Sunday Story…Find Your

Center and extend from there. Then return to center. Extend and return. Lather rinse and repeat.

So how do you find your center and how will you know when you do?

Your center is the place where everything is right with the world. You are calm when you are there. The world is right. When life is flowing and seems effortless you are centered. The opposite is true as well…when you are struggling and it feels like everything you do is swimming against the current you may not be centered. This could be because you are trying to get somewhere or something that is outside your current zone of comfort. That’s OK. Remember we are extending from center. When the scales are balanced nothing is moving…there is no effort against the tide since you aren’t going anywhere.

When we start from center we are beginning with the end in mind. It is our intention to return to center even if we bring a new perspective and attitude with us. We can extend out; reach past our comfort zone in order to achieve the goals we want to achieve. Then we return to center and begin to look for a new target.

Your center is your “happy” place. It also the place that fuels your desires and has you see your goals in the distance. If you live a life constantly outside of center you will find it difficult to achieve very much. The old saying about seeing the forest for the trees applies here.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
Coming soon: www.johnmariotti.com
775-338-2412
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Sunday Story…The Scales

Of Life have a tendency to move up and down. Rarely are they perfectly balanced. After all, when they are balanced there is no motion at all…everything is perfectly still and in stasis. The problem with balance is there is no place for movement. When the scale is centered I can’t go forward or back or even side to side.

If I want to do something I am going to have to move the scale to one side or the other. Sometimes we move the scale because it’s time….time to raise the kids, time to focus on the career or relationship or time to relax and reset after a period of intense focus.

Sometimes I move the scale purposefully. I make a decision to push all the weight to one side and do what is on that side and nothing else. Often, though, this is at the expense of all the other things on the other side of the scale. If I spend too long in the singular pursuit of a thing in complete abandonment to everything else the scales could end up permanently broken.

Depending on what you want it may be better to move the scale back and forth shifting the emphasis back and forth or in several different directions, always coming back to center, to stasis. In other words whatever your concentration be single-minded and focused. Don’t multitask your concentration.

Do what you are doing. Finish that and go do the other thing.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
Coming soon: www.johnmariotti.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Scarcity vs. Connection

In our daily interactions with the people around us, we don’t often think in terms of winners and losers. We usually think about the connection we have.

But in my interactions with the car dealer or the jeweler, we often find ourselves in a “zero-sum” game. If I give too much I lose. The converse is true as well. If she gives too much she loses.

What if there was only a mutually beneficial transaction? What if there was no fear of losing, of being “taken?” And, conversely, what if there was no joy in winning, in being “on top?” What would be left?

In today’s world connection is King. I can be connected or I can be right. It is difficult to be both. Transactions based on connection, reliability, and confidence far outweigh those transactions built only to satisfy someone else’s narcissistic need to win at all and any costs.

Choose connection.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
Coming soon: www.johnmariotti.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…political discourse

These days is almost impossible. It seems that having an actual discussion…a give and take, a back and forth based on facts, figures, proof, science, effectiveness, or correctness has disappeared. That discussion has been replaced with intractable positions based on tribalism.

In this discussion, people don’t care about the facts. Facts are not the point at all. The answer is always “no” if the question comes down to changing your mind. You are so bound to your position that you will go to your grave before you free yourself from the mast of self-righteousness.

The subject doesn’t matter. The conflict is what counts and I never want to lose. Changing my mind, shifting my position is losing. And I may lose my tribe if I shift or change so we all go down with the ship.

This is why so many of us refrain from “talking politics” (or religion). There is little or no room for a reasoned exchange of ideas revolving around the facts. And the more things we call “political” the less we have to talk about. And the less opportunity any of us have to learn and grow and understand one another.

We can argue if we want. But if we want to move forward we must be willing to listen. And that means accepting we might have to shift our position.

