Eric is a long time OG member, dating all the way back to the pre-workhorse days at Iron Tribe… dang…
He is active Military in the Air Force, recently back home in the USA after deployment and also legit weirdo and we love him.
Eric does some pretty amazing and insane races/runs like 100 milers and many other Ultras (anything longer than a Marathon). Along the way he’s learned a lot about Never Giving Up and seeing things through. We could all learn from Eric in this area of life. He is also eternally optimistic and it’s something we look up to in him.
Imposter syndrome can be defined as a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. ‘Imposters‘ suffer from chronic self-doubt and a sense of intellectual fraudulence that override any feelings of success or external proof of their competence.
Let’s take a look at Imposter Syndrome and how Warrior’s overcome it. It all starts with taking a look back at your accomplishments and being grateful for the path you’ve traveled so far.
It’s hard for Imposter Syndrome to win when you take the focus off of yourself and put the focus on others and helping them to win.
Things to dig into to help you combat against Imposter Syndrome:
People Pleasing Fear of Missing Out “FOMO” Write down your accomplishments Positive Self-Talk Go on a Comparison “Fast” Social Media “Fast” Reflect & Meditate
Principle 5: Forging Mental Toughness (page 97). Read that chapter to take a deep dive into how you can utilize controlling your attention and developing emotional resilience.
Quick Tip: Whenever you have specific negative feelings, force yourself to think or feel positive or healthy thoughts or vibes.
Look out for feelings of: Anger, Fear, Doubt, Jealousy, Confusion.
How to re-target these feelings with positive re-direction.
Never Give Up, you are always still in the fight to get better. You only need to improve 1% every day.
We’ll be reaching out to each of you soon to setup a time to meet in person to review and/or set any goals you may have for 2020. We want you to get out in front of things and crush the new year!
Which brings up a great question; How do you set a goal and how do you succeed? It’s not easy but we go over some things you could do to help super-charge your goal getting.
Blackbelt
Ib talks with Gene a bit about his Blackbelt and what was involved in achieving that goal. Now testing for 2nd degree in January how have things been going as he ramps up for this next challenge.
Hopefully you came out to the Squatoberfest-ivities and hung out with us. So many PR’s in October. Also, huge CONGRATS to everyone who hit their 15 or 20 day goals. You inspire us!
Quick updates:
Get some beer, bring in a Growler or whatever and take some home with you while the keg is still tapped. It’s our gift to you!
TRIIB is coming out with a mobile app update soon, be on the lookout for it. It’s going to make things waaay easier. We’re also getting ‘Appointments’ which we’ll be utilizing right away so you’ll soon be able to just schedule any personal sessions on your own whenever you need to do it.
MDI Apparell Samples
With the close of October/Squatober you’ll see some quite different workouts for this month. We’re going with NO-Score-November all month. We’re going to focus on conditioning, which like the beer at the party should pair quite well with all the strength gains we’re seeing from last month.
Also, we’re partnering with a new company to bring you some Workhorse Gear. So be on the look out for that soon as well.
That’s all for this installment of the Podcast update. 🙂
You know the saying: “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room…” This is true on many levels, not just with intelligence.
The startup scene likes to produce this type of quote when it wants to instill good leadership qualities. However I have found that this isn’t just about leadership of others, but just as important, if not more so, for personal growth and maturity.
Make sure you are surrounding yourself with the types of people who make you want to elevate your own personal growth just because you are around them. I’m not just talking about the people in your life that you go to for advice, those are necessary as well. But the types of people that you want to emulate in whatever area it is that you respect about them. This extends to your circle of friends as well. How many of us have a ‘friend’ that holds us back because of their own insecurity or jealously… it’s common so don’t feel bad for your success even if your ‘friend’ can’t get excited for you.
Think of these people as personal areas of life mentors. It doesn’t have to be official and you can do this from afar as well. The reality is modeling your behavior around people that are where you want to get to is paramount to you actually getting there.
I surround myself with those who inspire me and elevate me and that I want to be around. The more i’m around them, the more I want and the more I can give to the people who are around me.
Dennys Lozada
So how can you tell if a person is genuine in what you admire. Well, the reality is that most of us have our flaws. No one is perfect and you should never meet your heroes… But you can sure tell a few things about a person by how they react to things. Like your success or the success of others. A true friend or mentor will genuinely be excited for you when you win. But someone who is insecure or not really a ‘winner’ will ride on your accomplishments and never really add anything to your effort. In fact they will tear it down with snarky comments, jokes or maybe even disengaging from you while you are doing your thing.
The thing is, if you’re busy working on your goals or being a better version of yourself, you won’t have the time to spare to give in to negativity especially negativity directed towards others. These types of people are spending their energy on their own growth and learning as much as they can from their environment and those around them. Including you…
Heck if you’re one of these negative people you may find yourself being dropped from your own friend-circle. It’s like T-Pain says:
There’s an asshole in every group of friends. So if don’tthink any of your friends are assholes……. You’re the asshole.
Being an asshole aside, if you find that you have a ‘friend’ who is marginally supportive of you, or if this is you. Then you’ve got some work to do on yourself. Don’t despair, you’re not too far gone, I promise. You probably just need to start with some self-awareness.
A great place to start is to look at those you surround yourself with on a daily basis. If you find yourself is daily sit-down bitch sessions or aren’t talking about the good things happening in your lives then you may just be associating with someone who can’t help you get to that next level just by being around them. Find people who make you feel good and those that can help you begin to see things in a positive light, or simply those that will hold you accountable to your emotions and outlook. It can be uncomfortable at first, but if you are truly looking to walk the warrior’s path then you won’t mind getting a little better.
A deep discussion on health and wellness with the Dr.
Dr. Tom Stetson graduated from one of the most well-respected health and wellness doctorate programs in the country, Palmer College of Chiropractic, with high honors. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh, where he majored in Chemistry. He is the owner and found of Columbia Family Chiropractic that he and his wife started in 2010. Dr. Tom focuses on functional, natural medicine.
Dr. Stetson has invested over $300,000 on advanced training in spinal correction, toxicity, exercise and nutrition from some of the largest and most respected health clinics in the country. He spends countless hours training and traveling all over the world to get the most cutting edge information on health to bring to his patient base in Columbia, SC. Due to his training and expertise, he was chosen to be a member of the Wellness Advisory Council and has traveled the world working with athletes of all ages. He has worked with six World and USA Championship teams including USA Wrestling, Judo, Weightlifting and Martial Arts. As a team chiropractor he traveled to the 2012 Olympic Games held in London, England. In his early years he hosted the popular radio show, “Maximize Your Health” on WIS 1320AM in Columbia, SC.
Dr. Stetson is a sought after speaker in the community. He is regularly asked to speak at churches, corporations, community groups, and the military. His goal is to see the city of Columbia, SC become the healthiest city on the planet.
I am co-owner of a gym; Workhorse Fitness, located in Columbia, SC. I had a great opportunity to attend the Self-Made Summit in Charlotte, NC this past weekend. One of my other businesses that I founded and have run for almost 10 years is an event production company. We created and produced a multitude of events, meetups, conferences and workshops; http://convergese.com/, http://frontenddesignconference.com/ & https://bdconf.com/ to name just a couple. Different industry than ‘gyms’ and ‘fitness’ but the event production aspect is related. 🙂
The Self-Made Summit was a very well run, very content intensive two days. I first thought that it was a little light on speakers but after the first day I realized that Stuart Brauer, the founder of the event was spot on and hit all the right notes for the subject matter. Now, we already work with Stuart via his WTF Gym Talk consulting services and have already gotten a ton of great insight and help from him in the micro-gym world of business. But this Summit was spot on and has us charged. There’s nothing quite like gathering like-minds together to share knowledge, frustrations, fears, wins/losses together in as honest a setting as it can get like this.
