by Ed Sealy
The Open has almost wrapped up! What will we do for our creepy Dave Castro Thursday announcements now? It also happens to be that time of year where businesses take their first look at quarterly performance and in this case that would be the 1st Quarter.
As the team here looks at the business of CTF, it’s also good to remember that all of us are also in the business of “Me.” You are your own business. You should also be your #1 priority as well as your own #1 fan.
So from that perspective, let’s take a moment to evaluate our “Why.”
Maybe you made some New Year’s Resolutions. Maybe you are more like me and didn’t. But either way, take some time to think about how things are going. Maybe you were building towards The Open, or just finished up The Nutrition Challenge, or just trying to regain the habit of checking in and doing some work, the question now is, “What’s NEXT?”
Good news, I’m not here to try and sell you anything or promote any specific program. I’m more interested in helping anyone who is interested to find that next thing. And that “thing” can be big or small.
When we talk about a “Why” in the gym sense, we are referring to the reason you train as well as the specific goals in the pipeline that will impact how we guide you through the journey that is training.
Those can start off very vague with statements like “I’m trying to lose weight” or “I want 2017 to be my fittest year of my life” and they can also become very specific statements like “I want to get my first pullup or muscle up” or “I want to do MURPH unbroken while wearing a weight vest.”
From our Team’s perspective, we have all kinds of programs and processes in place to create the path from here to those objectives with 2 of the best ones being our No Sweat Intro and Goal Settings and Reviews. But again, I’m not here to sell.
What I really want to do is get inside your brain for a few paragraphs.
What’s coming next, like almost everything we do at CTF, is just as useful in day to day application. This also may not be for everyone, but if you are like me and occasionally like to hit the reset button these thoughts might help light the fire for progress.
Let’s start by taking an honest look at the last three months. Did you have any specific goals in place? Has there been any progress? The important thing in this space is to not look back from a place a judgment. I’ll say that again… DO NOT JUDGE THE PAST!
Be a student of your own experiences. Look at a period of time in its entirety and ask yourself “What did I learn?”
Once you have done that, you should be able to ask yourself either “What’s next?” Or if you didn’t quite hit the mark on our goals, “What needs to change to achieve them?” Sometimes in that situation you will also have to ask if the goal or objective was the correct one, so you may also need to shift direction.
In all of those situations it is important to spend some time… real time not just 2 minutes in the shower, thinking about what you want.
Then Decide!! You can’t sit on the sidelines, or a cloud of uncertainty forever. You must choose and then you must choose to ACT!
Now, here’s the juice and I made you read for a while to show yourself that you can already stick it out. The secret to accomplishing all of your goals and objectives… is that there is NO secret (yup… that was a Kung Fu Panda reference… you’re welcome!). You have to do the work.
The solution may be simple, but that does not mean that it will be easy. You are going to have to clock in every day to break out on your own. No one can do it for you. You have to ACT. Don’t worry about what other people think, or what other people are doing. Their goals aren’t yours. Their situation (ie. Mobility, experience, strengths, and weaknesses) are not yours. Do you.
If I you could only do 2 things daily with purpose that could help you achieve all that you ever could dream of both in and out of the gym they would be the following.
1. Visualize Daily. Whatever you focus on consistently is what you will become. There is a lot of science in visualization, so be specific when you do it. If you are visualizing a lift, movement, a competition, or giving a speech at work, visualize the room, the colors on the wall, the logos, the cold of the bar, the cloud of chalk, the faces and clothes of the people in the room… you get the point. The more specific you get the more real it becomes for your brain. The more real it becomes for the brain, the more confident you will be in your own execution.
2. Embrace Change. Fall in love with discomfort or change like it is the oxygen you need to survive. All of the magic happens on the fringes of our abilities, so learn to love the uncomfortable feelings you get when you dance in the areas just past what you are comfortable in. We spend too much time seeking a state of comfort. Do not allow the search for comfort be the obstacle to achieving all of the success that you desire and deserve.
I use this a lot in golf when people would ask me why their game fell apart. Truth was that it didn’t fall apart overnight. Your body is always looking for a state of comfort in motion, so if you wake up one day and are just a slightly stiff, and that stiffness may not even be perceived, that stiffness will alter the movement in an attempt to remain comfortable. This slight shift happens daily and slowly erodes the foundation of the “Good” movement we had. So we need to stay diligent, even in the things we take for granted. Being uncomfortable is awesome and where true change can and will occur.
So, that’s some pretty heavy shit. But the question of “Why” shouldn’t be taken lightly.
I hope all of you out there take some time to do your own quarterly review and that some of the tips here can be helpful for you. Remember, you can’t pour from an empty cup, so time well spent on yourself isn’t being selfish, it’s actually some of the best time you can spend.
And always remember that you are a part of a team here at CTF that is here to help. So once you spend some time in reflection, give us a shout.
If YOU, as a CTF member, are ready to take that next step, set up a Goal Setting and Review Session. Use the promo code “IMAWESOME” from now until the end of April and the session is FREE!
It could very well be the 25 minutes of your life that propel you to the next level of training. And the best part… I’m still not selling anything. Both of those services are FREE!!! We are here for you when you are ready… it’s up to you to ACT!
Stay awesome my friends!!