During a conversation with a client in one of my classes today, I started thinking about attitude and how it relates to a person’s willingness to try new things. And then I saw this quote:
“I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed. And the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I fail and keep trying.”
Sounds pretty simple, when you put it that way. If you want to succeed, you have to try first, right? Well, it would seem that our CrossFit Kids have that very attitude down pat.
For the rest of the day, the more I thought about attitude and the willingness to try new things, the more I began to dwell on the examples I’ve seen of this in my CrossFit Kids classes. There’s something really pure and amazing about the unshakeable faith in themselves that some children have. It’s as though it never occurred to them that they might try and fail at something. And when you harness that attitude and steer it in the right direction, what you have is a continuously developing human being who is ready, willing, and excited to take on the world and try any challenge you can throw at them!
Why can’t all of us adults be more like that? What if we were to go into every situation without doubts, without fears, without that destructive inner monologue, without the thought that you might fail? What if we all were to take on a new challenge with the assumption that it will eventually be surmountable with enough effort? This is a hard concept to put into practice at times, but it is one that has endless value.
Here’s a video of one of our CrossFit Teens taking this very concept to heart. After our Halloween WOD, Jyotish Khanna decided he wanted to “play around” with some Box Jumps. A very short time later, he had escalated to an impressive 45-inch box and had secured his FIRST EVER Box Jump PR!
If a fearless 14-year-old can essentially ‘leap without looking’, why can’t YOU?
Today’s Workout
Buy-in: Turkish Get-ups – 1 per side x 5 rounds – increase weight each round if possible
WOD: Goat Practice
We’ve had two hard workouts already this week, time to slow things down and work on skills. Choose 2 goats and work on them for 20 minutes. Focus on technique development and accuracy of movement. Talk to your coach if you are unsure of what to work on.
Cash-Out: Tabata Scrambled Row – 8 rounds each of alternating row and burpees – i.e. 20s row, 10s rest, 20s burpees, 10 s rest x 8. Get some room around your erg cause this will be an exercise in not only your fitness but your ability to transfer onto and off of the erg. Set the rowers up for “just row” – total metres traveled over all intervals as shown on screen plus total burpees is your score – workout timed by main clock.
One big mistake of society is that it place limitations on us when we make the transition from teen to adult. As a child the world is so positive. Somewhere along the way we are then bombarded by all this negativity. “You can’t do that your not____ enough.” is what I always heard when I was growing up. I really think during that transition phase I wasn’t growing up but rather getting smaller in my thoughts and ambitions. I honestly think the solution is to always stay young at heart and never grow up, which is why I’m the way I am today 😉
That’s an impressive box jump! Well done, Jyotish!
And well said, Harrison – there can be a lot of negativity, doubt, and discouragement in the world sometimes. It is hard, but worth the effort, to smash that B.S. aside and do your thing.
Great post, Shannon! I always find myself in awe of the kids who are fearless and willing to try anything without fear of falling (or failing). I think a big part of this is that kids have a “sense of play” that as adults we are taught to temper. There is a lot more room to try things that may not work when involved in a game setting, because being silly is part of the fun.
A second part of the equation is that adults have, over time, often developed a fear of judgment by others. Our motto, “check your ego at the door”, encourages an atmosphere of excellence without prejudice. The gym is one of the only places in my life where I feel that I can be myself, be silly, and have fun. I think this weekend’s dance-off proves the point quite well. The community that we’ve built at the box fosters this kind of play in essence _because_ we dissuade judgment and ego. But I agree that we can (work hard to) play even more, and Jyotish is a perfect model. 🙂
Thanks for the post Shannon!
It was fun to watch the process and the ability to rule one’s mind. It is so easy to let the little voice in our head tell us what to do, when we quiet the little voice we can accomplish whatever we want to create for ourselves.
Only one thing about the quote. The word “try”. To me “try” is about failure and “do” is about success. When we try we are saying let’s see what happens, I might succeed, but I might fail too. We leave that negative door open. When we say I am going to…. or I will do this…. we are only establishing a successful outcome. Our brain will believe anything we tell it!
Just my thoughts! Of course, I am the proud father of the jumper too!;-)
That explains a lot Harrison 😉 That is the truth for sure!
Well said Shannon! If we could all think like kids again, it would be amazing to see what we could accomplish. This post is perfect timing, especially for those competing this weekend and all the mind games that come with it.
I have been trying lately to go into every workout without thinking about how I will do, I just go in and do the best that I can in that situation. So far, when I do that, it works 🙂
Attaboy Jyotish! Nice leap budday. I like the fact that even after the first balked attempt, you “got right back on the horse” like Shannon said and conquered that jump. Great work.
Good comments gang, I find there is a lot of talk about “the can-do attitude” but very little action. One thing I try to do is talk less about what I’m going to do and just go and do it. Of course now I’m going to leave a quote from the great Ronnie Coleman – “ain’t nothing to it but to do it” 😉
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