There are still plenty of things rolling around my skull right now. Here are some notes I took during the two days. This is not exhaustive nor is it meant to be. Consider this just shorthand highlights through the filer of my brain:
Day 1
Brandon Cullen, co-founder of MADabolic, opened up the day/event with his backstory and overview of how they are currently working on their expansion into Franchising. A lot of his insight is into the business side of franchising and there is just a ton of intel there to comb through. That said the current status of where I am in almost all of my businesses, is not, relatable to franchising or opening up multiple locations. Regardless of how good that insight was I found myself really excited by the straight up trainer talk he was dishing out in the first half of his talk. His background as a pro-athlete and hearing that he has experience in training as a fighter and within the fighting world peeked my interest a great deal:
Some Takeaways: Intensity in training is a goal. Strength is relative. “Gameday” is not how you should train every day. Training should prepare you for Gameday. They program in Quarterly Cycles (actually all 12 months at once) then program the specific WODs weekly or bi-weekly.
Steve Pinkerton founder of Vitality Fitness spoke on evolving his CrossFit affiliate into a more all-encompassing ‘overall’ fitness centric foundation. EvoFIT he calls it and he runs every new member through it, then graduating those members up into more standard CrossFIT as desired/capable. The most notable thing that stuck with me was when he said not to just call it a ‘bootcamp’ and slap it onto whatever you have going on. To treat it with the same respect and approach as your main program and actually sink full effort into it and it will work.
We sat in on a great table discussion with Brandon as the last session of the day and were able to ask him and his team direct questions and get into some more detail with him.
Joe Tebaldi founder of Flexx was the last ‘speaker’ of the day. He really blew us away with his approach and tactical mindfulness for sales. He is probably the most quotable speaker of the entire event too.
Communication. Validation. Relevance. This is the basic set of ideas he bounces all banding, messaging and sales off of. And boy is that relevant to where we are within our business’ process.
Quality depends on the customer’s frame of reference. In this vein we need a 1 sentence, 3-4 sentence then a 5 minute sales pitch on our business. This is pretty common branding 101 stuff and i’ve been in and done it a thousand times when consulting with start-ups in the past, but the way Joe does within the Gym/Fitness space is mesmerizing.
People remember the emotion they had. Emotion matters, be positive! Don’t sell fear or fear of sickness. Sell the cool aspects of the community and how you will be validated by your peers for making the right choice with us.
Gym sales are based on 3 things: 1) Proximity to where they live or work 2) The person wants to look better 3) They will validate you on social and by looking at your website. Then “educating the consumer” is your job #1. If you are a CrossFit affiliate, then CrossFit does this for you with your $3k affiliate fee as part of their overall worldwide branding and marketing. But as a micro-gym owner, you don’t really get to leverage this…
These things aren’t like only for gyms, these are for just about any product or brick and mortar business that sells things, but i’d just never applied them in the ways he was discussing it to our gym members.
Day 2
Mike Jones, founder of Alchemy 365, went through the beginning to current status on the evolution of his business. Starting out as a CrossFit affiliate owner, owning something like 5 affiliates then developing their own approach to fitness based a lot off of Core Power Yoga and Orange Theory’s model and approach. It is largely a mixture of no-barbell based functional fitness and yoga fusion.
By the way, he also invented the Torpedo, which is a pretty interesting Kettlebell + Dum Bell thingy. I’d like to get my hands on one soon…
Going from his roots to his corporate owned locations his story if fascinating and I couldn’t help but notice his humility as he was talking to us and it made me wonder if this guy practiced any type of martial arts and sure enough, yep, he’s a Jiu-Jitsu Blue Belt.
Takeaways from Mike: C.A.R.E. Consistently Acquire and Retain Excellence will lead to Customer Acquisition, and Reduce Attrition…
Removal of Non-Core products and services. A-la Apple computer/Steve Jobs.
Net-Promoter Score – How likely are your customers to recommend you. – How can we make things better?
They run a “Fresh Start” challenge: 4 Weeks, Weekly Check-ins, Diet Planning and Coaching- For New-Customers & current members They run a Free-Week intro that they up-sell memberships into.
Stuart Brauer Along with his WTF Gym Talk podcast and services he produced this event as well as owns and operates Urban Movement his micro-gym. He gave a really great run-through from start to finish of his rebranding of UM as well as the current situation of his branding by showing off the brand book he is about to roll out in his gym. Very thorough and thoughtful approach to how to share that intel with us.
Another great table discussion today with Joe Tebaldi where we went through a lot of what he spoke about the day before but more one-on-one. The way he sized up an attendees ‘1 sentence’ was amazing. The speed he showed with knowing his audience and business was awesome. Quite honestly Joe inspires me to get better at aspects of my other business roles in a huge way. Thank you sir.
Panel Discussion We wrapped with a panel discussion with all the speakers they went through a TON of Q&A and covered some big ground, the coolest take away I had was when they went through their ethos statements:
Mike’s was: Yes is the answer; what is the question? Be F&%king awesome. Be a Pro. Pursue your legend.
Stu’s was: Why not, not why. “Hold my beer” Do what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it. Be endearing/enduring. Via Glassman. 🙂 Be Positive.
Sponsors/TRIIB One of the coolest things was the access to the sponsors. This is apparent in a small, by small I mean less than 100 people. In the past my events have had up to 800 people – not small enough… I prefer the smaller more intimate events like this greatly to the larger more Expo like ones. I sincerely hope Stu keeps it small next year again… Because of this we were able to get lunch with TRIIB and have them go through several things with us in regards to our business and how we use the product that we were up until then largely not able to accomplish with phone confs and online help tickets. Bravo in a HUGE way to that and TRIIB’s willingness to do that. So cool.
The other sponsors were top-notch. You could tell Stu personally endorses them and it shows. They were all very solid humans behind the companies and were all people that we made the rounds and spoke with one on one. Something iv’e very rarely done at events.
Wrap-Up
In many ways, I want this type of event for every day business people. I know they are out there, but in order to do that you’d dilute the message. The fact that the attendees were all Gym/Affiliate owners looking at change in their business was inspiring and what puts us all on the same footing which allows us to be honest with each other and the speakers. It’s intimate and true. Something you can’t say for many conferences and/or workshops that sell you the same lines about what it will do for you. Probably because Stu walks the walk with this consulting and in his own micro-gym.
This was hands-down one of the most honest, rewarding and thoughtful conferences i’ve been to in a long time. I’m inspired, charged up and ready to take on my business now. Thank you! Truly.
When we write ‘RX’ in a workout, it has a specific meaning. It means this is the ‘prescribed’ weight or rep-scheme or timing you should strive to be at. Sometimes you may not be able to do the workout with the prescribed weight, and that is very much okay! The overall idea is that this the intended weight, or rep-scheme, distance or timing you should be doing the workout at, so that you get the stimulus we want you to get from the workout.
Here’s an example: if the workout calls for you to do 10, 200 lb Deadlifts along with 10 Burpees as many times as you can within 10 minutes with an expected outcome on this would be 4 or 5 rounds. But you can only do a 200 lb Deadlift 2 or 3 times, so this means you only get 2 rounds out of the 10 minutes, then the workout is no longer delivering the intended stimulus. It has now changed into a max-out Deadlift strength workout for you. It would be far better for you to use 100 lbs in this workout if you are in this range for the lift. Then you’d get the right conditioning outcome that we want.
Why am I not losing weight (Fat)?
We go over a few reasons why you may not be losing weight. Going through the three main domains of; Diet, Workouts and Recovery. There are a few good rants in here too!
As you listen and have questions or comments, hit us up with a comment, post, text or in-person question. We’d love to get into anything you’re thinking about!
A seminar about how to live a healthier lifestyle because:
HEALTH IS WEALTH BE ABUNDANT IN HEALTH Learn the ins and outs of healthy living from a number of accredited professionals in our community. Discover all of the options available to you as you walk the path to a healthier and happier lifestyle.
Coach Ib and Heather are doing a session at 11:00 am
Get with a coach or front desk for your ticket!
Mobility & Maintenance
We go over the importance of Mobility and why you need to maintain the bottom line on it. Some insights into how to approach it and why we do it.
Evan Owens – Member of the Year
Evan Owens has been with Workhorse Fitness for little over a year. He joined us at 285lbs and in his short time with us is down to 219lbs. When Evan joined, he could barely run a mile, he couldn’t do a pull-up, and he did push-ups on his knees – fast forward to now and he can easily run multiple miles, do multiple pull-ups unassisted, does toes push ups, and turned a 175lbs deadlift into 315lbs! He recently tested for his yellow belt by our very own coach Gene Crawford. These are just a few of his long list of accomplishments. Evan shared,
I started because I knew I could do better and I had my dad motivate me. Then I kept coming because of everyone’s support from the coaches to other members of the community when it came to creating healthy exercise and eating habits. It’s the people and the community around me that helps keep me coming back every day.
