Sunday Story…Push

We humans are an interesting lot. We admire amazing feats of strength, crazy courageous acts, and extreme performances of many stripes. We marvel at the accomplishments and sit in awe of the process it took to finish the task.

Yet we are OK with sitting in our own mediocrity while admiring and cheering on greatness. I am pretty sure not one of us came out of the womb with a label that told our parents we would be a star ball player or a master musician.

We were given a direction. Sometimes it made sense and sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes it “clicked” and we knew we were in the right place and we stayed there and enjoyed amazing success. Most of the time we muddle through and do the best we can with the skill set we are given.

But what if you decided you wanted to be world class? And what if all it took was a decision on your part? Granted, if you are only 5’ tall an NBA career may not be your best choice but you could still be a world class player at 5’ tall…IF

You decided that was what you really really wanted.
You worked at it hard and smart.
You were relentless in your pursuit of excellence.
You never gave up.

Then we could look at you in reverence and awe at your world class performance.

Get busy.

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

Sunday Story…With a little help

From my friends. Last night I happened to be listening to Joe Cocker’s version of The Beatles song, “With a little help from my friends.” I realized that I probably don’t express my gratitude often enough to all of you…my friends.

Without you no one would be reading this. And, honestly I wouldn’t be writing it so diligently (almost every week for almost 9 years). So thank you for reading.

Without you I would not have people to train. So thank you for showing up, doing the work and being willing to transform yourself.

Without you there would be no funds to fuel our passion for focus and transformation. So thank you for believing in what we are doing here at CrossFit Odyssey.

Without you there would be no inspiration to continue the fight when darkness descends. So thank you for fighting your own battles and showing the rest of us the way to do it with grace and dignity.

Without you there would be no fun or laughter in this quest. So thank you for reminding me that if it isn’t fun it isn’t worth doing.

Without you there is no me. So thank you, my friends.

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

Sunday Story…Harmonious Balance

We often talk about the need to be balanced in our life. When we get out of balance weird things start happening. Balancing work, family, career, school, me time, exercise, etc, etc, is hard work. It is easy to get overwhelmed and out of balance…then you get sick which forces you to slow down and re-balance.

That really isn’t a balance problem, though, that’s an overcommitted problem. You bit off more than you can chew and now you are choking on it. If you keep on like that too long bad stuff will happen.

But if we are going to get anything done…any really big project…we are going to find ourselves out of balance. We need to be super laser focused on one thing. And that lets other thing fall by the wayside.

BUT we can still be harmonious. Even when I am consumed by my one big thing I can still manage the rest of my life…sleep well, eat healthy nutritious food, give the attention I have 100% when I can give it.

In other words…multi-tasking is the enemy here, not balance. Turn your laser focus on your family, then on your career, then on your school work. Divide and conquer rather than trying to get it all done at once.

Being out of balance isn’t the problem, not having harmony is. Be harmonious and balance will be found.

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

Sunday Story…The National Time Bank

Imagine your joy if you had a magical bank account that was filled every morning with $86,400. You get up, check your bank and see almost 100 grand in the bank. But like many things magical it has some rules that are attached (like Cinderella and the coach at midnight). At the end of the day anything left in the bank account disappears. You can keep what you buy. You can reap whatever benefits those dollars give you. Wow! If you had a bank account like that it would be amazing. I bet you would be super conscious about how you spent that money. You would plan it out, set goals around it and you would leave nothing to chance when morning rolled around every day.

Guess what? You have that bank account right now. It is the National Time Bank. Every one of us receives 86,400 seconds every day. Every one of us gets the same time every day. At the end of the day there isn’t any more. You can’t save it for a rainy day. You can’t use more than those 86,400 seconds. That’s all there is and there ain’t no more! Those seconds are going to disappear no matter what you do or don’t do with them.

Soooo…how did your spend your 86,400 today?

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

Sunday Story…Losing and Winning

In most things we do we perceive there is a winner and a loser. Someone ends up on top and someone else not so much. 2 teams play and 1 wins. When I do something on my own I can say I won or I lost. The games we play and the interactions we have all have the perception of a winner and a loser.

But life is not a zero-sum game. There is not a fixed pile of wins for us to compete over. As a matter of fact, there may be no winners or no losers. This doesn’t mean everyone gets a trophy by the way. Just because you played doesn’t mean you won. UNLESS you learned something. There’s your trophy…new knowledge you didn’t have before. You still didn’t get to do the victory dance but you took something home that may be more valuable than the trophy.

You need to be willing to lose, to fail, in order to learn the lessons that will be required to win. This is the real lesson of the “trophy generation”…they have no idea how to learn from not winning. No idea how to take the lessons of failure, apply the learning, and go back to risk it again and again, learning more every time.

Learn something from every interaction…good and bad, winning and losing, defeat and victory and I will guarantee a win every time.

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

Sunday Story…NOW VS LATER

It doesn’t taste as good as fit feels…NOW. Unfortunately this isn’t true. It tastes good NOW. Fit will feel good LATER.

This is, regrettably, is the real problem with lots of delayed gratification decisions we make. We know that getting fit, or losing the weight, or buying life insurance is going to be of great benefit LATER. But LATER is well, LATER and that just isn’t as much fun as NOW is.

Eating that box of thin mints is good NOW. Spending the money on me is good NOW, providing for my loved ones when I die (LATER) is hard to imagine. Kicking my ass in gym so I will look really good in my swimsuit (LATER) isn’t as much fun as sitting on the couch and watching TV NOW.

NOW always looks like more fun than LATER. NOW is always easier to feel than LATER. But LATER is way more fun when it becomes NOW and you are getting both what you worked for and what you want NOW. In this way LATER always defeats NOW.

The problem is getting you to feel and understand and realize deep in your being how much better LATER is going to be especially when compared to the fleeting pleasure of NOW.

Engage your future mind NOW to enjoy the fruits of LATER. It’s the only way to get what you really want both NOW and LATER.

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

Sunday Story…Life lifes

Life is going to life. That’s what it does. It doesn’t matter what you do life is going to move ahead. The sun will come up tomorrow. The wind will blow (or not). It will rain (or not). Good things will happen. Bad things will happen. There isn’t much agency you can apply to a lot of these things. You are not in control of most of it. Life will life.

The one thing you can control is what your attitude is about the things life throws up. It is the only thing under your control. It is the only thing that can never be taken from you. You health can go, your freedom taken, the sun hidden and the rain never ceasing but your attitude is all yours. And it is all yours to do what you want with.

You can choose to have a crappy attitude about what’s happening or you can choose something else. You can arise in the morning and choose cranky and tired. Or you can arise with the “it’s a great day to be alive” outlook…Your choice. You can get depressed about your circumstances and you can be excited about the challenges you get to face…Your choice. You hang your head or jump for joy...Your choice.

Control the thing you can control. Let the rest of it go. Success isn’t permanent and Failure isn’t fatal. It is your attitude that matters.

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