Sunday Story…This is It!

Over 10 years ago Tom Callos challenged me and a number of participants of the Ultimate Black Belt Test to get in the best shape of our lives. This started a more focused fitness journey for me. Since that time I participated in Marathons, Ultra-marathons, Tough Mudders, BJJ tournaments, and started CrossFit.

The problem with getting in the best shape of your life is there is no objective measurement. What does that really mean? If you have never been in great shape it isn’t going to take much. If there isn’t a way to measure fitness how will you know? I decided to not just get in the best shape of my life but to be one of the fittest people on the planet.

Fitness is not about being the fastest or the strongest or running the furthest. Fitness may best be defined as: increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains (Glassman). In other words are you better today than you were yesterday? Is your fitness broad, general and inclusive?

Tomorrow night I leave for Madison Wisconsin to compete at the Reebok CrossFit Games for the title of Fittest on Earth (60+). This has been an amazing journey. I started competing in 2012, went to the games in 2014 (finished 6th) and this year I qualified 2nd. The fact is I am in the best shape of my life. I can lift more weight. I can do things I have never been able to do and I can do them faster and longer. I may not be as fast as I was when I was 18 or 20 but I am much fitter overall.

For information on how to watch the Reebok CrossFit games go here:
https://games.crossfit.com/article/how-watch-2017-games/games/2017
Games.crossfit.com and facebook are all great choices. CBS sports if you have it will offer over 40 hours of coverage. And there’s an app so you can follow your favorite athlete (me?!) and watch them when they perform!

Anyway…for those of you who have been following and supporting this journey…I thank you. If you haven’t yet…let’s get started!

And most of all…get up and get fit…your fitness journey starts with a decision to start moving. You never know where it may lead!

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412
PS. No story next week…I’m going to be a little busy!

Sunday Story…Turn on your Drive

We only have a brief moment or two here on this planet. As I write this my life, your life is flowing away. My body is decaying. We know not where we may end up over the next few years but we know for certain were we will be when it is all over. All my physical apparitions are like a river flowing to the sea. My spirit is as insubstantial as the air and slips through time like sand in an hourglass.

Keep your spirit free of harm and the ravages of disrespect. Keep your body healthy and fit. Move through the world daily with purpose and focus, staying true to your overarching philosophy.

Get focused on what’s important to you and stay focused. Do not waver. Do not take your eyes off the prize. Do not allow the klaxons and distractions of modern life to pull you away from your purpose. You were sent here for a purpose. Find it and follow it like your life depends on it. You can float through this life like some debris on the water but that’s not why you are here. Find your purpose and fulfill it.

If getting up in the morning shows up as a chore, a task to be fulfilled…Turn on your Drive!
If you are just plodding through another day…Turn on your Drive!

Turn on your Drive and keep it turned on!

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

Sunday Story…The Sum

Of your life can be found by adding up how and with whom you spend your time.

Obviously you spend all of your time with yourself. What do you say to yourself? How do you treat yourself? Do you put in good food, good thoughts, good words, exercise to honor your body? Or something else?

You spend a lot of time with your loved ones. Are they happy, positive, uplifting people? If not, what are you doing to help them be more positive?

You spend a lot of time at work. What can you do to make sure your interactions there are as upbeat and positive as possible?

What are you reading? Are you reading? What do you listen to? What are you watching? How much time do you spend watching or listening to some talking head fill your head with negativity and stinking thinking? Even 1 minute is too much! You only get so much time every day and you can’t get it back after it’s gone. Spend it wisely.

You are what you say you are. Declare yourself to be someone great. You were put here to do great things. It is an affront to the universe for you to do anything less than great things. Stop listening to the negative, to the non-life affirming, to the crap. Start spending your time with the great thinkers of our world. Start listening to messages that inspire you. Start being the great person the worlds needs and deserves.

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

Sunday Story…Say What?

I talk to myself constantly. From the time I get up in the morning until I go to sleep at night there is a running dialog in my head. Most of the time this conversation is mundane…don’t forget to buy bread, remember to call so and so stuff like that. The things that run our daily lives. No big deal, most of that stuff.

What is a big deal is the stuff we tell ourselves about ourselves. How often do you berate yourself for some imagined flaw? How often do you denigrate yourself? Do you beat yourself up for doing something “wrong”? Do you cut yourself down for not being good enough or not remembering something or failing to perform to some supposed standard you weren’t aware of?

Ask yourself this simple question:
If I heard someone talking to my child/spouse/parent/friend this way what would I do or say? Would I step in and correct them? Would I ask them to stop? Or would I just nod and silently assent?

Here’s the deal…if you wouldn’t let someone else talk to someone you love the way you talk to yourself…Don’t Do it!

Words are powerful. Words have meaning. The words we speak to ourselves are probably even more powerful than the words other people speak to us. Your opinion of yourself is your business. It may be the only one that counts. You spend all day talking to yourself so say nice, positive, uplifting things. There is enough negativity in the world. There is no sense contributing to it with your interior dialog.

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

Sunday Story…All you can eat

Might not be a benefit. Just because you Can do something does not mean you Should do something.

You can eat it all but should you? If eating all I can leaves me with a bloated belly and an all day malaise, should I indulge myself that way?

Quite often doing what I can eliminates the things I really should do. Doing what I can is to succumb to the urgent, to the pressing, to the insistent. Doing what I should is strategic, important and planned.

The flashing neon sign is not a good indicator of quality or sound planning. Knowing what you want to accomplish requires you to stay on course and not be distracted by the cheap, by the insistent, by the new shiny bauble.

All you can eat is the bastion of the unsatisfied and unintentional. Don’t be pulled off course by the easy or cheap or alluring. They are the bringers of false hope.

You know what to do, now go out and do it.

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