Tribalism serves the tribe. Serve a bigger ideal.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
Coming soon: www.johnmariotti.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…real vs. unreal

When I pursue an external goal like a particular career or athletic goal (the CrossFit Games!) the end is obvious, the path is well documented, and the boundaries are set. It’s mostly a straight path. The rules rarely change mid-stream and you can see what you need to do and do it.

This is for a lot of people an easy way of being and doing. The problem comes when there is a major hiccup along the way. Maybe you get injured or you don’t make the cut or the path gets cut off. The other problem is what happens after you are done. At that point the realization hits that what you have been doing is not a lot like real life.

Real life is messy. The boundaries aren’t clear. The goal is gauzy and the rules are often like quicksand…they change, they hide, and they aren’t fair.

Here’s the fix:
First, find some goals.
Second, set some boundaries.
Own these things as yours, not anyone else’s. Your goals are yours not mine. Your boundaries are yours not mine. Don’t worry if mine are different from yours or anyone else’s. Just own yours. Don’t grieve over the unreal life you used to lead with goals and boundaries that were delineated for you by a whole bunch of other people.

This is the reality you are in now. Your goals. Your boundaries. Apply the discipline, motivation, grit and desire you cultivated in your unreal life to these things.

Now go do work.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
Coming soon: www.johnmariotti.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Unmoored

So I have been cast off from my normal docking station. My schedule has followed an extremely disciplined and rigid daily form for the last several years.

On one hand, it is a pleasant change, like discovering a hidden restaurant in your neighborhood or a special little shop. On the other it is disconcerting and a bit frightening, like being plopped down in a vaguely familiar landscape but with no map or GPS to help orientate you. Where do you go, how do you find your way, and what do you do first and then second?

Lots of people have asked about my current schedule and when or if I will start training for the games again. Sadly, I won’t be training for the games in 2019. There are several reasons for this. Allow me to iterate some of them:

I’m injured. My rotator cuff is torn, my biceps tendon is ruptured and my knee doesn’t function properly. I need to get all of these things taken care of. Between the rehab and the downtime, there won’t be enough training time to be in the kind of shape needed to perform at the highest level.

I’m tired. I have spent the last 6 years or so in pursuit of the highest level of fitness. I started this journey (technically) way back in 2003 or 4 when I joined the Ultimate Black Belt Test. We were tasked to get in the best shape of our lives. That sent me on a quest to define and refine my fitness. The last 5 years have been the culmination of that journey. And now I am ready to dial it back and reflect on the trip.

I’ve got other stuff to do! Lately, I have been feeling the pull to expand myself…in writing, providing content, coaching and other things. It was too hard to do these other things and train 2-4 hours a day along with the requisite recovery and rejuvenation. Look for new and exciting things soon (besides hanging weight belts up!)

So I will be allowing my boat to drift a little and then start moving once I figure out what the 1st next thing is!

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

Sunday Story…Thanks!

It’s over…a week in Madison for the CrossFit games. A week of competing against the other 19 best 60 plus fittest men in the world. A week of hobnobbing with some of the fittest people on earth. A week of basking in recognition and congratulations.

As I said before, if I could just get through Sunday intact I would notch that as a win. So I did and I shall. I finished 13th. It was obvious that there were certain things that really impacted by my injuries but there were a couple that weren’t…I took 2nd on the swim workout and the handstand workout. Those were my performance highlights.

The highlight of the whole experience, however, was the opening ceremony on Thursday night. Walking through the crowd to high fives and cheers and then into the Coliseum, packed with people yelling and screaming gave me goose bumps. It was an amazing experience that was unequaled in my experience.

I want to Thank everyone who helped get me here. Unfortunately, that list is very long and I wouldn’t want to forget many of you. Everyone who put their name on our 2018 shirts…I thank you for your financial support. All of you who support our box financially I also want to thank profusely. Without you, I couldn’t do what I have done for the last 5 years.

Now I am off to heal. To paraphrase an old saying…before the CrossFit games chop wood, carry water; After the CrossFit games chop wood, carry water. In other words, we keep doing what we need to do to have life work.

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