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To Quit, Or Not To Quit?

My attention was brought recently to a newsletter article by Mark Divine from SealFit.  SealFit is an Integral Training program, popular with CrossFit Athletes, Special Ops, and professionals interested in Elite Fitness.  SealFit clients include Professionals, CrossFit and serious athletes, special operations candidates and others who seek serious mental toughness training and wish to learn to operate at peak capacity for long periods of time.

Divine’s article addresses the issue of what separates survivors from quitters in extreme challenges.  Here are some excerpts that I have modified for you to read:

We’ve started to look at what separates survivors from quitters in extreme challenges.  When you look at the tactics used by successful SEALs, SealFit graduates, Ultra endurance athletes and survivors of natural disasters, the tactics and behaviors used are surprisingly similar, and better yet, are trainable.

We’ve previously discussed how the “quit option” is more complicated than it appears.  It is easy to tell yourself “no way will I quit,” when in reality your belief systems driving your subconscious mind are telling you quite the opposite.

We can also address the short term pain of suffering as compared to the long term pain of regret.  The higher the risk and the stakes, the higher the suffering required to prevail.  Also the higher the regret associated with failure.

In some cases, as with mountain climber Aaron Ralston who chopped his arm off after 127 hours of being stuck between a rock and hard place, quitting is simply not an option.

At SealFit we have also previously looked at how our belief systems limit our physical performance, something we call the 20X factor.  We are capable of at least 20 times what we think we are.  The only thing standing between us now, and the 20X us, is our “knowingness” of this fact.  Again it is our subconscious mind, not our “thinking” mind, which either supports or torpedoes a belief such as this.

Research shows that 12% of our brain-power is handled by our conscious “thinking” mind while 88% is handled by our subconscious mind.  Wow!  I want to know how to tap into that 88%, don’t you?  (I call the conscious or thinking mind our “monkey mind” because it is always grabbing for the next thought or stimulus and doesn’t take time to pause or digest what it is already chewing on!)

Fortunately for us, what we seek to accomplish with our SealFit awareness training is to tame the monkey mind, and develop mental toughness.  Here are some more tactics to help guide us.

Set Goals the right way. Yes, I know.  Goal setting is mundane isn’t it?  Have you reviewed your goals today? Have you worked on the #1 thing today that is going to move you closer to your major goal tomorrow?  What happens when your goals fail to be realistic?  Do you have a method for checking it against reality?  Are you tracking them?

Goal setting is a very powerful tool, and it is useless when done willy-nilly.  Goal setting helps us to maintain a positive and forward momentum, a way to track our progress, and a way to focus our efforts on the important, rather than just the urgent, things.  Proper goals are stated in precise and positive terms.  They are measurable and have a modest time frame associated with them.  Too short, and either they are not meaty enough, or you are setting yourself up for failure.  Too long, and you lose the urgency and they fall off the radar.

Goals must be achievable, in that you have the potential to accomplish them with the skills and resources available.  Also they must be realistic; even if achievable, are they realistic for you to even go for it?  For example, I may be able to achieve a 400lb deadlift someday, but it is not realistic a goal for me at my age to spend the time and injuries to achieve it.

When the going gets tough, goals take on a whole new level of importance.  In the tough spots I recommend to collapse your goal setting to the very near term.  I call these “micro-goals.”  The great thing about micro-goals is that they lead to “micro-victories.”  You stack up enough micro-victories and pretty soon you have achieved a huge milestone!

Here’s an example of a terrible goal, using our SEALs Hell Week to help illustrate:  A terrible goal would be to “make it to Friday.”  When you are in the depths of despair on Monday morning at 4am, colder than a surfer in Anchorage, sleep deprived and depressed, Friday seems a very, very long way away.  A better goal would be to make it to sunrise.  The sun has a remarkable ability to both warm you up, and cheer you up. T hings suddenly don’t look as bad at 7am as they did at 4am.  Micro Goal.  Micro Victory.  Next.

The hidden secret with micro-goal setting is that it forces our monkey mind to focus on what is happening right now, rather than what may happen in the future where it wishes to be.  Focus on the next meal, the next event, or even the next footstep.  These short and achievable goals help to enlist our monkey mind to be an ally versus enemy in our fight.

Those are some really helpful tips on goal setting so as not to set yourself up to quit or fail!  I suggest you all put some of those tactics to the test, especially as we move forward toward CrossFit Regionals and the Games.  Train like champs, set realistic and “micro-goals”, and you just might start to watch all your desired milestones come a lot closer within reach. 🙂

Today’s Workout:

Buy-in: 4 rounds of – 50 single skips, 8 ohs (bar or pvc), 10kbs

  • then thruster practice up to wod weight

WOD:  Sectionals 11.6 – Thruster, Pullup

Last one gang!

For total reps:

  • 7 min AMRAP of:
  • 3 thrusters (65/100), 3 ctb pullups
  • 6 thrusters, 6 pullups
  • 9 thrusters, 9 pullups…. and so on, increasing by 3 reps each round until the time runs out
  • Chest MUST touch the bar on the pullups for them to count
  • Ear visible in front of the arms at top of thruster
  • Full depth squat each rep on thrusters

Zone 4:  scale to regular pullups

Zone 3:  scale to 55/75lb thrusters

Zone 2:  scale to 45/65lb thrusters, assisted pullups

Zone 1:  scale as needed

Cash-Out: Cheer on  your buddies then 1k easy jog as a team (if raining, group stretch)

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