Evan Owens
We love Evan because he is the definition of “Never Give Up”. This man simply will never quit and will always win when you need him too.
In this episode we talk about what Squatober is and what it’s all about.
It is an official thing, created by Sorinex (USA company, HQ right here in good old Columbia, SC), who is where we get all our workout equipment from. While it is an official program that they get some ‘famous’ powerlifter/weight lifter types to write, we create our own, more suited to our personal more discerning WOD ways here at Workhorse.
Discussion is about how to stay disciplined and what happens when inspiration wears off. How are you going to keep after your goals when you don’t really want to get after it anymore.
We also go over some of the ‘challenges’ we put ourselves through. This week was: Challenge 1: 100x Back Squats @ 135# Challenge 2: 1/2 mile of Lunges
During the month of July and into August last year, the coaches at Workhorse Fitness took on the challenge of doing a month of Hero WODs. Hero WODs are notorious for being some of the longest, most difficult and most mentally grueling workouts in CrossFit.
Why do it? To test ourselves; physically, mentally, emotionally, intuitionally, spiritually to build our Kokoro (or warrior spirit.) We knew going in that it was going to be tough and that recovery and preparation between workouts would be key. We recorded the experience with short videos and put them all together here in this post so we could remember the journey and relive the experience a year later.
Planning it all out
What we did was each coach picked a number of Hero WODs that were their favorite, for whatever various reasons, and then we wrote them all down on the white board. We then took them and planned out the sequence and the days that we would be attacking these workouts.
Week 1
The first few workouts were quite tough. It was getting hot and settling into the work after 5-7 days proved to be something we all had to overcome. I think each of us, at least I know I was, were starting to realize the effort that we would have to put into this to see it through and finish.
We were all starting to learn more about what we were capable of this week.
Week 2
Week 2 consisted of some even tougher workouts. Don’t get me wrong, week 1 was memorable, in that it was the first shot at digging into these things. Week 2 was just more terrible. The heavier weight in these workouts proved challenging and some of the WODs that looked like they would be completed in 45:00 to an hour wound up taking well over that.
The most memorable workout from week 2 and probably from the entire experience would be “CLOVER”. Which consists of a 10 mile run and 150 burpee pull-ups. This one took me well over 3 hours to finish and personally made me question my own sanity…
I can’t speak for everyone here, but I know that after week 2 I truly felt like I could do anything and that the rest of the workouts, while still intimidating, were going to get done no matter what.
Week 3
I think we were all settling in pretty well by the third week. I know I was and was already starting to think about how much I would miss this training once it was done. The workouts were still very tough and challenging but I feel like we bonded together through all the suffering.
Week 4
I think everyone would agree that the final week was the most technically challenging. Maybe it was the exhaustion of doing these things for 3 weeks prior or just the fact that we were close to the end of it and were feeling more relaxed mentally but we really hit our stride in the last week.
As much as I got out of this experience, I can’t really say that I would recommend it for anyone. You really need to make sure you’re prepared and know how to get yourself ready and recover as you go. We took precautions and planned the workouts out in terms of timing but we each still have some remnants of an issue or two of this month even today a year later. All in all, we did it, and I’m proud to have done this with my teammates.
The Workouts in Order
Severin For Time 50 Strict Pull-Ups 100 Hand-Release Push-Ups 5k Run Wear a weight vest (20/14 lb)
Weston 5 Rounds For Time 1000 meter Row 200 meter Farmer Carry (45 lb dumbbells) 50 meter Waiter Walk, Right Arm (45 lb dumbbell) 50 meter Waiter Walk, Left Arm (45 lb dumbbell)
Marston AMRAP in 20 minutes 1 Deadlift (405/285 lb) 10 Toes-to-Bar 15 Bar Facing Burpees
Tom AMRAP in 25 minutes 7 Muscle-Ups 11 Thrusters (155/105 lb) 14 Toes-to-Bar
Bull 2 Rounds For Time 200 Double-Unders 50 Overhead Squats (135/95 lb) 50 Pull-Ups 1 mile Run
Griff For Time 800 meter Run 400 meter Run (backwards) 800 meter Run 400 meter Run (backwards)
Clovis For Time 10 mile Run 150 Burpee Pull-Ups
The Don For Time 66 Deadlifts (110/75 lb) 66 Box Jump (24/20 in) 66 Kettlebell swings (1.5/1 pood) 66 Knees-to-Elbows 66 Sit-Ups 66 Pull-Ups 66 Thrusters (55/35 lb) 66 Wall Ball Shots (20/14 lb) 66 Burpees 66 Double-Unders
Johnson AMRAP in 20 minutes 9 Deadlifts (245/165 lb) 8 Muscle-Ups 9 Squat Clean (155/105 lb)
Pheezy 3 Rounds For Time 5 Front Squats (165/105 lb) 18 Pull-Ups 5 Deadlifts (225/155 lb) 18 Toes-to-Bar 5 Push Jerks (165/105 lb) 18 Hand-Release Push-Ups
Randy For Time 75 Power Snatches (75/55 lb)
Daniel For Time 50 Pull-Ups 400 meter Run 21 Thrusters (95/65 lb) 800 meter Run 21 Thrusters (95/65 lb) 400 meter Run 50 Pull-Ups
Collin 6 Rounds For TIme 400 meter Sandbag Carry (50/40 lb) 12 Push Press (115/75 lbs) 12 Box Jumps (24/20 in) 12 Sumo Deadlift High-Pull (95/65 lbs)
Things are normally so busy and crazy in our lives. Work all day, run errands, pick up the kids, take them to after school practice, head home to make dinner, do homework, do some late evening work, get mad at the news, them more random stuff…
Along the way getting through our day we make so many small decisions, talk with a lot of different people, interact with the world in such a hurried state. How many times have you gotten an email reply from someone who, you just knew, didn’t read the whole thing? You asked 2-3 questions and they just answered the first one. You KNOW they read it on their phone and couldn’t slow down long enough to actually reply thoughtfully.
Maybe you’re like me a lot of the time, you’re with someone but not really there. They’re talking to you, but you’re thinking about 100x other things… never to actually remember what the two of you discussed?
Not good…
Let us not be confused With kaleidoscopic reality. Using wisdom and courage to act, Let us not add to the confusion.
Taoist Poem
I’ve often found myself becoming a victim to my day. Being the object and not the subject of my own story. Getting caught up in all the crap I have to do, blaming things externally “happening” to me. Like, i’m just a leaf floating down the river and it’s up to the river if things are slow or fast, smooth or rough.
Learning to act in the “right” way; the way that keeps us moving forward with positive momentum, is really freaking tough. Keeping centered and continuing to make progress on our goals and personal achievements can seem downright impossible. Being present with those we love and actually listening while still keeping your life on schedule…
Can it all happen at the same time?
No it can’t.
But, that’s okay.
It’s enough to make you just want to hide out and do nothing. To shut down.
Sometimes you get the “just get off your butt” speech or see those inspirational meme posts all over your feed that make life seem like it’s so easy and you should already be halfway done with whatever you’re working on. Well, “F’ that… #amirite?
We do have to take action to make things happen… things won’t magically figure itself out… that said, though, we have to do it in the right way.
Have you ever talked to someone who has been consistently personally successful in their life? Someone who has worked hard for what they have and have been able to keep it? The secret here is likely that they did act, and chances are good that they were deliberate in what they did to achieve their success.
This means they had a plan. It doesn’t have to be a Navy Seal quality plan. But a basic one. You need to think it through, just a little before you execute. I’ve always been big on ‘winging it’ – you know, making it up as I go along. Han Solo style. Thing is that shit works only 50% of the time, at best.
