Sunday Story…More Cowbell

There is a ubiquitous Saturday Night Live skit done in 2000 featuring Christopher Walken called More cowbell. The gist of it is simple…the producer (Walken) wants more cowbell on the track. The band members resist. The finally agree to the right amount of cowbell. (You can see the clip here: https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/more-cowbell-with-will-ferrell-on-snl-video-saturday-night-live-nbc/3506001?snl=1).

Modern life is like this these days. We are getting more and more cowbell to the point that it drowns out the rest of what we want or need to hear. We have 24 hour news cycles, more and more information from more and more sources (some of which just pander to what we want to hear), and a virtual overload of cacophonous sounds coming from all directions.

Drinking from a firehouse is rarely a good thing. The fire department, on the other hand needs the biggest fire hose it can find to put out the blaze. We can limit the stream of information that enters our consciousness. But the information isn’t going to stop streaming because we use a small hose to drink out of.

Better to take that cowbell and explore the space. Dig in and irritate your status quo, find your limits and push them out further. Make a bunch of noise and irritate yourself with more cowbells until you can discover the right amount of cowbell. You just think your limits have been reached. After all, overwhelmed is temporary.

More Cowbell.

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

Sunday Story…The only way out

Is through.

You can turn around and go back, you can quit, you can fire the problem, or divorce yourself from it/her/him but none of those things get you through the issue long term. As short term strategies they may appear sound. After all it looks too hard, too unpleasant to deal with, or just too much too much.

In that moment it makes sense to stop, to withdraw, to change directions. The problem isn’t in that moment. The problem arises when we are confronted again and we quit or stop or withdraw…again…and again…and again. Long term we need to do the work so we can move forward. We need to learn the lessons.

You can quit the gym. But your fitness won’t improve. You can stop being concerned about eating a healthy diet but you will still be dissatisfied with your body composition. You can stop learning the lessons but the lesson will keep coming more and more insistently.

It starts as a whisper but it will get louder every time you take the short term easy way out. Save yourself the stress, pain, and angst of having to repeat the course over and over again.

Burn the boats, take the lesson, and get through it. Act like it is the only choice you have…because it really is. You will be different because of it.

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

Sunday Story…You are Born

With 2 fears…the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. That’s it…just those 2 fears and no others.

Every other fear you either made up, decided it served you in some way, or had some well-meaning person in authority put it on you. Your environment or your culture (society) taught you those fears were supposed to be there. Some fears are pretty reasonable…look both ways before you cross the street, you don’t want to get hit by a car. Reasonable fear, easy to understand and easy to defeat…just look both ways for crying out loud. Fear of speaking in public…pretty unreasonable because that isn’t really the fear at the base…it’s fear of other people’s opinion of you, fear of looking stupid, fear of making a mistake…all of which you are making up in your head. None of those fears actually have consequences. Not looking both ways…consequences.

People don’t like you? Oh well. Other people’s opinions (good and bad) of you aren’t your business. You made a mistake? Learn something and move on. Mistakes are how we learn. You look stupid? All in your head. You look the way you look, you said what you said and any judgment around those things is just an opinion (see #1).

Stop making up fears. They only serve to impede your progress toward the goals, dreams, and destiny you have in front of you. Look both ways and cross the damn street!

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

Sunday Story…The One Right True

Answer. We all want to find it…the magic pill, the book that will give us all the answers, the one exercise that gives us abs, the perfect diet, the one conversation that will have our kids “get” it.

But there isn’t one right true answer. There are plenty of wrong answers, however.
There are lots of answers and some of them are right. But the right answer is not exclusive, in other words, there may be more than one right answer. The right answer works, it‘s useful and generous.
There are lots of wrong answers as well. They don’t work, are selfish and short sighted. Wrong answers are clearly expensive, defective, and have a list of bad side effects.

We want to avoid the wrong answers. But we don’t want to miss the right answer because we are looking for the one right true one. Pick a right answer, let it play out and if it isn’t a good fit, pick again.

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

Sunday Story…Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

We like the familiar, the usual, and the stuff we feel comfortable around. Change is uncomfortable, unfamiliar, and unusual.

On the other hand change is inevitable. Without change nothing grows. You can hide from change but that won’t stop the inevitable, things will continue to grow, shift, transform.

The question becomes: Are you managing your change or is it managing you?

Every year my body changes...did it change last year in a way that I wanted it to or did it shift in ways that were out of my control? I have an opportunity everyday to manage my growth. If I manage my growth it becomes familiar. I become competent with change the more often I apply myself to managing it.

Pick up more weight. Eat 1 more meal that is healthy. Read 1 more book on your reading list. Make that uncomfortable call. Change is coming. What it looks like is up to you.

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

Sunday Story…Sticks and Stones

Will break my bones but words…well words will hurt me in ways that are deep, hard to heal, and often times invisible.

My bones will knit together. My bruises will disappear. The blood can be staunched.

Words can cut much deeper than my skin, deeper than my viscera. Words can drive deep into my soul. Words can change my view of myself, my view of the world, my thinking of what’s possible.

And words can light up a room, open possibilities, create change, and make a difference.

Words matter. Words are power. Words aren’t benign. Words can be beneficent or malevolent. Before you spit your words out…maybe you should taste them first. Maybe you should gauge how they are going to land. Once spoken you can’t take them back. Like a rock leaving your hand, once those words leave your lips the course is set.

You are in charge of what you say. And you know, in your heart of hearts, whether those words will uplift or drive down their recipient. Choose to uplift or choose nothing at all.

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

Sunday Story…What? Me worry?

We often relieve ourselves of responsibility with the phrase, “it’s not my problem.”

But what if you accepted responsibility for the problem? What if you, your team, your tribe could solve the problem or influence it? When we are faced with big seemingly unsolvable issues (homelessness/intergenerational poverty/peace in the Middle East) it is easy to throw up our hands and utter “It’s not my problem.”

What happens when those big issues become my issues?
What happens when I accept responsibility to at least influence the intractable?
What happens if I change my belief system to say “it’s possible?”

It’s possible to
Make a difference
Create shift
Solve the unsolvable
Love the unlovable

You don’t have to know the how or even the why. You just have to know that it’s possible.

Take responsibility. It’s possible.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412