Sunday Story…The Transcendent Rep

When we are training there is a moment where everything changes. This moment is where your growth becomes apparent, where your evolution into something new happens. In some circles we call this the “Transcendent Rep”. After that moment nothing will ever be the same. You are different and the world will recognize it. The question is…How will you find the transcendent rep? How will you get there consistently?

I offer to you these 6 simple steps (simple not easy) on your path to that transcendent rep (hint: it won’t be the first rep you do!)

1. Train for health…not for ego and not for show. There is a ton of info out there on how to train but not a lot of it is there for how to train for health. It is easy to damage your health and body if you let your ego get in the way.

2. Train for Mastery…if it is worthwhile it will take years, decades to get good at it. It is going to take patience Mastery is about the discipline and commitment to your training. Mastery is all about consistency and taking the long road. It is a process and an unattainable goal that will teach you about life and patience.

3. Train for growth…It isn’t about what you do but how you grow. And growth is a process measured in inches and moments. Growth is sometimes unseen at the time. As I have heard it said…inch by inch it’s a cinch, by the yard it’s hard.

4. Train for Movement…Humans are the most complex movers on the planet. If your training isn’t making you move better and expanding your capacity you might think about going in a different direction.

5. Train for the Brain…Training and movement should challenge your thinking, your belief systems, and your directions. It should not be static but dynamic. Changing your beliefs and direction to reflect a more integrated and authentic self is good and necessary. If your training isn’t challenging your brain seek out new directions, teachers, coaches, and modalities.

6. Train for Evolution…be courageous and step out of who you think you are to become who you should be. Don’t be led by fear, expand your abilities, capacities, and boundaries.

These 6 steps don’t get applied just in the gym, box, or training hall. They get applied to life every day. Whatever you are doing you should be using these steps as your guideposts for success.

2016 is just around the corner. Whatever you decide to set up as your resolution this year these steps will insure your success.

Remember…Full Effort is Full Victory.

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
www.united4change.us




When we are training there is a moment where everything changes. This moment is where your growth becomes apparent, where your evolution into something new happens. In some circles we call this the “Transcendent Rep”. After that moment nothing will ever be the same. You are different and the world will recognize it. The question is…How will you find the transcendent rep? How will you get there consistently?

I offer to you these 6 simple steps (simple not easy) on your path to that transcendent rep (hint: it won’t be the first rep you do!)

1. Train for health…not for ego and not for show. There is a ton of info out there on how to train but not a lot of it is there for how to train for health. It is easy to damage your health and body if you let your ego get in the way.
2. Train for Mastery…if it is worthwhile it will take years, decades to get good at it. It is going to take patience Mastery is about the discipline and commitment to your training. Mastery is all about consistency and taking the long road. It is a process and an unattainable goal that will teach you about life and patience.
3. Train for growth…It isn’t about what you do but how you grow. And growth is a process measured in inches and moments. Growth is sometimes unseen at the time. As I have heard it said…inch by inch it’s a cinch, by the yard it’s hard.
4. Train for Movement…Humans are the most complex movers on the planet. If your training isn’t making you move better and expanding your capacity you might think about going in a different direction.
5. Train for the Brain…Training and movement should challenge your thinking, your belief systems, and your directions. It should not be static but dynamic. Changing your beliefs and direction to reflect a more integrated and authentic self is good and necessary. If your training isn’t challenging your brain seek out new directions, teachers, coaches, and modalities.
6. Train for Evolution…be courageous and step out of who you think you are to become who you should be. Don’t be led by fear, expand your abilities, capacities, and boundaries.
These 6 steps don’t get applied just in the gym, box, or training hall. They get applied to life every day. Whatever you are doing you should be using these steps as your guideposts for success.

2016 is just around the corner. Whatever you decide to set up as your resolution this year these steps will insure your success. Remember…Full Effort is Full Victory.

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
www.united4change.us

Sunday Story…It is Time

Every major religion or philosophical school of thought carries one similar tenet: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. We call this the golden rule. It is a simple maxim and a very useful guide for my behavior with other people.

I am ashamed. I am ashamed by our inhumanity to man. I am ashamed that we have taken to separating ourselves from our brothers and sisters based on religion or belief or geography or language or color. I am ashamed we can’t find the commonalities in our human experience instead of the differences. I am ashamed that we need to inflict harm and death upon our fellows to point out those differences. At this moment I am ashamed to be human.

Imagine waking up and having your world transformed into this:

These pictures are before and after of the carnage in Syria. The market I will go to this afternoon does not look like this. My home is intact. The kitchen I will cook my holiday meals in is a happy cheerful place. My life is not in danger because the country I live is has unraveled over the last 5 years. I am very fortunate. But if I was not so fortunate I would be moving heaven and earth to get my family to safety.