Don’t over-plan stuff though. You can create “Analysis Paralysis” for yourself. Just a rough outline will help. Like think about losing weight. I’m sure that’s one of those things on your to-do list of life. It’s on mine. Now if you get up in the morning and go from meal to meal with no plan, like you literally don’t know where you’re going to eat lunch or where your dinner will come from. Chances are good that one of those 3 meals in your day will come from a fast-food place. Not good… If you simply think about where your meals are going to happen, you can plan for it and make good choices BEFORE you are forced to make one because you’re hungry or running late in your day. You might even find you can get a few days ahead and prepare some meals you can take with you that are super healthy. It wouldn’t take much, just that little bit of planning will cut out 3-4 bad meals in your week and before you know it, it all adds up to a net-positive addition of 3-4 planned out healthy meals. No over-thinking, just some simple, low-stress planning.
Here’s a secret; When you act, the action must be a singular concept and be easy to understand. If whatever you are about to do is too complex to be a single act then you may be trying to work on too much at one time. Try breaking things down into a load you can carry, then you can tick off one win at a time. Big accomplishments in life are usually made up of many small victories strung together.
We cannot leave anything behind like bad outcomes or lingering traces of our actions such as: unhappiness, destruction, resentment or general sloppiness. If this is the case then your initiative was poorly approached. It was insufficient.
From the Hagakure a Samurai/Bushido text
I think you’d be surprised at how taking control of one small thing will lead to a larger wave of momentum. I know it’s easier said than done. You have to start somewhere, do something small, today, now. Get after it.
I‘ve been trying to think about the idea of Sincerity. Specifically how sincerity relates to being a leader. You can talk all day long about what you’re going to do, but until people see you doing it, they won’t believe you.
Or believe in you…
Have you ever heard of the term “lead by example?”
Leading by example is surely the best way to be a great leader. But to do that you have to be truly sincere in your belief in what it is you’re doing…
There is a great story about sincerity — as it applies to Leadership from the book Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield.
The book is about Spartan warrior culture. He tells the story of King Leonidas and his 300 spartans who fought and died defending their homeland against what is said to have been thousands and thousands of Persian invaders.
All about the Spartan Warrior
There is a chapter about a lesser known part of the story; when the king and his army of 300 arrived at the spot where they would be having the battle the next day, there were remnants of what was once a defensive stone wall or battlement. The King ordered his men to rebuild the wall as quickly as they could so they could use it for themselves.
His captains and sergeants began to discuss and plan on the best way to rebuild it. One said that the wall should be as tall as two men, one said that it should be short but wide, while another argued that it should have firing positions for their bowmen. Meanwhile all the other Spartans just sat around and watched their leaders argue and fight over the “best” way to do it…
In seeing his men in disarray and lacking clear leadership, King Leonidas himself walked over to one of the piles of rocks and just started picking them up and pilling them back up to form a wall. When his Spartans saw what he was doing, they all cheered “AROO!” (which is the Spartan war cry) and they all fell into the work right along side their king. Every last one…
King Leonidas never stopped, even when he saw his men working and as the pile started to resemble a real wall he said to them;
Nothing too fancy, men. For a wall of stone will not preserve us, but a wall of warriors shall.
If you truly believe in what you are doing then show those around you that you sincerely believe it is the right way to do it by acting on it instead of just talking about it.
Aim to inspire first and you will win the battle whatever it may be.
I use “Never Quit” or “Never Give Up” A LOT. It’s not just a slogan I like to wear on a t-shirt. I mean it. I believe in it. 100% of the time.
I am a Coach. My brain and my heart are hardwired for helping people. They just are. I can’t help it. I have discovered this truth after years of my own training and personal journey.
This is a fairly tricky thing to balance out for me. I am a professional, I provide training, inspiration, guidance and education simultaneously I must maintain a high level of passion for helping people and so this mixture leads to personal vulnerability. It’s a tightrope that coaches walk each time we take on a new client.
If I coach you, I will give you everything I have to help you reach your goals.
As a client you need to understand that this means i’m giving you a small piece of myself. In order for this to work, you have to reciprocate. At the same time you have to have some internal motivation to get you to where you want to go. I cannot make you do the work. I can lead you, I can inspire you, I can certainly help you in just about any way you may need. But I cannot make you do it.
You have to get up and dig in. You have to persevere through it all.
However through all of this, I am a Coach. When your priorities shift or you change your focus, I can’t help but feel that you are actually giving up on your goals. Maybe you’ve shown me pictures of what you want to look like. Maybe you’ve written down your motivation. We’ve probably talked about defining your “Why”, so you know why you’re doing all this…
Yeah, you’ve worked pretty hard the past couple months. I know that the work has gotten more difficult. I know that you have other things, like your family, career, home, pets, car, hobbies, all the things that pull against your time. We all have that happen to us in life. It’s life, it’s not easy. It happens to me too.
This is why, when things gets difficult. When this happens you have to double down on the work you need to do to achieve your goals.
Here’s the part you’re not going to like hearing: I’ve seen you give up when things gets really hard. I’ve seen you stop giving your best effort. I’ve seen you slip and cheat the rules we setup when we first started working together. I’ve read your food journal with good healthy entries and then I’ve seen on Instagram where you’ve actually eaten a whole pizza and then missed 4 days in a row.
I was there when you weren’t there when you were supposed to be there doing the work you’re supposed to be there doing.
This is why i’m here, this is why you hired me.
To call you out on these things.
To redirect you back to the work.
Even when you don’t want to hear it. Even when you don’t want to do it.
You probably think, that in the long run, these are small things… yes they may be. But, I believe 100% that the way we do the small things is the way we do everything.
When we’re dealt a shitty situation, like an injury for example, it’s what we do after it that matters. Do you just accept it and give up on your original vision or goal?
No.
Hell no…
You don’t let anything change your vision or your goal. You adjust things, yes, but you keep getting after it.
If you can’t workout, you fix your nutrition even more.
If you can’t train, you still show up to class and watch and learn things.
You find out what you can do and you go do that.
If you really want to achieve your goals, you’ll do it, you won’t be thinking about quitting, much less talking out loud about it.
You told me once that you don’t ever want me to think that you are a quitter.
I don’t say this to insult you.
I say this because, believe me or not, I respect you. However:
“You ARE quitting. Don’t lie to yourself…”
To accept anything less than what you told me you wanted and to change your trajectory to anything less than that which you set out to achieve is just that…
Quitting… It’s intellectually dishonest to believe otherwise.
I am a Coach. I am a professional. I can handle it if you want to go somewhere else. Or if you outgrow what I can offer. Or if you don’t jive with my style. Or if you’re not getting what you want with me. I can handle that, truly.
You see; I’m left feeling that you are quitting because I challenged you to get to the next level. So i’m left feeling like it’s my fault, like I pushed you away from your goals by expecting too much out of you, maybe expecting something out of you that you didn’t really want in the first place. If your priorities shift and you want something different out of life, that’s cool. I’ve got your back, believe that.
But know that if you really want to grow, you’ve got to acknowledge what the truth is. In order for me to commit to you, I have to give you a little bit of myself. A little bit of my heart and passion. There is only so much that I can spare, so to me it is precious.
In the end though you don’t owe me anything. I understand that. This isn’t a pity party for poor old coach here.
But you do owe it to yourself to think through whatever the truth that you’re hiding from might be…
Don’t leave something undone and have regrets later in life. Especially since maybe it’s just because something became more difficult and you had to work harder at it. You’ll just grow older and always dream about what could have been.
You can get to where you want to be. You just have to really mean it.
I reallyhate seeing people not get what they want out of life because they can’t stick with the work long enough and can’t fight through the pain long enough to achieve it. Average people do that, they start along a path and then when it gets tough they quit. They walk away.
I believe in you. I do not believe you are average. That’s why I gave you that little bit of what I have.
If you want to get back and work on those goals, I am here. If you don’t want to do it with me, I respect that too.
What you will gain: A clear and concise way to set achievable goals for yourself A path to creating good habits that will empower you to crush your goal(s). A Toolset to help you calm your mind and attain a high level of performance. A guide for how to shift your thinking to a more positive mindset. An introduction to basic meditation practices that you can harness and deploy right away.
Details: Have you ever set goals in your life only to fall short? No matter if it’s a big, scary, audacious, pie-in-the-sky goal or a small, short term, get-it-done soon goal there are ways to cultivate and maintain momentum that will get you there. We are all products of our mindset and we all live in world filled with confusion, distraction and turmoil. How we set, develop and achieve our goals all starts from within ourselves.
