Too often I hear people using reasons as excuses and this prevents them from achieving their potential. Do you do this? A competitive sports mind will naturally analyse and seek to understand when we underperform so that we can find a way to overcome this, but how often do you use your reason as an excuse to quit?
Here I am on the assault bike, I’m finding it tough to clock up the distances/calories quickly even though I’m working as hard as I think I can. Of course this can be demoralising and it would be easy to blame my poor performance on the bike on my size. Yes, I’m quite light, but I realised early on that it wouldn’t be helpful to accept that my bike performance is forever doomed. The assault bike is unlikely to be my best point scoring exercise so I need to work harder at optimising my technique and working smarter. I’m sure that there are people my size and weight who can shift this thing- this is where my focus should go. The 2018 fittest female on earth, Tia Toomey is only a few kilos heavier than me and I’m sure she doesn’t complain to Dave Castro about this- he wouldn’t give a shit! It’s the nature of Crossfit, you win some you lose some. If your doing this sport you need to be aware of your attitude and cultivate a strong, flexible and anti-fragile mindset.
If you find yourself in this situation, be it with running, jumping, weight lifting or gymnastics, acknowledge the reason for your challenge, i.e. “My legs are heavy so it’s a little harder for me to run right now.” But don’t fall into the trap of using this as an excuse. If you want and need to run for your sport then you will want and need to find away around it. Think about how you can turn this around and get yourself in a more positive mindset. An example of this would be, “great, running in a wod again, this is the perfect opportunity for me to practice.” Your ability to turn things around in this way will empower you to improve whilst enabling you to shut up and get on with it with grace and ease (which is what your coach really wants you to do!).
Photo credit: Gareth J Smith
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