Hundreds of thousands of people are moving around this earth today trying to get to safety, trying to escape death and destruction. This is a tragedy of epic proportion. When I hear rhetoric of isolation and fear and paranoia I feel ashamed to be part of the same human genome that promotes the “golden rule.”

My brother-friend Youssef Kubis is Syrian. We spoke of the civil war in Syria 4 years ago before the rise of Daesh (Isis). It was horrible then. It is worse today. He recently lost his brother and nephew to a missile strike shot by the Syrian government. The politics of this government staying in power is beyond the scope of this essay except to say that 5 years of civil war after 50 years of an oppressive dictator-ship speaks volumes.

In a few weeks Youssef is going to Lesvos, Greece with 2 or 3 friends to help with the refugees that are pouring into that small island which is being devastated trying to handle a huge influx of people fleeing war and destruction. He and his friends are flying on their own money and spending their own money to stay there and help. I am sorry I can’t join him. I can support his efforts to help feed, clothe, and heal these fellow humans by donating money.

If you can join me in supporting his efforts go here:
www.united4change.us
If you can’t support Youssef with a monetary donation to ease some human suffering send prayers and intentions and thoughts to all of the people in the world who are displaced at this time. I will dedicate my dance this afternoon to that purpose.

We really need to stop killing each other for not all being the same. It is stupid.

I leave you with this:
My religion is simple, It is kindness.

John Mariotti
www.united4change.us
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

Sunday Story…Fun Work

So now that you all know about my “fun challenged” life. Here is an extension on that admission…
We all have work we do. Sometimes we do it in an office with a boss holding a clock over us demanding our full attention to his needs and wants. Sometimes we have imposed deadlines that lord over us. Sometimes we have the work we have set before us by our own volition. Sometimes we have the onerous task of self improvement…diet, exercise, positive thinking, or just being better.

When your work becomes this plodding, cantankerous, crabby dictator you are not having any fun. You are taking your work personally. You are taking your work on as a chore. Your work becomes something to get done, something to be done with.

You need to be serious about your work. Your work is important. Your work needs to get done and the world needs to see it. But it needn’t weigh you down; it should not be an albatross around your neck. It doesn’t have to be a sour dour task. You are you own worst taskmaster. You push through, past the fun, past the seriousness and deep into an unpleasant melancholy of achievement. And where is the fun in that?

Look, do your work. But let’s not take it so personally. Let’s approach it with that same intent and attitude we approach our fun…a thing to do that will have no pre-conceived outcome. What would happen if you took your next project and threw out the outcome and just did it for the joy of doing it. What if you showed up in the office tomorrow and just did the job like a game of flying disc? Run, jump, catch, toss…repeat with a smile? At the end of the day you will be happier and I bet you will get even more accomplished. You can take it seriously…you can put excellence on the line…you can perform with aplomb and accuracy…and you can have fun.

Don’t take it personally, take it seriously.

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…Fun Challenged

I am fun challenged. I am sure there are a number of you who are harboring the same embarrassing little secret. We know how to play, at least intellectually. It’s pretty simple…just go out and do something that gives you a sense of joy and does not have as its end a specific goal or result.

Lots of things can show up as fun or play. What I am talking about is the intent you approach what you are doing. If you are intent on the result it is going to be hard to show up as fun or play. If the reason you start the activity is to finish it then it may not be fun. If your idea of fun is to beat your playmate into submission you may need a fun intervention.

Play is more cooperative and less competitive. The end result of play is fun. The end result of work is the accomplishment of a task. As children we played a lot. As adults we don’t play so much. Think back to your days as a young person. In my youth we played a lot, creating games, making up new and unusual variations based on equipment (or lack of) and personnel. We stopped playing when it was time to eat or got too dark to see.

We didn’t need a start time or a reservation to play. If someone extra showed up we made room. We just made it work since the outcome was only to play. The outcome wasn’t dependent on anything other than fun. If no one had fun it was not a good day. But, honestly, how often did that ever happen? In my memory it never happened. Our intention was simple…play.

What do you do to play in your world? How are you approaching your “game time”? Do you come at it from the attitude of accomplishment or one of cooperation and fun? When was the last time you just played for the sake of playing?

Let’s go out and play!

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…Better Now

I want to be better. I want you to be better. I want you to want me to be better.

There it is in its entirety. There ain’t no more. I want you to be better tomorrow. I want to be better 5 minutes from now. I want you to be better for reading this thing I write every week. I want you to want me to write something that will make you think, say, or be better.

I want all of us to stop embracing mediocrity. I want all of us to want better politicians, journalists, restaurants, coffee joints, hamburgers. I don’t care what side of the stripe you sit on the road…I want you to demand more honesty, more clarity, more truth, more excellence…everywhere, all the time. Not once in a while, not when it is convenient, and certainly not just when it serves your purpose.

