THE FIRST RULE OF CROSSFIT
We all know that the first rule of CrossFit is that you have to talk about CrossFit, right? It’s like that airport employee who announces that a flight is about to take off and all remaining passengers must board immediately. A guy runs up to the counter, out of breath. The employee says, “You made it just in time, my dude!” And the guy says, “Oh, no, I’m not on this flight; I just wanted to tell you that I do CrossFit!” We can’t help ourselves; we must talk about it. But I try to keep my posts about it to a minimum, so I hope you’ll cut me a little slack on this week’s topic: life lessons I’ve learned from CrossFit.
I was thinking about this last week while doing some manual labor. I’ve been doing odd jobs lately to pay the bills, and my friend asked me to help him stain a deck. The day I was available to help was the hottest day of the year so far—98 degrees, and it felt like 103, thanks to the Indiana humidity. I worked ten hours, mostly in the sun, sanding and staining. Surprisingly, I was happy as a clam for most of the day. I was getting things done, which is one of my favorite things to do. I had good company with my friend. And I was almost entirely unbothered by the heat, the hard work, and the long hours.
WHY AM I OKAY RIGHT NOW?
I was about 8 hours into what could have very reasonably been a miserable day when I started to wonder: Would I have been able to do this job before CrossFit? I think the answer is no, I would not, for multiple reasons. One is that I’m physically stronger and tougher now. But also, in 11 years of CrossFit, I’ve learned how to suffer well, keep going when things are tough, and enjoy the moment even when the moment doesn’t feel great.
The deck-staining situation highlighted all of this for me in a big way. So, I chose three basic life lessons I’ve learned from CrossFit to share with you today. Here they are:
LIFE LESSONS FROM CROSSFIT
1. It could always be worse. You might think this is a depressing place to start, but this is a game changer when it comes to accomplishing daily tasks. In CrossFit, the weights could always be heavier, there could always be another round, and your partner could always be even faster. (Actually, I don’t think it’s physically possible for my friend Becky to be faster than she is, so she may be the only exception to this rule.)
When something feels incredibly difficult, it’s easy to focus on how hard it is and how terrible you feel. But remembering that it could be worse makes you grateful for what you have and helps you keep going. When I was staining the deck, I reminded myself, “It could be hotter. The deck could be twice this size. I could be alone.” And those thoughts kept me focused on the positives of what I had instead of the negatives.
2. Rest adds up fast. There is nothing more deceptive than pausing to rest in a workout. It feels like you set the barbell down for three seconds, and then a whole minute goes by. Taking a bunch of consistent, even quick, breaks from a task can add minutes or hours to something that would have been done long ago had you just kept going.
While staining the deck, I wanted to rest after finishing a single board. But I knew that if I kept resting, the job would stretch on into eternity. Now, I stopped a couple of times during the day. But overall, I tried to keep rest to a minimum and keep going because the fastest way to finish a big task is simply to keep working. Ultimately, it always feels better to get the job done than to rest or take breaks in the middle.
3. When I don’t feel fine, I’m probably still fine. This is clutch. There were about 15 minutes while I was staining the deck, during which I was extremely hot, but it passed, thanks to this lesson. It’s a big thing I’ve learned from CrossFit: your brain and body send you warning signs when you become uncomfortable because that’s what they’re supposed to do.
But that doesn’t mean you’re not okay, just that you’re out of your comfort zone. It’s important to get out of your comfort zone to experience growth and change and to get things done you otherwise wouldn’t have. So whenever I feel exhausted or overwhelmed in a workout, I remind myself: “You’re okay, just keep going.” It helps me to understand that the warning signs are more about comfort than danger.
HOW I’VE GROWN
All three of these lessons are pretty basic—it’s not like you’ve never heard them before. However, the ability to enact them in a potentially difficult situation felt extremely helpful to me, so I wanted to share them with you. They’re examples of how CrossFit has changed me over the years, and I look forward to how I continue to grow and change going forward.
What helps you keep going when the going gets tough? How do you talk yourself into getting things done in difficult circumstances?
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