Sunday Story…Priorities

All too often I hear people say they “can’t” do something, or they can’t seem to get a task done. They assume, for some odd reason, that they are incapable or too inept or too stupid to accomplish the task in front of them.

This is almost always untrue. You are smart enough or capable enough. You learn new things a lot. When you learned to walk you fell down. Often. And you got up…over and over and over again. And now look at you!

It isn’t that you are too dumb to learn it or incapable, it’s that you are afraid, lazy or ill-informed. You can choose to stay that way if you want. You can choose to assume you are dumb.

The likely answer is that your priorities are not matched with the task at hand. Learning Spanish isn’t terribly difficult and I’m not stupid. But I haven’t made it a priority…yet. Maybe you haven’t made your diet a priority…yet. Maybe it’s your fitness or your finances. You aren’t dumb or incapable. You just have a different set of priorities that aren’t matched up with the tasks.

You get to decide what’s important. You get to set your priorities according to the tasks you really want to accomplish. They are yours not mine.

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

Sunday Story…Change is Inevitable

Growth is Optional

Change is in the wind here at Odyssey. You’ve seen the new “closet” and the TV moved down. Pretty soon all the wods and results will be showing up on that TV…so no more whiteboard!

We are shifting from Box Command to Wodify. You already have a Wodify account we have established for you. You will get an email soon telling you all about that change. Along with that, your billing will show up as “WP* Odyssey Fitness” but the billing should go on as it has in the past. But we will be watching to make sure it happens like it is supposed to!

This change is another way we are trying to enhance your experience! This should be a better way to track your results. This should be a better way for you to sign in to class and reserve a place and do everything else (both on your phone and on the kiosk where the TV is. We are looking forward to having more interactive features with this change.

We believe Wodify will be a better experience for you the athlete. We believe Wodify will give Odyssey more reports and better tracking for our athletes. We think Wodify will help us grow into an even better box than we are now!

Keep a look out for that email early next week and we are going to try to migrate around the 1st of the month!

Grow with us! Things will always change but you get to decide if you want to grow with the change!

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

Sunday Story…Faucet or Drain

As we have discussed, the only real freedom you have, the only freedom that can never be taken from us is the freedom to choose our attitude.

That being said, are you choosing to be a faucet or a drain?
Is your self talk negative and judgmental?
Is it positive and uplifting?
Are you draining energy from yourself and the world around you?
Or are you a pipeline of positive energy and possibility?

These are choices. When you get up in the morning what do you say to yourself? Is it, “I’m tired? I’m cranky. I hurt?” Or is it, “I’m strong. I’m powerful. I rock?”

What about the people around you? Who are they choosing to be?

Be a faucet or be a drain. Your choice. And your choice who you want to be hanging out with.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412
(Thanks to Seth Godin for today’s inspiration!)

Sunday Story…Growth vs. Fixed

Your mindset is the most important component of your success and well being. According to Viktor Frankl the only real freedom we have, the only one that can never be taken from us is the freedom to choose our attitude.

Too many of us get stuck in a “fixed” mindset. In other words, we are in an endless feedback loop that looks and sounds like this: there is nothing I can do about my future, things are out of my control, why do all the bad things happen to me, why bother. This negative self-talk puts all of the control externally…outside of you.

Compare this with a “growth” mindset where the feedback loop may look more like this: I determine my future, I make things happen, and I can do more…this thought pattern keeps all of the control internally…within my grasp.

A fixed mindset is a learned mindset. We get it from our experiences and from input from our families, teachers, and others. We are conditioned to think and be this way. Learned helplessness is not genetic or innate. We can re-condition our thinking. We can change negative self talk to positive. We can shift and change…if we choose to.

Given a choice, doesn’t it make more sense to be kind to yourself? To say nice things? To build yourself up? To take control of your attitude and make things happen?

Choose your attitude, change your life.

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

Sunday Story…the Cocoon

Way back when you were a wee child, you learned new things all the time. It didn’t matter that you weren’t very good at them for a while. Eventually, you got better. You wanted the outcome (I Can Walk!) and the struggle to get there was far outweighed by the desire to get the outcome.

And now, some decades into learning new stuff, I may be a little tired of the feeling that comes along with the process of learning new stuff. I want the outcome but now the journey looks much more difficult.

The journey really isn’t any more difficult…think about learning to walk…you fell down innumerable times…that’s hard, picking yourself up time after time. No, now the problem is I don’t like feeling incompetent. Unfortunately, if I want to grow I am going to have to get uncomfortable.

The process is something like this:
1. I realize something can be done.
2. I realize I can’t do it
3. I get better at doing it if I am willing to keep after it.

Step 2 is where things get messy. That’s the grey mess of the transformation cocoon. It’s frustrating, difficult and uncomfortable. But the growth and transformation make it worth the struggle.

I Can Walk!!!!

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

Sunday Story…You Can Always

Do more than you think you can. Can you really? How does that work anyway?

Your mind is the limiting factor in anything. How does an ordinary person in a stressful situation act with superhuman strength? The mind would say no, there is no way I can do that and logically it would be right. If I look at your body I might say your mind is right. Yet we are regaled time after time with stories of amazing feats of human achievement.

Your mind is a powerful tool, yet it will force you to stop before you are really done. This is a self-protection device. Your mind is in charge of making sure your body can rise again tomorrow. It won’t let you go over the edge if it can stop you.

Yet I see often people going further than their mind would tell them they can. What is this device? What is it that has me override the brake telling me to stop and continue on?

Will. My will can override my mind. I can will 1 more rep, pick myself up 1 more time, do what my mind said was impossible.

The cultivation of will is a practice. The stronger your will the more your mind becomes the tool of the will. I can impose my will on myself.

Will yourself to do more than you think you can.

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

Sunday Story…Fit and Healthy

Not all fit people are healthy. Not all healthy people are fit. It is a dichotomy of our modern lives.

It used to be that if you were healthy you would be relatively fit. You worked outside, carried, lifted, and engaged in physical activity. There wasn’t much choice. If you wanted to survive you had to be fit. On the flip side, if you weren’t fit you probably weren’t very healthy either…sickly, predisposed to ailments and generally in poor humor.

The goal is to find the perfect (for you) blend of those 2 things. What does healthy AND fit look like to you? 6-pack abs? Doable. Run a marathon? OK. Coach your kid’s soccer team? Done. Learning new skills or languages? Nice. Having fulfilling social interactions? Wonderful.

I define fitness in a broad, general and inclusive way…increased work capacity over broad time and modal domains. To put it more simply…the ability for my body to do what I want, when I want and however fast I want. This doesn’t mean I am unrealistic; I do have some limiting factors that are out of my control.

I define health in a similar way…health is the state of physical, mental and social well being. It is not just the absence of sickness or injury. I need to not just be healthy in my body but in my mind and in my relationships as well.

Now how are you going to get fit and healthy? That is the million dollar question, isn’t it? Maybe we can help…

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