This might be an obvious statement, but from what I’ve seen it’s tough to conquer. Success is born from being consistent, both in the gym and in your personal life. Let’s talk a little about what that means for you.
Do you have a topic you’d like to hear on our podcast? Drop us a note at brandon@grapevinecrossfit.com!
We are in the growth business…all aspects of it: physical, emotional, and mental. As humans, one of our biggest drawbacks is that we want things to happen now instead of reaping the benefits of hard work and consistency later. All people new and old to the fitness space need to hear this…growth happens with focus and time. If you’re not focused and not giving it time it simply won’t matter what amount of effort you give. This episode covers the mentality of growth and the tools needed to see it through. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns hit us up at brandon@grapevinecrossfit.com. We’d love to hear from you!
Do you have a topic you’d like to hear about? Shoot us a message at brandon@grapevinecrossfit.com!
Hydration is key to optimal living and performance. Here’s a quick insight to getting your daily dose of H2O.
Have any topics you’d like to hear covered on our podcast? Shoot us an email at brandon@grapevinecrossfit.com!
6 years ago we lost a really good dude. Hard to believe it’s been that long.
Alex was the guy who started me on the path that I’m currently on. Around 2004 we started training together to go to BUD/s.
Back then the Navy had a buddy program in hopes of having less people quit while going through training because you’d be with someone you knew.
It was during this time we discovered CrossFit and never looked back.
Since I wasn’t able to curb my relationship with college and drinking at that time, trouble got the best of me and he went on to live out that dream on his own.
He spent his entire college career training and preparing for a special warfare crew which eventually led him to the Army as Green Beret.
Dude was a stud. He could do Murph with a weight vest in under 30:00. For those that don’t know, that’s fucking fast.
In the interim he would spend some time at Grapevine CrossFit and easily made friends with anyone that met him. I’ve heard the same from other affiliates he’s been apart of including Ironclad Crossfit.
After years of training and prep, he died on his first tour overseas. The world lost a good friend and teammate that day.
A couple years ago, CrossFit came out with a hero workout in his name which is below with a small story about who he was.
For those looking for a workout today or this week, give this one a go for him.
We miss you Sam Adams.❤️
———————————————
“Viola”
Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
Run 400 meters
11 power snatches, 95 lb.
17 pull-ups
13 power cleans, 95 lb.
Post rounds completed to comments.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Alex Viola, 29, was killed Nov. 17, 2013, in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, from wounds caused by an improvised explosive device. Originally from Keller, Texas, Viola was an engineer assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. He was awarded numerous awards for his service, including the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.
Viola traveled often and worked out at many CrossFit affiliates. Some of his favorite movements were pull-ups, power snatches and power cleans.
He also enjoyed running.
Viola is survived by his parents, Margaret and Frank; and his sister, Christina.
Over the past few weeks we’ve discussed a proven method for planning and setting goals. This same method was the topic of our most recent goal setting seminar that happened at the beginning of January. We would like to build of these seminars each time we do them so if you missed the first one you can read all these posts and catch up on what was discussed and be fully prepared for the next seminar. Check out the links below to catch up on the past posts!
Today we are going to touch on a final thought in relation to above 4 posts, motivation. Motivation can be a funny thing. It can also be a very dangerous thing, especially if you try to rely on it all the time. Fact: motivation will only get you so far. You have to create habits that keep you going especially on the days that motivation is at a low. I discussed this topic in a personal blog post, “Habits Are Greater Than Motivation” if you’d like to dive in a little deeper on that subject. Despite that, it’s still good to lay out some motivators to remind you of why you started this journey in the first place, whatever that journey may be. Here’s a few ways to find some motivation while developing your goals:
There’s so many ways to create or find motivation to keep going when thinking about achieving your goals. I would recommend thinking about all the possibilities when creating a goal, but also think about what has worked or not worked for you in the past when developing them. This will help to keep it simple and assure you’re not walking down the same path of failure as before.
Be on the lookout for our next seminar where we will utilize what has been discussed here and talk about visualization, creating small actionable tasks, and finally go thru the actual process of creating a goal in detail.
