Sunday Story…Why I compete

Someone asked me recently why do I continue to compete? What drives me? At what point is enough enough?

The answer, for me, is simple. I believe if you have gifts, skills, and talents and you don’t use them you are insulting your creator, the universe. If you have songs to sing, stories to write, or edifices to build and you don’t you are not living up to your purpose on earth.

I am good at doing physical things. It isn’t all I am good at but at this moment in time, after years of hard work and dedication, I am very good at this CrossFit thing. Not seeing how good I can be is an insult to the universe, not to mention a slap in the face to myself. Not doing all I can to reach the pinnacle would be a crime.

How good are you? How good can you become? What stories are you not telling? What songs are you not singing? You do not want to be on your death bed and have all the stories and songs and projects standing around looking at you forlornly saying,” We came to you to give us life. Only you could bring us to life. And now we must die with you. Forever.”

This is my fear. This is why I compete. How about you?

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

Sunday Story…Resolve

Promise yourself you will never give up.

Resolve is what is missing from our resolutions. Resolve is what is missing from our goals. Resolve is what is needed to accomplish everything…both big and small. We need to promise ourselves we will finish what we started. We need to promise we will never give up.

Resolve is what moves things out of the realm of a good idea and into reality. Resolve is the intangible that creates real results. Resolve is the magic that builds the impossible.

Resolve will get you back up when you get knocked down…over and over and over. Resolve is that one more rep, one more set, 5 more minutes of practice, and that steely eyed focus on the prize. Resolve to hang on for 1 more second, 1 more round, 1 more. Resolve to win.

Never. Give. Up. Never.

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

Sunday Story…Fall Down

You often hear it said about certain things…”it’s like riding a bike.” What we mean by this is once learned we just need a little refresher to get back to a previous level of expertise. Easy to do, right?

Sure, but what is forgotten is the struggle it took to learn the skill in the first place. How many times did you fall off the bike? How long did the training wheels stay on? How many skinned knees and tears were produced? You had to want to learn to ride that bike.

Here’s another one you can’t remember but have watched your whole life. Learning to walk…everyone of us can walk (absent a physical impediment). Yet every one of us failed time after time on the road to walking. We fell. We got up. We fell. We got up. Over and over and over and over again. Today we walk, run, skip, hop, dance, and, generally, locomote all over the place.

So when I say, “it’s like riding a bike,” I don’t mean it’s easy. I don’t mean to take anything away from the process it took to gain the expertise. What I mean when I say, “it’s like riding a bike,” is that you have already fought the battle. Don’t re-fight the battles you have already won. Don’t get all up in your head about a skill you already own. Just smile and remember the joy you experienced when the skill arrived.

Then get on that bike and ride!

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

Sunday Story…The 3 C’s

You have probably seen this before:
Choose
Chance
Change

If you want to make a shift these are the 3 things you must do.

First Choose to do something. Make a decision to do something. Until you decide to actually do something whatever It is lies in the realm of good ideas. Move it out of a good idea and into the beginnings of reality by Choosing.

Second, take a Chance. You decided, now step off the edge. Take a shot at it. If it doesn’t work you can always go back to doing what you did before. If it backfires you will have learned at least one way it won’t work. No failure just lessons to be learned. Again, reality dictates that we don’t know exactly what will work so we must experiment.

Third, Change yourself, change your paradigm. Once you are doing things differently there is no reason to go back is there? Once you decided to get fit will you decide to be less fit? Once you decided to be more conscious about your dietary habit, are you going to go back to eating calorie rich and pathetic (crap) food?

So…Choose to take a Chance to Change. You can always go back (but you won’t want to!)

Thanks to Michele Rodgers for this week’s inspiration!

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sundaystories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Show Up

Because you can. Not because you want or need something. Not because you think you might need something in the future. Show up because you can.

I am not talking about just your physical presence. In some respects that is the easy part. You can show up physically and just dial in your presence. I am taking about showing up fully present, intentional about your presence and focused on what is going to ensue.

When you show up, present, focused and intentional, whatever happens after that will be a good thing. You see it is all about the attitude you bring to the task. If your attitude is one of non-intention your results will be unimportant.

Show up because you can with an attitude of presence and intention and something important is going to happen. You will be transformed. Maybe not the caterpillar into a butterfly transformation, maybe just the looking left instead of right transformation but a shift nonetheless. Shift can only happen when you are showing up with intention and presence. Dial it in and you will only get a dial tone…the long boring monotonous sound of nothing happening.

Show up not needing anything now or later but finding everything you need and want…if you bring the right stuff!

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

Sunday Story…Shame

I talk every week with people who are afraid. Afraid they can’t do this or that. Afraid that they will be ridiculed, or have people think less of them if they can’t perform. This isn’t actually the fear of those things. This is fear of…

Shame.

Fear of asking a stupid question is not the same as fear of a bear eating you.
Shame blows our fear of fear out of proportion.
Shame keeps you hunkered down and huddled under your covers cowering.

Call it out. Name it aloud. If you won’t speak it aloud you are giving it power. Not naming it for what it is wastes time and energy and traps you in a downward spiral.

Fear happens. Shame is unnecessary. Look fear in the eye and go ahead anyway. Be indomitable.

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

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