Sunday Story…The Other

Marathon.

Most of the time, when we think about running a marathon, we think of a crowd of people, getting a bib number, planning for months or years in advance, training daily, weekly to get ready to run. On race day we show up, get corralled with scores of other intrepid souls, wait for the starting gun and then ALL of us head off on the same route. At the finish, we are celebrated, photographed, and commemorated for our accomplishment. Along the way, there’s water, food, and encouragement in abundance.

The Other Marathon is more common. This is the one most of us are doing most of the time. Alone. No fawning crowds, no roadside assistance, no way stations, no medals hung about the neck, no starting gun, no fans at the finish line…Alone.

A marathon is hard. It is a big goal, a mountain to climb. The Other Marathon is harder. It’s still big but it has the additional burden of loneliness. When you embark on your fitness journey, a new career path, a new nutrition regimen there is no crowd to clap you across the start line and very few people to cheer you along your route.

Strap your shoes on. Start your clock and take that first step. It may be hard, it may be lonely but it will be worth it in the end. You are enough.

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

Sunday Story…Muscle Memory

Is not really a thing. I talk about it like it is a thing. I act like your biceps have a brain but, really, it doesn’t. It does what it does when you tell it to do what it is you want it to do. Then it stops doing that thing until you tell it to do another thing.

So, what am I saying when I talk about muscle memory? What do I want you to “get” about that phrase? I want you to internalize your movement. In other words, I want you to understand, to be so comfortable and habituated with that particular movement that you no longer have to consciously engage your brain to accomplish the task at hand. It happens by heart.

This is the process…I learn a new movement, task, method…then I repeat it…over and over and over…until, finally, I no longer have to say to my body do this, then this, then this…it has become part and parcel of my doing. When you have done that, the thing will become you.

Know things by heart. In other words, know them so well that they become part of you. What stories are you telling yourself that have become part of your heart? Are they the stories you want to have be you? If not it’s time to go to work and learn some new stories…by heart.

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

Sunday Story…Weather

Changes. We all know and expect this. The song I am listening to now will end at some point and another will start. The storm will pass but there will be another at some point.

When your children are babies and you are changing diapers all day long, you know there’s a point where that will stop. But you will exchange that status quo for another…the fearsome fours, the angst-ridden teens, the rebellious young adults.

The normal is change. It has always been the usual state of affairs. There is no point where everything stops changing. There is only the calm before the storm and then there is the respite between the storms.

Change is the chaos of now. Change is usual and normal. Change is neither good nor bad, it just is.

Embrace the chaos of now, of change, of new beginnings, of the normality of shift.

Shift happens. Deal with it.

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

Sunday Story…Come or Go

Stay or Leave

Some places are designed to have you stay a while, hang out and enjoy. Other places are designed to send you along your way, they are a way station, a junction where you make a right or left and then head out to your new destination. Yet other places try to trap you into never leaving.

You can be on your way somewhere, you can be on your way here or you can be looking for a place to park. Come or go. Stay or leave. Your choice.

The question is this: Which are you doing? Are you sure? When you “Google” something you are on your way to someplace else. Go to Facebook and you will find yourself in a whirlpool swirling around until you pry yourself loose. A website you planned on visiting will capture you for a short while until your business is finished. 3 different trips, 3 different intentions, 3 different results. All are good.

This is also about what you are doing on a daily basis in your life. Where are you parked? Where are you passing through and where are you stuck? And why? Do you even know?

Maybe you should try being a little more intentional about your journey. Just saying.

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

Sunday Story…Finish Well

We are often exhorted to “begin with the end in mind”. In other words, if you start you should have some idea or plan about how you are going to finish.

Starting a book? What’s your plan to finish? Got a story to tell? How does it end? Going to begin a new eating plan? How will you know if it’s working? How will you know when to stop or shift to something else? I have a fixed starting point…I should have a fixed endpoint as well.

Starting is magical. Walking through the door for the first time can begin an amazing journey. Staying on the journey can be transformative. And finishing can be magical as well…as long as you get to do it on your own terms.

We are all going to die. It’s the agreement we have in being born. Sooner or later this journey will end. Will I have prepared for my demise well? Will my wishes be clearly designated? Will the people who need to know things know the things they need to know?

Embrace the start as well as the finish. They are equally important.

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