Sign up and then learn an approach as well as a few tools to help you make better sense of it all.
You will receive a private link to view the video as well as: The full Workshop Power Point with presenter’s notes A Corresponding worksheet for the “Goal Setting Focus Plan” Links to all the resources and videos mentioned in the workshop BONUS: A supplementary video about forging and living with a Warrior Mindset
I think that saying “good luck” to someone before they take on a big challenge isn’t quite right. While I like the sentiment, something that might stick a little more is “Never Quit” or “Never Give Up”. Saying that luck has anything to do with your success just doesn’t feel right. You mean I was lucky to pass that test? Hell no, I worked hard to pass it, I earned that grade!
Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.
Tryon Edwards
I’ve been thinking about what “defines” who I am a lot lately. As hard as I work on the physical side of myself, the more I realize I have to work just as hard on the mental.
My Sensei recently said to me that the best students are often the ones that lack that special natural physical talent, they are usually those that have to work extra hard for their success. They earn it through hard work and dedication. They forge a mental attitude through practice that drives them to achieve their goals. If he had to choose a new student between one who has the raw natural physical talent and one who has to work and scrap for everything they get, then he’d choose the latter.
I agree with him 100%.
I’ve been coaching and teaching fitness for over 2 years now professionally. I can tell you without a doubt the biggest let down’s i’ve experienced are with those that have natural talent, things come easy to them and as a result they simply don’t work as hard as those that aren’t “born with it”. They almost always stop showing up or lose interest when things eventually (and they ALWAYS will) get challenging…
What is it that makes someone seek out a goal and stick with the work long enough to reach it? Hard work creates determination in a person. Deep in my heart I believe that hard work builds character and teaches you true respect and humility.
If your goals are too easily achieved and you reach them without much effort then there really is no lesson and you can start to take it all for granted. To achieve that feeling when conquering your goals after many failed attempts and long hours of work or practice is priceless.
I’m not saying you can be given those gifts from god, have that natural built in talent, and never achieve anything. I’m not looking down on those people either. Can you just imagine what happens when natural talent meets hard work and dedication? That is beauty right there folks. What i’m saying is that I haven’t truly seen it in person yet. How I long for that day — when it comes i’ll be ready as a coach though. 🙂
I’ll share a story of something I experienced with my own training:
A couple of years back I was working on running a 12k trail run (~7.5 miles) I put in some pretty hard work for over 3 months straight. I kept going out trying to tack on an extra mile each time I ran, just trying to muscle it out. My thinking was that if I just stuck on a mile every week or so, eventually i’d add on enough to reach the 7.5 miles.
Nope.
In fact my distances got worse and for some reason my endurance suffered from that approach… It was only after I tried something new that one of my mentors told me about; visualize that long run, focus on what I was going to do before I got to the trails, get myself into a positive mental state about the distance — only then was I able to pull off a fairly quick 6 miles. (the longest i’d ever gone before was 4 miles at that time, literally the week before.) I thought about running the distance for 2–3 days beforehand. I thought about what kind of pace I would set and how I would handle breathing during different parts of the trail, planning how I would recover my wind while still running. I got to the point where I actually could feel it in my mind.
Small victory? Maybe, but it felt HUGE that day. (Thank you for that lesson Coach Divine!)
The lesson I learned is that the physical part of training is only a portion of what you have to do to get ready for something that is beyond your current abilities. I’ve seen people who have let themselves down by quitting in the middle of trying. I’ll be honest, i’ve done it myself as well. It’s not as simple as “mind over matter” and you can’t will yourself to push through something the moment you need it for the first time. You have to develop “Grit.” You only seem to find Grit within hard-ass work and determination.
You have to have control over yourself both mentally and physically in equal portions. You have to be able to turn it on when you need it and to do that you have to practice it all the time. It doesn’t happen overnight either. Like anything that’s worth it, it takes some time. Just like you have to practice whatever else it is you’re trying to achieve; be it a race, a Karate rank test, a college degree or some other professional assignment.
Grit is what gives you the will to win.
To dig deeper in order to keep pushing when you feel like you’re going to die.
I think It’s why we all love the underdog so much, because they’re not supposed to win. They got there through long hours of hard work and practice.
If I do have control over the things that define who I am, I want it to be that i’m known as a person who never quits, who will never give up.
I will also start telling people; “Don’t Quit” instead of “Good Luck”.
All things being equal… I would rather have grit than luck any day.
There’s a secret to getting yourself to push through difficult situations and before you learn how, you’re going to need to know why.
“What have I gotten myself into?” I thought one day after a particularly lackluster day of training in preparation for my Blackbelt test. I mean, i’m doing all the things i’m supposed to be doing, I’m just not making any progress.
I felt like I was hitting a wall. I was pushing the overall volume of work to the limit. The test is 72 hours long, so I knew I would be facing really low points and times when I would need to push through when all I would want to do is quit and go home. I couldn’t seem to get my mind there. The turning-point for me was when I let myself down by “quitting” during a 12k race that I using as a “check-in” point to see how my training was progressing. I was starting to get really bummed out.
I needed to find my set-point…
I needed to revisit why I was doing all this…
MY WHY.
After that race I went back to the drawing board. I reset my training and got back to the basics. I also took one afternoon and wrote down “why” I was doing this. It was an exercise that I had read about a year earlier in the book The Way of the SEAL, by Mark Divine. It really helped me get things right in my mind. In it he asked me to sit quietly, practice my breathing, and think about the reasons why I was doing what I was doing. Then I was to write down a sort of “mission statement” about the reasons why I was doing what I was doing.
This was to become my “why”:
I will prove to my family that I will do what I say I will do. I will not give up and leave my training (& testing) partner on his own. I will NEVER quit. I will FINISH what I start.
My “why” was set. I worked to keep this at the forefront of my mind as I went through the next few months of training. It started off taking real effort to focus on it, but as time passed it got easier and I found myself going to it more and more often.
As I kept this “mantra” top-of-mind, things got easier. Well, not necessarily physically easier, but mentally for sure. I also felt as though I could call upon deep reserves of energy and strength when I needed it. I began to train with a smile on my face and started to find the good in what I was doing.
I was now suffering for a reason. 🙂
During the Blackbelt test there were some dark times for sure. One point I remember vividly; I couldn’t see any way that I could complete the task I was given and Sensei was saying that if it didn’t get done by the time he said, to leave the Dojo… Thoughts of quitting, of giving up, started to creep in, but I went to my “why” immediately and thoughts of finishing the task took over. I was going to get this done, no matter what, I was doing this for more than just me now.
I know for a fact that if I had not determined why I was doing what I was doing that I would not have made it through that test.
There were also times that I was filled with fear. Like that first moment when I stepped out on the Dojo floor in front of 25+ Blackbelts who were there to determine if I passed of failed my test. They all have to unanimously agree that I am worthy before I will be awarded Shodan.It wasn’t for myself alone that I took that first step on the mats.
It was to prove to my family that I will finish what I start and it was for my brother-in-arms who was also walking into this test with me.
My “why” was with me the entire time, I went to it regularly.I know for a fact that if I had not determined why I was doing what I was doing that I would not have made it through that test.
Having a strong set-point and reason for being there fueled me like I could never have imagined before.
Find your set point. Find your why. Lean on it in tough times.
It is easy to compare yourself to others. To look at other people’s lives, careers, knowledge, skills and/or fitness and feel a little;
Jealous. Resentful. Defeated even…
This is where the subconscious mind starts to make up justifications. It will justify your unwillingness to take action by creating excuses:
My legs are sore. The kids. I’m feeling a little sluggish today. I’ll start back up tomorrow. I’ll start on Monday. I really hate running. That weight looks really heavy. I’ve got a few days until this is due. The website isn’t finished yet.
It is so, so, so easy to do nothing at all…
That is your ego talking to you. That’s fine.
Go ahead. Do nothing… if that’s what you want… listen to your ego.
Don’t be mad about the results you didn’t get, from the work you didn’t put in.
