Sunday Story…The Bionic Man

I hope it didn’t cost 6 million dollars, but I am now in possession of a new knee. It turns out that what I got was not exactly a new knee…as in, out with the old and in with the new—but a resurfaced knee.

What that means is the doctor moves the kneecap out of the way, takes both the tibia end and the femur end of the leg bones and “resurfaces” them, attaches a cap to both, and then places a poly-carbonate pad between the two caps. The kneecap goes back in place. All the ligaments and tendons are left intact, except the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) which got severed in the process. So, my skiing career is over. But an ACL isn’t necessary for most of my activities (I am not a skier! Here’s a video of the physician assistant explaining what was done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kayVY2qMB7M

Easy peasy, right? Well not so fast. The incision is about 12” long from above the knee to below. The trauma to the area was fairly intense. When it was all said and done the knee was about the size of a small soccer ball. Worse, the ability to move the leg overall was minimal and the mobility in the knee itself was non-existent.

As I sit here, 3 days post-op the swelling has diminished by more than half. I can lift the leg independently and bend the knee to 90 degrees with some effort. The rehab exercises are getting easier every time I do them (3x a day) and I can walk without assistance (although not easily).

The whole process has been very simple and straightforward. But it has not been easy. And it is going to get harder over the next few weeks and months as I get deeper into physical therapy and try to regain the strength and mobility in my right leg.

Steve Austin I’m not…yet!

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

 

 

 

 

Sunday Story…The Journey to Extraordinary III

You are empowered to decide how you want your journey to extraordinary to play out. Notice, however, that it is a journey. We aren’t talking about an extraordinary destination, although your destination may, indeed, be extraordinary. The joy, the learning, and the teaching are in the journey. And like Odysseus’ trek home, it isn’t going to be a direct path. There will be detours, there will be monsters, there will be setbacks.

Throughout your journey to living an extraordinary life, you are faced with one immutable fact: your time here is limited. We are all going to die. Our time on earth is short and we have a responsibility to ourselves, our loved ones, and our maker to fill it with activities that will cement a legacy.

We all leave a legacy. Some people leave a much bigger, longer-lasting legacy than others. But we all leave one. As we move on our journey, staying in harmony, always inching closer to the end point of our stay, the question becomes: do my actions, do my words, match with the legacy I am striving to leave?

When you are gone, what will be said about you? There is no hierarchy in the graveyard, the one who amasses the most does not sit above the one who amasses less. Our job here at Odyssey is to give you permission to voyage extraordinarily and then celebrate your journey. But you will have to make the climb yourself. I can’t do it for you. I can help, cajole, inspire, and push but in the final assessment, it will be all you.

So go forth and leave the extraordinary legacy you were put on this earth to leave.

 

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412

Sunday Story…The Journey to Extraordinary II

Perhaps, before embarking on our journey to extraordinary, we should decide what an extraordinary journey would look like. That definition is for each of you to make. My journey is going to look much different from yours. Where I am in my life is where I am, and you are where you are. That being said, some principles transcend exact times and places.

Odysseus’ extraordinary journey took him on many adventures, trials, and tribulations. His journey though had a single-minded destination…home and hearth. He was dedicated to making his way back. What is the destination you are dedicated to? We all talk about the importance of the journey and the enjoyment of the process. But we can’t lose sight of where our journey is taking us.

I posit that harmony is more important than balance. At any point in my life, I may need to be more heavily weighted toward one activity or another. When your children are small, they need a different type of attention than they do when they are older or adults. The same is true of your career. If I want to run a marathon in under 5 hours, I am going to need to dedicate some time to training. That is different than I just want to be able to run easily for an hour. Just as Odysseus had to stop and fight various enemies you will need to stop and vanquish your own challenges.

But what good will running that marathon do me if I lose my relationships and career while I’m training? I believe that would be extraordinarily bad and something to be avoided. When we started Odyssey we wanted to be a beacon of health and fitness. Your fitness is not just who you are physically, mentally, or emotionally. All three must be in harmony to find health.

More next week,

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412

 

 

Sunday Story…The Journey to Extraordinary

Many years ago, Ellie and I were brainstorming what the vision for our CrossFit gym would be. Before there was the name, Odyssey, there was a vision. A vision of a place where everyone would find their way to their best life…their extraordinary life. As we talked, we realized that every one of us had a hero waiting to be enlivened within us. A hero who would need to live an extraordinary life to meet the demands and rigor of a life worth living.

