coach Austin Cantwell already. Both of them bring some very special skill sets that we are anxious to put to work very soon. Look for some cool things from both of them shortly.

At the same time Tony Rios with My Martial Arts will be moving into our current space. Tony brings years of teaching experience, an established student base, and a great warrior attitude to the Odyssey Fitness Family. Tony also teaches an adaptive Martial Arts program that is way overdue and a real breath of fresh air. Also Jim Gillentine with Dallas Wing Chun (Kung Fu to most of you) will be teaching an adult class 3 nights a week. He will also start a children’s program later in the summer as well. Both of these gentlemen are on board with the Journey to Extraordinary that Odyssey Fitness promises.

We will be expanding our offerings to include yoga as well. There will be a Brazilian jiu-jitsu class starting on Saturday afternoons for those of you who want to get your grapple on!

Many of you have asked how to help or how you can support this expansion.
The answer is simple: keep coming to class, tell all your friends and neighbors about us, and drag them in if necessary. We are now doing fitness assessments for every new training student. We will also be offering each of you a similar assessment as part of your regular attendance!

We also could use donations of rowers, airdyne bikes, ski-ergs and some other equipment. We need to replace and expand some of your equipment as well and as you might guess money is a little tight as we get ready to move. We will be having a grand opening/fundraiser/bar-b-que/happy hour in May and your support would go a long way in making the Odyssey Fitness Journey to Extraordinary an even bigger and better reality than it is today.

I want to Thank each of you for all your support over the last 2 and a half years. It has been an Extraordinary Journey!

John Mariotti and Ellie McKenzie
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Abundance

There is enough.
Enough love
Enough money
Enough energy
Enough help
Enough food
Enough to go around
Enough of everything

Have you ever wondered why when 1 fast food place goes in a bunch more open in close proximity? If there were only so many dollars available everyone would be cutting smaller and smaller pieces of the pie. What happens, instead, is the pie gets bigger. All those places actually make more money as the pie expands. Abundance.

If you live like there isn’t enough to go around, you will constantly be fighting to maintain whatever you have. Sharing won’t work for you as it takes away from your piece. Having a new competitor open nearby causes you a headache as you are afraid of losing out. This is a scarcity model. It is a fear based model. This is the model that has us scratching and scrabbling for every little crumb and morsel, afraid that someone else will get more, or get our piece.

Living in the abundance model is much more joyful. It is easier to be happy when someone else’s success takes place because you know there is more success for everyone. An ever expanding pie means there is more for everyone. This is a good thing.

Where would you rather live? In a world where there is never enough and everyone has to fight to keep their little piece of turf and is afraid of not having enough? Or in a world where there is always plenty to go around, you can give freely because you know there is more coming your way, and you can joyfully celebrate everyone’s success? Not much choice in my opinion.

Scarcity sucks. Live from an abundance mindset. Life will be much more enjoyable, less stressful, and generally easier. It’s a choice you can make every day.

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Desire

Desire, like the force is strong. It has an uncanny way of guiding our path even when we aren’t aware of it.

There are as many reasons for doing things as there are people. If fitness is your goal the list I have heard is endless, the same goes for weight loss, and the pursuit of wealth. When we decide to pursue our goals we do so for really great reasons. We do so with excitement and enthusiasm and energy. And at some point we get stuck. Life happens.

We stagnate and fall back. We hit a plateau and start questioning our motives and, yes, even our desire for the thing we said we wanted. What started as a labor of love has become a chore of mind numbing drudgery. It is now just a slog through a very muddy swamp with no good way out.

Every day we make choices. And many of these choices are based on things running below the surface. These choices you are making may be sabotaging your progress. We often know what we need to do but we find ourselves paralyzed and unable to act. There are many reasons for this…fear of failure, the pain of change is NOT greater than the pleasure of change, it’s too hard to take the first step, or maybe you just don’t want to.

Look, it’s simple and we all know it by now. 1 step starts the journey, start now and in 7 days you will be on your way, if you want it go get it. Platitudes suck. I use them all the time. And when I try to use them on myself for my own issues they are as ineffective as all get out.

So what needs to be different for you to get you up and moving? What is the thing that will move you into a new way of acting, a new way of getting things done? Again…simple…Propose that you are done making excuses. Decide that the phrase “it’s too hard” has been eliminated from your vocabulary. This is a choice. You know what challenges lie before you. You know what frustrates and bothers you, you know what you want, and you know what you need to do to get what you want. You already have all the answers in you. You know it isn’t going to be easy, simple maybe, but not easy. There will be sacrifices along the road to getting what you truly want.

The bottom line is this: If you really, really want things to be different, they can be. It is simply up to you. Stop making excuses. Stop allowing some underground stream to toss you around any which way. Take the rudder and steer the damn boat!

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…All Mine

I am 100% responsible for my life.

Let that sink in for a minute. I know you were born to a certain family, in a particular place and that you arrived here with certain genetic flukes and flaws. But if you are now over the age of 21 and especially if you have made it past 30 you have to accept responsibility for your life and the way it looks.

You are 100% responsible for your communications. I know that message sent is not always message received. But when you find out that the message you sent was not received the way you wanted it to be received you are responsible for re-framing the message and making sure the recipient gets the message you are trying to send.

You are 100% responsible for your relationships. Sometimes we say relationships are 50/50 but really you are 100% responsible for the relationship. You must take on the care and feeding of that relationship all on your own. Your partners and friends bear their own responsibilities, it is true, but you need to be the one who takes care of it if you want it to be all you want it to be.

You are 100% responsible for your health, fitness and well being. No one is forcing you to eat bad food or drink alcohol. No one can exercise for you. No one can help you be healthy except you. Again, it falls on your shoulders.

You are 100% responsible for being exactly where you are today. Your life has taken the turns and twists it has taken. Some things may have been out of your control. Some things may have happened that were unforeseen and unpredictable. But in the end you are where you are because of the things you said, did or thought. You are in control, at all times, of how you react, or what your attitude is about what is happening around you. As a matter of fact, it is your attitude that determines the trajectory of your life.

Is your attitude one of abundance and plenty? Or is it about scarcity and lack? Your attitude is the single most important factor in the satisfaction you have or don’t have about your life. And no one is responsible for that attitude but you and only you. Decide to act from abundance and plenty…your life will change.

Take responsibility…all of it. It’s much more satisfying than abdicating what happens to you to the winds of chance!

John Mariotti

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