Ego is the enemy
Our Ego will try to defend us either consciously or subconsciously when it feels the need. When it feels like we might fail. When it senses that we are feeling stress. Or when we’re staring down the barrel at a task we don’t really want to do. Or when we’re just tired.
Ego: A person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance. The part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity. More on ego.
Ego will sneak up on us late at night or early in the morning when we know we should be doing the things that will get us to the goals we’ve set.
Goals? Yeah, those things, goals.
Getting the results you want starts with setting some.
This is the hard to start part for most of us. Not because we don’t think big and definitely not because we don’t want to see results, but because that little bastard ‘ego’ will steal what little faith we have in our own ability to do so.
I’ve been coaching CrossFit for almost two years now and i’ve been teaching Martial Arts in one capacity or another for about as long. I’ve seen so many goals not reached and way too many broken commitments in just this short amount of time.
Something i’ve noticed is that after so many missed goals and broken commitments we will begin to dislike ourselves and even start to believe we cannot do the things we originally set out to do.
Do you ever think to yourself: Why can’t I do the things everyone else does?
Okay smart guy, how do I start to dig my way out of this? How can I get results and start checking off some stuff from my goals list?
The one thing i’ve seen successful people do that those less-successful don’t do. They keep their promises. They value their commitments. They show up on time and get the work done. Not just to others, but to themselves.
If you want to get after your goals and make up some ground. Even if it’s just 10 minutes of exercise, or an hour of heads down focused writing. Successful people will let NOTHING get in the way of those commitments.
Not a tiring work day, not a rainy cold day, not a dead car battery, not missing lunch, not a headache, not even an injury… If you made a promise or set a commitment to show up, if you said you’d do it, then you better goddamn do it. Especially when other people are involved.
You have to go to war against your ego. Ego is our enemy.
It will lie to you, it will try to trick you, it will convince you of things in direct conflict with your promises and commitments. Every. Single. Time…
When you’ve finally had enough. When you get to the point where you decide that, your word, the promises and commitments you’ve made are stronger and more powerful than your reasons and excuses you will build integrity.
When you have integrity to fight ego with, you can then call upon dignity to help as well. Then things start to get real. The fight get’s easier, you start to win some battles and before long you find confidence and peace of mind that you are doing the things you need to do to reach your goals.
The Navy Seals have a motto; “Earn your Trident everyday”. There is no doubt that when you see that Seal Trident emblem on someone’s chest you know that they are a quality human being and you understand the ethos that stands behind what they do for a living and their commitment to excellence within that service.
The Navy Seal Trident — Hooyah!
I think about this a lot as a Blackbelt. At the end of each day I worry that I have not lived up to the standard that is implied with wearing that belt.
We must “sharpen the sword of excellence” every day, as one of my mentors Mark Divine would say. So what does it mean to be committed to a daily practice of creating excellence within ourselves and in our community. That seems like a really daunting task. And it is, I struggle every single day. Failing at it more than I succeed for sure.
Let’s examine a few short sections of the Seal creed:
Uncompromising integrity is my standard.
Living life, each day, with integrity takes discipline. Doing what’s right, even when no one is watching you. That’s hard. I ask myself all the time, did I do enough. If something goes wrong with a project at my job, I try to ask myself first; what did I do that made it go wrong. Taking personal ownership of the good is easy and fun but owning the bad is true integrity in my book.
My character and honor are steadfast.
Never flinching in the pursuit of integrity. Making it a priority in your daily activities and not settling for things when you could easily do them the easy way is key. Taking pride in what you do and doing it to the best of your ability will fill you with confidence. This one sucks the most, but it is this DNA that makes up who you really are.
My word is my bond.
Doing what you say you will do. No need to make a “promise”. Just do it. Do it because it’s what you said would happen, not because you promised or because you expect something in return. Just. Get. It. Done.
Show up on time. Have a good attitude. Putt in the effort. Bring energy to what you are doing. Share your passion. Be prepared. Be coachable. Do a little extra. Help others to succeed.
We expect to lead and be led. In the absence of orders I will take charge, lead my teammates and accomplish the mission.
This is probably my favorite part of the creed. Having both ego and no-ego.
Having enough belief in yourself that you feel confident taking charge of a situation and leading others to success and at the same time, when there are others leading, taking a backseat to them and letting them do their thing without critique (unless asked for.) Having true humility.
I lead by example in all situations.
I think about my two young sons a lot when it comes to leading by example. I want them to grow up to be honorable, hard working men. They will only do that if I exemplify those traits to them.
They learn by watching me, not by me telling them things. This is true for your teammates as well. If you run a team or work in a small or large group, others will follow your lead and respect you for putting your money where your mouth is when it comes time to dig in.
These are all things that will lead you down the path of living life as a true warrior.
My Sensei always tells people that Karate isn’t just about punching and kicking, but that it is about helping others and teaching others about the way.
I believe this, fully.
I want to live my life like this.
This is probably the ultimate in “easier said than done” and I do truly miss the mark with this every day trying to live my life this way. Every day is a challenge because the world (especially these days) is so full of negativity and differences of opinion and even violence in so many sad occasions.
The only failure is the failure to try. So I will try my best.
I am going to adopt this creed from the Navy Seals, but I am going to change it up just a little:
I feel compelled to write this, I have to get it out of my head. I’ve been on a journey learning more and more about myself the past few months… Looking at myself in the mirror and exploring who I really am — even when no one is watching with a desperate aim to truly get better as a human being.
The story;
I was at a Martial Arts Seminar, i’ll keep the style and date un-named, because it doesn’t matter. I felt, what i’m pretty sure was, for the first time a level of snobbery in the Martial Arts that I have not yet come across. It was subtle and masked with the ego-less approach that most Martial Artists will bring to a conversation.
…but it was there
I was speaking to a gentleman, who is a high ranked teacher in the arts. He has a pretty full, impressive and diverse history as well.
Japanese Kanji for Kai-Zen
The style of Martial Arts I study; Karate, specifically; Zen Shotokai is made up of a mix of traditional forms. We practice Shotokan, Ishin Ryu and Shorin Ryu as well as Kobudo (Weapons.) We work & practice the traditional components that make up Karate; Kata, Kumite and Kihon we also, as students utilize Bunkai and Oyo as we teach and learn and also during general self-defense practice.
By all accounts and purpose we are a traditional Karate Dojo.
This gentleman and I were having a really great and insightful conversation about what we were watching at the seminar so far that day, I was enthralled by not only what he was saying to me but how he was talking to me. Then he asked me what I studied. So I told him and he immediately said to me that he did not like what I studied, that he didn’t understand why anyone would mix things on any level and that it was bad practice not to keep your style “pure”.
He then told me an anecdote. He said to imagine that you are given a tall glass of fresh, pure spring water and you begin to drink, which represents learning the pure martial art form, then what if he would drip into the water a single drop of oil, which represents something that is not directly a part of that martial art.
As he then proceeded to ask me questions about my study, every time he disagreed with what we did he would say “drop”, after a few questions he then said “tell me when you no longer want to drink from the glass of water.”
It’s a fine story in and of itself…
However, I immediately got angry.
Pretty sure I got a bit red in the face.
I felt insulted, I’m a Blackbelt after all, which represents something earned, something I worked very hard to achieve for several years.
I believe in it fully… and who is this guy to question the what, why and how I practice my art…?
Seriously…
Later as we were all back at the seminar and watching the attendees practice I tried to think about why I got angry, what was it that he said that got under my skin.
Was it that he was questioning the validity of what I do? The legacy of my Dojo? Or was it the manner of his delivery?
As I thought on it more, I came to realize it was more that my ego got bruised.
The reality is I don’t really know this person, we don’t train together, we certainly aren’t friends, i’ll probably never see him again and really what do I care about his opinion of me and the way I do things in my life.
I don’t need to compete with public opinion or his opinion.
I only need to compete with myself to get better each day I wake up.
If i’m being honest with myself, I allowed him to insult me, I allowed my need to impress another person be the cause for being insulted.
I don’t think he really meant to teach me the lesson I learned, but he did in fact teach me a good one that day.
He was right, I need to stay pure. I need to stay inwardly focused and look at myself with fresh eyes every day.
