BRIGHT SPOTS FRIDAY: Conquer Yourself
The first Open workout was announced last night. In fairly typical CrossFit fashion, when I looked at it on paper, I thought, “That doesn’t look too bad.” Then I read this post on Facebook from the people we use for our programming at Nevermore: “If you’re doing the OPEN – I seriously hope you’re ready to SUFFER. Because this one is going to hurt. BAD.” After which I felt like I really needed to go to the bathroom.
I went to bed thinking, “I don’t want to do this tomorrow. Maybe I’ll wait til Sunday.” But I woke up with a different mindset. This is WHY we do CrossFit…BECAUSE it’s hard. Because not everyone CAN do it. Because it’s going to make me BETTER. Because it’s FUN dammit!
Greg Glassman, founder of CrossFit, is fond of this quote from Mae West: “I never said it would be easy. I said it would be worth it.” Doing what is HARD forces us to GROW. The most rewarding experiences we have are often difficult in the moment. If we put ourselves in the right headspace, we can actually look forward to difficult tasks. Because that is how we will separate ourselves not only from everyone else, but from our own fears as well.
In research for her book Evolve!, Rosabeth Moss Kanter identified three primary sources of motivation in high-innovation companies: mastery, membership, and meaning.
One of the hardest feats I have ever witnessed (on film), was watching climber Alex Honnold free solo (that is, climb WITHOUT ropes) El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. He looked at that huge slab of granite for seven years and thought, “No f*ckin way.” He went on to say, “It’s too big and too scary. But eventually I came to accept that I wanted to test myself against El Cap. It represented true MASTERY…I wanted to do it right.”
I tell new members that the magic of Nevermore is in the community…in the shared experience of like-minded, driven individuals holding each other accountable and motivating each other through shared misery. Kanter sums it up this way…”Heart-wrenching emotion also helps cultivate a human connection. Social bonds and a feeling of MEMBERSHIP augment the meaning that comes from values-based work.”
MEANING can take on different forms for each of us. Maybe it’s a sense of purpose. Or building strength. Or gaining courage. Or becoming more resilient. Perhaps it’s developing self-belief or establishing consistency. The important thing to remember is that ultimately all of these are a form of growth.
You conquer yourself when you do hard things. So when you take the stage this weekend to hit 20.1, do it with whatever you have in your tank. Do it BECAUSE it’s hard. You got this!
What is your Bright Spot this week?!…