Excellence is something we do daily, in everything we do. Excellence is a habit not a happenchance. Demand it and stop allowing mediocrity to pervade our daily life. Do I really need to have the same homogenous stuff as the other 100 million people here? Do we all need to eat at the same restaurants, shop at the same store, or drive the same car. Am I so insecure that I can only find validation when my “like quotient” hits a certain number?

You are special, you are unique. Your experiences and the meanings you have assigned to them are yours. You are not mediocre unless you choose to be. You can choose to be better. You can choose excellence. You can choose the path of individual effort and merit. I want you to be better. I want you to stop swimming in the mud puddle of public mimicry. Average is number best relegated to a math book and not an adjective assigned to you…a unique and special human.

Be better. Demand better from the world around you. Demand better from your friends, family, politicians, role models, sports heroes, celebrities, your world. Define better as integrity in word and deed. Define better as excellence of thought and intent. Define better as a constant and never-ending pursuit of improvement.

Be better. Expect better. Stop settling for something less than excellence.

Better now?

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…Don’t do it

CrossFit that is. It’s dangerous. No it is worse than dangerous. It is subversive. That’s right, I am uncovering the deep dark secret of CrossFit…it is the worst possible thing you could do. Just say No!

If CrossFit was only dangerous you could slow down and chip off some intensity and reduce the danger to your physical being. Lots of people will tell you CrossFit is dangerous…you might get hurt…you might do things that you didn’t know you could do…you might ask your body to perform in way it never has before. All of those things could be dangerous, could lead to an injury, and could bring out your inner athlete, previously unknown or comatose.

So what. Any exercise program might do that. You could get hit by a car on your morning walk (like my 98 year old great grandfather); you could pull a muscle playing tennis or end up with golfer’s elbow. You can’t live in a bubble and danger lurks around many corners.

Changing your fitness isn’t hard, especially if you are starting from zero. CrossFit is, on the other hand, subversive. You will start believing differently. You will start to shift your belief system. You may decide to dress differently. You may decide some things are more important and others less so.

CrossFit will subvert the power common culture exerts over you. Eating real food will eliminate the power big pharma and big food marketers have over you. The opinions of other people will matter less and your opinion of yourself will grow. Suddenly the things you thought were important (the number on the scale) will start to look stupid and other things (how your clothes fit) will make more sense.

CrossFit will subvert the power of the sheeple over you. You will need to break out from the herd, stand up and be counted as an individual. Let your own flag fly, not the one that looks like all the rest. How is this possible…after all CrossFit is just an exercise program, like P-90X or Zumba or Pilates, right?

Sure. That’s all it is. Go right ahead and keep thinking that way. Go ahead and give it a try. I won’t tell you the dark dirty subversive secret. I won’t pull the curtain back. Until it’s too late, that is. Until the subversion can’t be turned back or turned off. Individual freedom is intoxicating and addictive.

When you walked in you wanted to work out, sweat a little, smile a lot, shed some calories and have fun. When you walked out you were filled with a sense of accomplishment, knowledge that you are better than you knew, stronger in your mind and spirit than you thought possible. If that isn’t subversive, what is?

Come upset the apple cart of the status quo with me!

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…See Me

There are some other parts inside me that need to be fed. I’m not talking about my need for food. I am talking about feeding my other needs. I am a seething unending chasm of needs, so are you. The trick is to feed your needs in ways that are life enhancing instead of hurtful and harmful to our lives and relationships.

This is going to take some honest appraisal of what the need really is. What you think it is on the surface is rarely what it is deep down and the way you think you should meet it is rarely going to meet that deep down yearning. Needs are universal…you and I have the same needs…maybe not in the same hierarchy but everyone on the planet has them in some way shape or form.

Here is a concrete example: the Sunday Story. That’s right the piece you are reading now and I have been writing almost every week for over 5 years is one of the ways I meet some very deep seated needs. On the surface, you might think I write in order to meet the need to provide content for my web site or blog. That is true. Or I am meeting my need to write. But these are not universal needs.

You might say these stories meet my need to express my self creatively. Creation is a universal need. Every human needs to be creative to some degree. Procreation is something we are all driven to do. It is a biological imperative. But when I drill down a little deeper it isn’t just my need to express creativity.

The truth of the matter is I write the Sunday Story so you may “see” me. And when I say “see” I mean the deeper dark parts of who I really am. The parts I would prefer to keep hidden under the rocks. The parts I don’t always like to admit are there. The parts of myself that are a little scared, or mean, or not so likeable. Some weeks are harder to tear off the façade than others. Some weeks I just can’t do it. I write anyway. I write so I can feed this need, so it doesn’t eat me alive. I write so I don’t tear off all my clothes in the public square metaphorically speaking. This outlet affords me a way to feed my need to be seen.

There you have it. The question to you is simple: Are you feeding your real needs? Those deep down needs you don’t like to look at? And what are you doing to keep those little monsters fed in a life enhancing way? Because if you don’t they are going to get fed in some inopportune moments and ways.

Feed the need.

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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