In Karate there is a simple test to see if someone knows a Kata or not. You ask them a simple question like; “How many front stances did you just do?” If you get an answer promptly and confidently you know. If not, you also know.
Musashi
This is because when the student is practicing with mindfulness, they will not only just go through the motions of the Kata, but they will internalize it. They will then learn how to learn even when they are not “physically” practicing.
Still with me…?
Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world. — Miyamoto Musashi — A Book of Five Rings
Going through the motions…
I do find myself just going through the motions almost every day. I hate it. Quite often I’ll sit back and be unable to reconcile how the week or month has already passed me by so dang fast. I mean, it’s almost the end of the year already. How did that happen?
I got to thinking about this…
I need to spend more time in contemplation. Resting physically but thinking through things mentally. Truly contemplating the meaning of things that happen or are about to happen. Not only for my business but my personal life and interactions with the world as well.
I need to understand why I react the way I do to things and get ahead of those reactions so I can understand how I am, by knowing what I am. This can be done by thinking outwardly about the world but at the same time keeping my focus inward.
In the well known Samurai tomb Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo the author postulates that it would be rare if you asked a Samurai about the true meaning of the way of the Samurai and got a quick and concise answer back:
Although it stands to reason that a Samurai should be mindful of the Way of the Samurai, it would seem that we are all negligent. Consequently, if someone were to ask, “What is the true meaning of the Way of the Samurai?” the person who would be able to answer promptly is rare. This is because it has not been established in one’s mind beforehand. From this, one’s unmindfulness of the Way can be known.
The Hagakure
Negligence of my own mindfulness is a real thing and something I do not spend enough time on. Even the most famous of the Samurai are guilty… we all have work to do apparently.
In the very least if I have experienced something whether positive or negative in my daily routine I should take a minute and just think on it. Find my perspective on how what happened or how I reacted fits with my core principles. Then move on.
Not dwell on it, but catalog it, contrast it and set my mind for the very next time something similar occurs. Find and stay in a “data collection” state instead of a “reactionary” state. Then use that data to learn and improve.
Ever heard the saying that you can’t control what happens to you but you can control the way you respond to it?
That is a very real thing.
Let me tell you that I regularly suffer with negative thoughts. I am always thinking “why me” or “what next”. I get stuck in these negative mental loops and before I know it, it feels like the world is against me and I physically start to feel like crap.
Whatever you hold in your mind on a consistent basis is exactly what you will experience in your life.
Tony Robbins
Something that I’ve started practicing is “Gratitude.” Turns out it takes a good deal of practice. Life is hard and it’s full of bullshit. However if you are waiting for something bad to happen, it will.
The idea here is to take a brief moment every day to just sit, breathe and try to think about things you are thankful for. You can spend just 5 minutes doing this and you’ll be well on your way to some serious self awareness and peace.
Don’t let the world “happen to you” be forward thinking and feeling so that you can shape the way you see and respond to things in your life with a positive spin.
Recent research performed in 2015 showed that patients with heart failure, who completed gratitude journals showed reduced inflammation, improved sleep and better moods thus dramatically reducing their symptoms heart failure after only 8 weeks. — https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/gratitude-appreciation/
There is a story in the book Hagakure, by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, about a Samurai Warrior who, before going to sleep each night, meditated and visualized that all his belongings, friends and family were all completely consumed in a huge fire. He did this so that when he woke up the next morning he would see things with a grateful light. He would then go through his day just being happy that he had all of his loved ones and belongings returned to him.
Obviously this is an extreme example of practicing gratitude, but this story helps me think of other ways that I can cultivate gratitude in my life and try to live with a thankful mentality.
What are some things you are grateful for in your daily life?
Confidence is a great thing to develop in all of us. It helps you take risks and push yourself to be where you’ve never been before. When we study and train hard to know our material as a Karate Student it helps us to build confidence when we test for our next rank or perform at a tournament.
Over-confidence can get you into trouble though. As a professional web designer, over-confidence in my skills and abilities has definitely lead me to take on more work than I could get done in the past, which resulted in me letting people down by not completing their projects on time when they needed it.
There is a huge difference between Confidence in your abilities and having an out of control ego. One area that this materializes in is how you give and take criticism.
Ego says “I can do no wrong”, where confidence says “I can get this right.” Confidence says “i’m valuable”, where ego says “i’m invaluable.”
Have you ever been in a situation where someone else is chiming in on a conversation and it feels like they are encroaching on your area of expertise or influence? Do you ever feel like they are treading all-over your turf? Have you ever said things out of a need to protect your authority? Like being overly critical or cynical about someone’s work…
Try to be aware of yourself when you are contributing to something for real vs. when you are just feeding your own ego. Giving up some of your “turf” to either give or receive help from others may be painful at first, but this is how you truly stay ahead of the game.
In my experience, when i’ve been truly confident (and not over-confident) it’s because i’ve worked hard to prepare and through that preparation i’ve learned about what it means to fail and to try to do something right over and over again. It’s through this path that I really learn things about myself that I can apply to making me a better person and at the same time better at what it is that I do.
brēT͟H/ verb To take air into the lungs and then expel it, especially as a regular physiological process. synonyms: inhale and exhale
Your breathing is one of the most important and integral parts to your survival. Yes, if you don’t or can’t continue to breathe you die, literally. But if you can’t regulate your air intake and control your breath then you will simply not perform at your best. It’s that simple.
Breathing can also regulate your stress levels, when it’s out of control you can literally panic or your stress and fear can put you in a downward spiral of failure BUT when you can control it you can do amazing things. Your mind can absolutely control your body and the breath is a pathway to that realization.
Warriors, like the Navy Seals, use a breathing technique called box-breathing to regulate their airflow and control their mind and body when they are called upon to perform.
This technique will help you cool down your body as well as find your mental-center.
Use the breath flow animation above from Quiet Kit when you need something to help you get going with Box Breathing.
Box Breathing How-to:
Inhale for 4 seconds (as the circle expands)
Hold your lungs full for 4 seconds (as the circle stays fully expanded)
Exhale for 4 seconds (as the circle shrinks)
Hold your lungs empty for 4 seconds (as the circle is contracted)
One of my mentors Mark Divine, creator of SealFit & former Navy Seal, teaches in-depth about the way we breathe and various breathing patterns you can use during a performance or generally to control your emotional state.
I can 100% attest to the validity of having “breath control.” I used it extensively before and during my Blackbelt test to calm myself down and find my mental-focus. Also during moments when I had to push through and get something done at a high level. It really does work and it has become an integral part of my personal arsenal as a martial artist.
When I hear the word “Attentiveness” I immediately think about my training. What it means to “train”, what it means to focus.
I think about the difference between training and working out. Working out is just going through the motions, training is working towards a goal.
I want so badly to get better and make improvements every time I train and sometimes I’ve found that you can try too hard. So what’s the key, what’s the secret to good training?
What iv’e found lately, that for me, the key to making progress and getting better is to just pay attention to what you’re doing. It sounds more simple than it really is in practice though. Sensei will constantly ask us to “listen” to what he says and do what he’s asking for. Nothing more, nothing less. You just have to listen, interpret and do. Sometimes you just get keyed up or want to move fast or whatever and that’s a recipe for mistakes. Especially if you aren’t really paying attention and just going through the motions.
Practice does not make perfect.
Perfect practice makes perfect.
Vince Lombardi Jr.
The author George Leonard wrote a great book called “Mastery”. He goes into a lot of detail about how important it is to be attentive and pay attention to the “now”; yes, keep your eyes on the prize, but don’t focus solely on it.
What if you’re practicing wrong? Then you get very good at doing something wrong. Slow down… pay attention… focus…
Practice thoughtfully in the now and you’ll reach your goals.
I have historically not been a strong advocate for Goal Setting. I mean I’ve set goals and worked towards them, but the official “setting of goals” thing… You know writing them down and all that. It always seemed like the goals I was hearing other people set were just pulled out of thin air. For example; Generate $100,000 of income this calendar year, or lose 30lbs by this time next year. They always just sounded hollow and not very thought out to me. My thinking was why not just live life better and do what you say you’re going to do… right?
