“Success comes to the lowly and poorly talented but the special characteristics of a great person is to triumph over the disasters and panics of human life”

Life isn’t fair. It has a crazy way of getting the best of all of us at times. You will miss lifts, you will have bad days, and you will get beat. You will get beat by people you know you are better than. People that you know you work harder than. I see it every day. I see life to be this way. It’s tough but I have to keep falling back on my character.

I don’t care who you are you will have off days. And more often than not those off days will come at the most inopportune time. When those off days come how will you react? How will you come back after you miss? It is easy to look around and see others doing well and get angry or frustrated and say to yourself, “I’ve worked so hard. How could this happen?” It’s easy to start questioning your programming or your coaching or judging. It’s these times that display our character, who we are as a person. Will you be rattled? Will you be able to let that go and move on to the next workout or the next lift? This is a “call out” post. A call out to everyone who says they work hard. A call out to everyone who thinks they have it where and when it counts. The reality is most who say they do rarely have it. They allow outside events to dictate their reaction. I stress it over and over again and have to keep reminding myself, I can not control outside events but I can control my reaction to the events. After a bad workout, I see many just get beat down. Most will let the entire event fall through just because of the results of one workout. The beauty of the sport of CrossFit is I get several events to make up for a bad workout. I’ve seen it from the best athletes. Athletes that bomb one event but regroup and come back and crush the next event. You see that at the top end of our sport as well. Famously Rich Fronning Jr. started walking on a running event. He didn’t let that one event dictate the rest of the competition. This applies to everything you do in life. I joke all the time and say “Good Morning” to everyone at all times of the day, even the 6 PM class. I say this because it is never too late in the day to make up for any bad things that may have happened. It is never too late to make the day great. It’s never too late to regroup and make the day great. You always have the chance to regroup and refocus.

Life is a cruel mistress. Just when you think everything is going well that’s when you should prepare yourself for the inevitable downturn. Success happens to everyone, even those who are not talented. What differentiates the lowly talented and the greats are how you react when the downturn happens. Will you be one to let that defeat you and bring you down? Or will you be that person who takes a step back, regroups, and comes back even stronger and with more will? That will forever speak to your character!





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