Fitness was a sneaky way to get people started on their journey. When you begin your fitness journey, you aren’t sure of what you are capable of. When you walked through the door for the first time, you came for the fitness. Hopefully, we inspired you to do and be more than just fit.

Just as health isn’t just the absence of sickness, fitness isn’t just the absence of weakness. Health means your biomarkers are in the correct ranges. Health means you have a vibrancy that embraces life. Fitness means your body is strong and able. Fitness means you can perform both your daily functions as well as any other tasks you ask of it. Fitness is physical, mental, and emotional. If you are super physically fit and an emotional child or an angry narcissist, you aren’t fit. You’re just physically fit.

Your journey to extraordinary isn’t just physical, nor is it just mental or emotional. It is all that and more. Your journey encompasses your entire galaxy of life on this planet.

More next week.

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412

 

 

 

Sunday Story…Origins

The other day Ellie and I were sitting down to lunch, and we said we really need to tell the story of how CrossFit Odyssey came into being. So, I started one of these missives with that in mind. But as I did that, I realized that the Odyssey story and my odyssey to get here started long before 2013.

When I was 10 or 12 years old, I remember dreaming (like so many of us at that age) of doing amazing things that would change the world: authoring that novel that would amaze and enlighten, bringing life-saving remedies to people in need, or becoming a leader who would inspire a team to enrich and empower people. I told my father that I didn’t know what I was going to do or be but that whatever it was, I would be the absolute best at it that I could be.

Fast forward many years and I realized that changing the world was more difficult than my younger self realized. The dawning realization was this: to change the world, I had to change myself. Thus began the journey, the odyssey that continues to this day.

This odyssey has been, at times, a painful exploration of who I am as a human in this body, currently. Armed with that self-knowledge I began a painful and difficult climb out of the pitfalls this modern life has set for all of us. There were no sacred cows, no rocks to leave unturned. Every facet from food and drink to exercise and thought to relationships and communication needed to be explored and examined and then improved.

Unlike Odysseus who returned to the safe harbor of his home island this odyssey continues, and I expect it to continue for many more years. Next week…the Journey to Extraordinary.

 

John Mariotti

www.crossfitodyssey.com

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

775-338-2412

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Story…Excuses

Are nails used to build a house of failure. I read this somewhere recently. Let that sink in for a moment. I’m not talking about just one facet of life. This is true all through your life. In the gym, at the dinner table, your career, and your relationships are built with either excuses or personal responsibility.

It is easy to blame some external force for not achieving your goals. We all laugh at the kid who tells his teacher that the dog ate his homework. That excuse is obvious and humorous. But how many times have any of us used something similar to fail at something? Because that is what it is…a failure. The kid failed to turn in his homework. The excuse was just the piece that held it together. One more drink, one more dessert, one more missed workout won’t really matter.

We all do this. We tell ourselves that this one time won’t really matter. But we are building a house of failure. Every excuse is another nail. Every excuse is just a way of cheating yourself of success. Every excuse makes you feel good now, but they rob you of feeling great when you achieve your goals.

I understand that eating right is hard, getting up early is hard, being on time is hard, showing up and doing your best is hard, staying on task is hard, hell life is hard. Do you know what’s harder?

That’s right. Living in a house built of excuses.

Be better. Be accountable to yourself. Be the hero of your story.

 

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Story…Fitness

The other evening my wife and I were conversing about life, CrossFit, and fitness and she posed a rather vexing question…what good does being physically fit do you if you aren’t “fit” in the rest of your life? If your relationships, your work life, your nutrition, your sleep, and your outlook are all taking a back seat to your physical training, how fit are you really?

The answer is unabashedly simple…your physical fitness is just one pillar in our quest for a longer “health span”. Peter Attia in “Outlive” talks about mental health at the end of the book. He readily admits his life, outside of his physical prowess, was a disaster. Hopefully, yours and mine aren’t so bad that we require outside intervention.

When we look at our physical fitness, we know we must show up consistently. We need to put in a good solid effort every time, moving with intention. We need to keep track of our progress and look for ways to improve it.

The same things apply in the other areas of our lives. Are you mindful and intentional with your personal relationships? This is often the place where we take the people around us for granted. How’s your sleep hygiene?  What have you done to get that right? What about your nutrition? I know it’s hard to resist certain things and it’s easy to mindlessly stuff your food in your mouth, but even fast food can be eaten mindfully and intentionally.

You have heard it said before regarding fitness…slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Well, here’s another one for some of those other areas in your life…slow is mindful, mindful is healthy.

Slow down, spend more time on the things that really matter, and enjoy all the gifts life has bestowed upon you.

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

775-338-2412