Sunday Story…Grateful

One of the most powerful practices you can perform is gratitude. If you are reading this, you have much to be grateful for. Too often, we try to make gratitude about the big things, the momentous occurrences. But the practice of gratitude really requires us to find it in the simplest, smallest moments. Let's think about that. I have gratitude for:

• The breath that I take
• My body's ability to absorb oxygen and send it out to all the places it needs to go
• Being able to get up in the morning and move
• All my relationships and all of the people that are around me and in my life
• The world around me
• The food that I eat
• The scenery that I get to see

You won’t have to look very far or very hard to find things to be grateful for. When you do this, all the other things that may bother you will slip away, and you will be left with warmth in your heart for all the blessings you experience in every moment. Gratitude is about the small things as well as the big ones.

Life is full of moments of gratitude if we just take the time to experience them. Gratitude is probably the single most important shift you can make that will improve your life. Viktor Frankl said, "The only freedom that man really has is his freedom to choose his attitude" - not just at Thanksgiving or Christmas, but every day, every moment. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude.

If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results.

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412

 

 

 

 

Sunday Story…The enemies of progress

Are comparison and pursuing perfection.

 

We’ve talked at great length about what it takes to be successful at this longevity process:

1. Consistency
2. To do the work
3. To stay on task

We talk about these sorts of things all the time. If you don't show up, you can't get the work done. If you don't show up consistently, you won't progress. Those are obvious. What we haven't talked about is the enemies of progress - what's going to short-circuit your path to a greater and better health span.

The two that come to mind are:

1. Perfection
2. Comparison

Perfection - you would think that we'd want every rep to be perfect, we want every session to be a perfect session. But the fact is, that is an unachievable goal. We need to hit the standard of movement every rep; we aren’t going to short-circuit any of the movements. But we don't have to be perfect. We need to be good; we need to be excellent. We don't need to be perfect.

And then the second one, comparison. It's often said that comparison is the thief of joy. Let's be honest, doing all this work needs to be enjoyable. If it's just absolute suffering every time you're trying to do it, you won’t continue. When we compare ourselves to others or compare our progress to someone else's, it's going to steal our enjoyment. You're an individual. You are going to progress at the rate you progress at. Comparing yourself to somebody else does not move you forward on your journey. We want to be on our own journey toward our extraordinary, our own path to an extraordinary life. It's about you. It's not about me. It's not about that person across the gym. It's not about that person sitting at the table across the restaurant from you. It's about you, your work, and what you're doing.

Victory isn’t about perfection. Victory isn’t about beating someone else. Every positive choice, every workout is a triumph on your path!

If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results.

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Story…Memento Mori

When my father passed back in 2014, it was awe-inspiring how well he had planned for his passing. Everything was done for us, whether we wanted a memorial or not. The money went there; the stuff went there. And it was a smooth, easy process.

I see so many times when that doesn't happen. It's not an easy process. It's a time of strife. People are grieved, and they are fighting about this and that because it hasn't been done right. And that person's wishes, which are unknown at that point, aren't being followed. Had we asked them, it probably wouldn't have turned out the way it did.

I’m bringing this up now because it's something we all do. The fact is, is that we don't know when the end is coming. We know that it's coming, but we don't know precisely when, and the older we get, the closer we are to that date.

So, it's time for all of us to think about how we want our affairs handled when we're gone. If you want to leave it to whatever happens, happens, you can. That's the easy way (for you), but the other way is to plan for it because it's going to happen, just like the sun's going to come up tomorrow, this is going to happen. It's a question of when, not if.

So, plan for that, do the work, do the planning, do the thought process that it's going to take because it is a thought process. You are going to have to figure it out for them: How do you want it to look? You want music? What music do you want to play? You want AC/DC or Beethoven? What the heck do you want? Write it down, plan for it, make it happen.

If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results.

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412

 

Sunday Story…Who Loves You?

One of the least emphasized aspects of your health span training is the relationship aspects and our connections with other humans around us.

Almost all our health span training is done alone and in service to me. In the Gym? It's about me. When I eat?  It's about me. The same thing with my sleep. It’s about me.

But really those things become less important if my relationship with other humans around me is weak or non-existent. Most of you reading this have some connection with other people: it might be your spouse, might be your parents, might be your children, the people you work with. But how are those relationships? Are you working at them or are they just all on autopilot? When you spend time talking with them are you listening? And by that, I mean are you listening to understand or are you listening to answer? Are you going out of your way to meet your relationships where they need to be met? Or where you think they need to be met?

Our relationships with other humans are the meat and potatoes of who we are as humans. We are tribal animals. Throughout the millennia humans thrive best when they are aligned with other people. All the advancements humans have created were created to help other humans. Think about it…every advancement: the steam engine, the telephone, antibiotics, textiles, farming, the list goes on and on.

There is an old saying…if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be the last man standing. I want to live a full and rich life and that means with lots of love, harmony, and happiness around me.

If you're interested in learning how to build muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results.

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412

 

 

 

Sunday Story…Attitude of Gratitude

One of the best practices I have found to keep myself on track and centered is gratitude. When we feel gratitude and express it for the things we have, the things we're doing, the things around us, it allows our outlook to soften and become more inclusive. I am grateful for the beautiful day I see around me. I am thankful for the body I live in, which moves so well, that has supported me for all these years, and for all the things I have done. I have gratitude for the people around me. The things they do, the things that they've taught me, the things that I have managed to understand and receive from them.

Years ago, in the San Francisco Bay Area, there were several restaurants called The Gratitude Cafe. The real fun and connective part of The Gratitude Cafe was that all the dishes had writing around the edges and at the bottom that were affirmations: "You are wonderful!" "You are beautiful!" "You are strong!" All the items on the menu carried the same kinds of messages. "You are beautiful!" It was a milkshake made with almond milk, nuts, and this and that. And when you ordered it, the server repeated it. So, you said, "I'll have an 'I am beautiful,'" and the servers would say, "One 'I am beautiful'!" And then the kitchen would be constantly yelling these things out: "I am beautiful!" "You are wonderful!" Things like that, and when they brought it to the table, same thing: "You are wonderful!" "You are beautiful!" It was an experience in gratitude, thus the name Gratitude Cafe.

The food was secondary to the experience that you left with, which was one of gratitude. Gratitude may be the single most important attitude you can bring into the world. Expressing gratitude out loud to the people around me inspires them to find gratitude as well. We can always find gratitude even in the worst circumstances. This is the meaning of finding a silver lining in every cloud. There's always something to be grateful for, even in the darkest days. As Viktor Frankl points out, "The one freedom nobody can ever take away from you is your freedom to choose your attitude," and that means the freedom to choose an attitude of gratitude, even in the face of ugliness, trials, and tribulations.

If you're interested in learning how to build muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results.

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412