I have learned to at least be humble enough to admit when I am wrong…
About three years ago I met Mark Divine a Navy SEAL and founder of SEALFIT, among his many other accolades. Knowing him and utilizing him as a mentor has changed my life in so many ways, but the one that has affected me the most is the way he sets goals.
In his book The Way of the Seal: Think Like an Elite Warrior to Lead and Succeedhe outlines a system called P.R.O.P. that helps you develop a clear course of action to work toward and accomplish your goal(s). P.R.O.P. stands for (Priorities, Realities, Options, and Path).
The details of P.R.O.P go like this:
Priorities: First of all a good goal is something that is of high-value to you personally. Make a list of a half dozen really important things in your life and then pick the top three.
Realities: Be honest and clear with yourself about your current situation in life and how much influence it will have on your goals. How does your current situation help or hamper your ability to achieve those goals.
Options: After you’ve reviewed your prioritized goals and thought through your personal situation as it relates to them. Write out three things you can do to achieve each of your goals. It’s okay to combine things from other goals as well here.
Path: Now that you have a few choices for a course of action, which one fits you the best right now? This becomes your path for developing a real plan to accomplish your chosen goal(s).
You need to literally write this stuff down. Make it public if you can, do whatever helps drive you to complete your tasks that push you to the finish line.
I’ve put together a worksheet, that you can download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gju5ni2vqsk47uu/focusplan.pdf?dl=0, based on an older model that Mark Divine sent me that I have tweaked over the years to suit how I work. I am sharing it with you now in hopes that it will help you focus in on your own set of personal goals and find lasting success.
Good luck!
Email me and let me know how it goes: gene.crawford@gmail.com
I was talking with a friend the other day, I haven’t heard from him in quite some time. Turns out he’s been doing some coaching, working with Division 1A college athletes and one of his students was just in a big championship game.
He told me about something they work on before the season starts called “Positive Self-Talk”. They develop one or two statements that the athlete can say before and during training or during their performance. We all kind of do this, kind of like the little engine that could thing; “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!”
It’s tricky though, you need to be careful what you say to yourself. Avoid things like bad talk or negative reinforcement. Like “don’t screw this up” or “don’t fall down.” Keep it forward focused and centered around your performance. For example a runner might say; “Head down, knees up, kick hard, move fast” or something of the sort. Special Forces Operators have a saying “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.” when they need to move quickly but be very accurate.
10 Minute Toughness by Jason Selk
In the book 10-Minute Toughness, by Jason Selk, there is a chapter on “mental clutter” that is all about how to eliminate this type of thought. The author calls it “Don’t Thinking”. Which is a series of thoughts that you continue to cycle through that focus on what you do not want to do, instead of what you should do like in the runner example.
How to fix this: Instead of thinking of what you don’t want to do, reframe your thoughts on a “performance statement” that gives you a key to being positive and focuses on improvement. The example the author gives is an NHL Hockey Player. Instead of thinking; “Don’t miss this shot, don’t hit the ice before the puck”, they would think “I am relaxed and smooth; my shot is on target and powerful.”
How to get there: As an exercise, imagine that you are about to step into the biggest situation of your life. Be it a football game, winning golf swing or even a big sales call. Think sixty seconds before you start that the world’s greatest coach or mentor is standing beside you and gives you some advice. They tell you that if you remain focused on one or two things you will be successful. Write down those one or two things. **Be as specific as you can, be totally honest with yourself and avoid using the word “don’t”.
Design your determination and regularly practice being positive.
I had a quick conversation this morning after a 5:00am workout with a good friend of mine. We’re both training together and share a lot of the same unique year end goals, Blackbelt test. We talked about how other folks have seen our workouts and say that we push too hard, because what we show during training will only ratchet up the level of expectation during that test.
I’m not in the gym and the dojo day in and day out for the purpose of the test itself. Yes, it’s a goal, it’s a target that i’m reaching for, but that is only for motivation. There is plenty of work to be done to get to the point of being able to actually test in a year, but the work I put in during training is for me. That was my response; “I’m doing this for me, not for a test.” I mean this 100%.
If I’m only doing this to get ready for a test then I feel like i’ve already failed myself. By the time next January gets here, I don’t want to be in a position where I really care one way or the other that I pass. I want to KNOW that i’ve given everything I can in training for my own personal gain and growth and that the test is just that, a test, to see how I stack up. With the goal being to have already passed before I get to that point. To train just for the test itself feels conceited and beyond the point. Isn’t true humility the act of internalizing what you learn today and then using it to grow into a better version of yourself tomorrow?
So after meditating about this conversation and while writing out these ideas i’m having, I did what I always do and researched warriors who have gone before me. I found this Viking quote which I now love:
A warrior feeds his body well; he trains it; works on it. Where he lacks knowledge, he studies. But above all he must believe. He must believe in his strength of will, of purpose, of heart and soul.
My single purpose in training is to be a better me. The test is just that, a test to see if I’m better than I am now. If I allow more than that into my mind, then I will fail because I will have lost the reason for doing it in the first place.
I was at my second Spartan Sprint at Ft. Bragg in 2016. Just as the year prior, and at most Spartan races, the teams from Operation Enduring Warrior were there. I always see them and they inspire me at every event. It amazes me to see them struggling and fighting through one of these tough races and all the people helping them along the way setting an example for everyone to see about sacrifice and honor. Truly inspiring. However there is a moment that happened to me today that will forever change how I see things and it’s really timely for me personally too.
There is a specific obstacle that has a fairly high wall and on top of it sits an even higher set of what ultimately forms a huge ladder, maybe going about 20 to 25 feet up high. It has two sides forming an “A” frame deal. As I approached this obstacle with my two race teammates we ran past a decent sized crew of the OEW folks. As I jogged by I saw that the person in the center had no legs, he was walking upright but had prosthetics and crutches. He was also dressed out in battle dress, just not a ruck or gas mask like the others. I thought to myself, man, that’s awesome, but continued on. This was roughly 2 miles into the race and I was starting to feel some fatigue and race pain, not good…
As each of my teammates jumped up and got to going over the obstacle and just before I went up on it myself, this crew of OEW people came up behind me. They started to attack it by hoisting up the guy with no legs, just on my heels. As I went over the top and was coming down the other side I was just about face to face with this gentleman and I noticed as I was looking into his eyes that he was completely blind and ALSO missing a hand. His team was communicating with him loudly and clearly while moving rather quickly over the obstacle together. I jumped off and just watched them work it together and my teammates came back to me and stood beside me and we just watched them together. We watched as one of his crew ran around the obstacle and jumped up to help him over from our side, then I noticed that this man climbing up was missing a leg and had a prosthetic as well.
This is when my chest tightened up and tears rolled down my face…
What moved me so much today was that in that instance when I saw this man was blind it changed my notion of LIMITS. This man’s idea of what his personal limits are go far, far, far beyond what my view of my own personal limits are. Here is this man that was likely blown up in a combat situation, a few thousand miles form his home and family, now missing both his legs, his eyesight and his hand (and god knows what else…) and is out here pushing and bravely going through this challenging and scary course. I simply could not contain my emotions as all this hit me.
As my own definition of what LIMITS are to me changed right before my eyes…
What gives you that sense of determination in your life?
I just saw that comedian and actor Eddie Izzard has run 27 marathons in 27 days, actually doubling up on the last day because of a rest day he was forced to take half way through his 27 days. Something that may go unnoticed to most people just seeing this headline/story today is that in 2009 he completed 43 marathons in just 51 days…
This gets me pretty excited to see him do this, maybe it’s because i’m 41 and trying to reach some pretty lofty goals myself over this coming year. It fuels me in a huge way and if I wasn’t really a fan of his before I am now.
Mr. Izzard says he chose 27 in 27 days to bring light to Nelson Mandela’s time in prison in South Africa. Speaking of Mandela, I’m reminded of this poem by William Henley that he has historically been cited as using to keep himself and other inmates sane during his 27 year incarceration. Which mind you, his “imprisonment” was what we would call “solitary confinement” here in the US. It has been said that he was allowed 1 day and 1 letter a year for communication with the outside world.
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley
I think of the unbelievable mental aspect to what Eddie Izzard has just accomplished. The mental strength you have to have in order to get through one marathon, much less 27 and to end with 2 in one day…