Sometimes when you want to diet you just need to DO IT! Be actionable, follow the plan, and stop planning out cheat meals. Oh, and weight fluctuations are totally normal!
Goal Setting: Develop a plan of action
Step 3: Draw up a blueprint and develop a plan of action
Your plan of action does not necessarily need to be detailed. It just needs to give you some direction. Use it as a guideline to help you get started along the journey toward your goal.
Sooner or later you will likely face roadblocks whether you prepared for them or not. It’s better to be prepared somewhat in advance than to have to figure things out on the spot. Having to figure something out on the spot may lend to a disruption in the goal achieving process.
An issue with goal planning and setting is people usually don’t take the time to reflect on what could potentially go wrong. They don’t account for Murphy’s Law.
Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
Subsequently, when something “goes wrong” they are ill-prepared to deal with the situation. Unfortunately, we can’t predict everything that can happen, but putting some effort into the possibilities will go a long way and help you stay on the path. Let’s equate this to a roadblock when you’re on a road trip. You don’t simply turn around and go home right? You make a correction in the path that’s leading you to point B. The same application is true for goals. When you hit a roadblock, it’s time to make an adjustment, not give up.
Similar to the things associated with Murphy’s Law are negative thoughts, or our limiting beliefs. Your limiting beliefs will hinder your progress. You must plan in advance how you will deal with your negative thoughts. Sound familiar? The dark voice inside our heads is realistically one of the biggest hindrances to our goals every single day.
Lastly we must think of the other obstacles such as people, events, and circumstances that don’t play to your favor and always “seem to come up”. These are things that you may or may not be able to control, however, what you can control are your responses to these situations. It’s these responses that will dictate your next steps moving forward, or your ability to keep moving moving forward.
Given all this, take time to ask yourself the following questions:
Every obstacle you face is nothing more but a problem that you can work through with the right resources and the mental resourcefulness to pull it off.
You can be an incredibly resourceful person, however, if your environment does not support your goal then you will subsequently struggle to make progress. Your environment must support all the work you do in the pursuit of your goal (do you recall the congruence discussion??). If friction exists your progress will be affected. It’s at this point that you may need to make some modifications to your environment to optimize your actions and results. With this in mind, take the time to leverage your environment as best as you can so that it helps support what you are trying to accomplish. Simply put, change the things that will get in your way.
After writing out all the things that are related to your goal, things can get kind of jumbled. The notes are there, but it’s necessary to make some sense of them. It’s time to put it all into action.
Where many people go wrong is that they create this magnificent and detailed plan of action utilizing every aspect of the blueprint. When it comes to the implementation of their plan they soon get bogged down in the details and end up giving up on their goal prematurely. It’s necessary to keep things simple and refer to your blueprint as needed. Did a roadblock come up that you have detailed plans on how to overcome? Good, refer to the detailed blueprint.
Laying out your plans in simple easy to read steps and creating small milestones along the way will help to keep things interesting. Utilize your blueprint when things like obstacles and negative thoughts pop up, so you can recall how to overcome them.
We will close this discussion next week with a few thoughts on putting everything into action. Keep your eyes peeled for the announcement on the second seminar happening in February. If you have any questions of goal setting please feel free to reach out to brandon@grapevinecrossfit.com.
???Friday Fire???
If you haven’t had the chance to meet Maggie McCarthy Haley then you’re missing out. Her and Allen Haley have been such a great addition to the gym. Maggie, it’s been such a pleasure having you around! Here’s her CrossFit story:
I am so grateful for Grapevine CrossFit. Thank you for providing such an awesome opportunity for me/Allen to improve our health while creating wonderful friendships.
As a young girl, I was 5 foot 8, rail thin, and told that I would be no good at running. That translated to me being no good at sports. I was/am an avid swimmer, but never attempted any other form of exercise until I met Allen in 1996. I started running here and there, and the next thing you know, I completed a few 1/2 marathons. I started working out with a trainer, but never felt inspired, or that I was doing anything right.
