Sunday Story…Change your Mind!

You have been on countless diets. You have tried numerous exercise programs. You have done first-year Spanish 6 times. You’ve gained all your weight back (and then some). Your fitness is still lacking. And your Spanish is woeful.

 

All is not lost. The problem isn’t the diet or the fitness program or the language teacher. The solution isn’t to find a better whatever. The solution isn’t to be stronger, find more willpower, or create a better solution. No, the solution is simpler than any of that…Change. Your. Mind.

 

Simple, not easy. Change your mind. Shift your thinking. Adjust how you mentally approach the challenge. You’ve tried everything else, haven’t you? Why not this? The answer to that question lies in your years of programming. The nonsense that you, other people, society, and culture have poured into your brain about who and what you are. “I’m the fat kid.” “I’m not the athletic one (that’s my brother or sister).” “I have a bad memory.” Nonsense until you believe it and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

Changing your mind is real work. Maybe more work than all the sweat you will produce working out. The blueprints aren’t easy. You are going to have to fight against years of bad messages poured all over you.

 

Visualize who you want to be. Do it with the same focus and will power you use to stick to those other regimens. Become the person you want to become in your mind’s eye and the rest of you will follow.

 

Change your mind, change your life, and change the world.

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

 

Sunday Story...Important vs. Urgent

We are often told that we should focus on doing important tasks, not urgent ones. Urgent tasks are the ones right in front of us jumping up and down demanding our attention, whereas Important tasks are those that will move our vision and mission forward. Urgent tasks keep us from executing important tasks. This is the tyranny of “busy”. We are too busy to plan, too busy to “sharpen our ax” if you will.

Ths same principle applies to important conversations. Those conversations that are easy to argue about are too often provocative, irrelevant, and yes, urgent. If the conversation keeps turning back to in-person attacks, raised voices, or un-civil discourse it could be that the conversation is actually urgent and not important.

Important conversations require thought and nuance and civil discourse, an exchange of ideas, and a listening. If it is important I need to listen, digest, and ruminate on the ideas. Important tasks and conversations require our full attention and engagement.  

Urgent conversations are all about reaction, not careful consideration. Important conversations are all about listening, planning, and being proactive.

We need to have more important conversations, not less.

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Connections

As we drift deeper into what appears to be our “new normal” your priorities may have begun to shift a bit. In the first few weeks or months of this, we all waited for things to go back to the way they were. Now, 6 months later, we seem to be faced with the inevitable conclusion that life has shifted. It takes a bit longer to get anything done. Sure, Amazon is still delivering in a day or two but often what we want is out of stock or on backorder. “Just in time” may not exist anymore. 

 It seems that personal connections may be more important than ever before. It isn’t that they weren’t important before but now we have to work at them. It isn’t as easy as it was pre-COVID. Now we have to socially distance, maybe wear a mask, and who knows what else. But the things we have to work for mean more. The fruit at the top of the tree is sweeter. 

At the end of the day it isn’t the stuff we accumulate, the possessions we have, the house, cars, or riches. The true measure is the people we connect with, the people who touch our lives, and whose lives we impact. How we do that…in person, Face Time, zoom, or whatever is less important than the connection itself. 

Go out of your way to keep, find, and increase your connections. It’s the one thing that is a constant as long as you work at it. COVID has made it so we must work for those connections. We can no longer take them for granted. 

Reach out today and touch somebody. Both of you will be grateful you did. 

John Mariotti 

www.crossfitodyssey.com 

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com 

775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Oscar the Grouch

I am feeling cranky, grouchy, or irritated, with a dollop of anger on top. Not only that, but I am also entitled, I deserve to be this way. It’s my right! I mean look everyone should have the same level of vitriol, it’s obvious that anyone who sees or hears this would also feel exactly like I do.

Not. You get to feel the way you feel but I’m pretty sure it’s a choice, not an entitlement. I can certainly understand your feelings, I can even empathize with them. But if you really think you are entitled, that you deserve them, you might want to reconsider. Going all out and all in on your anger is not the best way to get the rest of us to truly understand what the problem is that you are seeing. Or why you are so lit up about it.

If you want to push me away or have me take an opposite position then spread your entitlement all over me. It will be an effective way for us to remain apart and not communicate. On the other hand, if you want to be understood, seek first to understand (by the way that’s Stephen Covey’s phrase, not mine!)

Be cranky if you want to or if you choose to but don’t expect the rest of us to go along with you. You can be right (and righteous) or you can be connected...It is difficult to be both.

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