2 years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The following year was brutal on my body–the radiation caused swelling (lymphedema), weight gain, and pain everywhere. I was at wit’s end. I read about “New You” last November at Prime–I had no idea it was actually CrossFit. It just sounded perfect for me–50 years of age and older (I was 51), improving my life through diet and exercise. While I stuck with it for 12 weeks, I still didn’t feel the benefits. (There was no “diet” info, either)
Allen asked me to join him at CrossFit–I was scared to death! I couldn’t even do a proper push up–the thought of doing a burpee terrified me. However, Allen was persistent, and I started fundamentals last March with Jordan. I have been going to class 2-4 times/week since.
When I started, I just wanted to feel better. The pain and swelling I had caused me to become inactive, to the point where I could not get myself out of the bathtub without help. I couldn’t even take my shirt off over my head.
Now, almost 10 months later, I have accomplished so much! I can do proper pushups, burpees, and box jumps! I can’t remember the last time I felt this good, both physically and mentally. The bonus I have found with Grapevine CrossFit is this–the community. What a wonderful group of people! It means so much to go to class, knowing that you have support and understanding from virtually everyone. I didn’t know I was missing out.
I could truly go anywhere to workout/get healthy–however, I could never find the family I have found at Grapevine CrossFit. Thank you so much for including me.
Gratefully,
Maggie Haley
Step 2: Find Congruence & Discern Consequences
If congruence doesn’t exist between your goal/s, then no matter how badly you may want to have this goal in your life it will always elude you. Addressing the imbalance in advance, meaning before the goal is set and put in action, will ensure that the goal in question is actually the right fit for you.
There’s a saying that fits this step perfectly: “You can’t fit a round peg into a square hole.”
So what does it mean to find congruence? There are 2 ways. the first is between you and the goal and the second is across goals.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to find the congruence both in your life and across goal other goals with the goal you are trying to execute.
Unless your core values, beliefs, lifestyle, self-ideal, priorities, and other goals are aligned with this goal, then you really have no shot at achieving it. If your current lifestyle and priorities are not aligned with your goal, then you will simply not make the time to pursue it. There will just be too many other things to do, or too many other commitments and responsibilities that will get in your way. If there is no alignment here, then you will simply not make the time or take the necessary action steps to bring this goal to fruition. You either need to align these areas with your goal, or you need to change your goal so that it aligns with these areas.
The same is true if you have other conflicting goals. If different life, career, relationship, and health goals are not aligned with this new goal, then there will be conflicts. Do you see the recurring theme here? When there are conflicting goals at play, you will struggle with prioritization and eventually something will need to go. Simply put, you’ll need to sacrifice something (one of your goals) to achieve another goal.
This part of the goal setting format is all about opportunity cost. Are you willing to give something up in your life to reach a goal? Are you willing to forgo one goal in favor of another? Are you willing to adjust a goal to help or be congruent with other goals? You can focus on one area or on another area or find some congruence! Focusing on both goals or multiple goals without congruence might only lead you astray to the point where nothing can get accomplished to a satisfactory level.
This leads us in to the second half of step 2 which is contemplating the consequences of a creating a goal.
Every goal you set comes with a set of consequences. These consequences can either be positive or negative for both you or other people around you. Consider these questions to help determine consequences that may happen due to your goals:
Typically, when we set goals, we are buzzing with excitement. However, this excitement quickly fizzles out when we realize just how much we need to sacrifice to achieve this goal. A real world example of this would be at the start of the New Year. If you’ve ever walked into a big box gym (LA Fitness, Lifetime, etc.) at the beginning of the year it’s generally packed with people that have created a new goal of losing weight and getting in shape…again. Come February this number has gone down by half or more, and by March it’s back to its normal equilibrium of gym goers. It takes a lot of work to get in shape and stay in shape and these people soon give up on their goal because the effort involved is far more than they expected. They weren’t willing to accept the consequences needed to achieve the goal of losing weight and becoming fit.
I hope you are beginning to realize that there is a lot that goes into creating quantifiable, tangible goals. It’s really not as simple as just saying you’re going to do something, especially if it’s BIG.
Next week we will discuss a measuring unit that we can apply to congruence and consequences so that we know for a fact we are ready to tackle these things!