YOUR Very Best

It's just you and the bar

It's so simple yet so hard to do. I preach it to my clients all the time..."focus on yourself, don't worry about what others are doing around you...Compete with yourself... Be better than yesterday"

Saying we like to compete with one another in CrossFit would be an understatement, it is the SPORT of fitness after all. That's one of the reasons we love it! It's competitive. We do it to benchmark our fitness, we do it because it's fun, we do it because it's what keeps us coming back.  SO what's the harm in a little friendly competition? Well if we are doing it for the right reasons, nothing. But when it gets in the way of doing your best than it becomes a problem.

For me, the last two months of post-baby recovery have been rough. I found myself focusing on what others were doing during the workout, jealous of my non-baby bearing friends that were hitting PRs, and insanely obsessed with how fast other Moms could recover...I mean really check out this incredible new Mom athlete with a 2 month old! Everyone around me reassures me that I'm doing great... "take it easy, you just had a baby, you look great, you need your sleep, it took you 9months to get there..." Yes all that is true, my body has to go through some serious healing, but am I giving it my best?

CrossFit workouts are extremely frustrating and difficult for me right now. Things that I used to do easily are a struggle. It's been very humbling. When I first started CrossFit I was already in pretty good shape, so I didn't really have to go through what a lot of newbies do. Yeah I got my ass kicked but I was putting up respectable numbers within my first month. Now I'm at the bottom, I am dead last almost every WOD and I have a new appreciation for what the newbies go through.

Last week I decided that I should probably listen to my own advice and focus on myself. Everyday I go into the gym and I focus on what I can do that day, during that WOD, with where I am at now. Not what I did yesterday, not what other members are doing in the gym, not how I'm going to be the only one working out for 15mins after everyone finishes, not how bad I want to keep scaling the workout so that I can have a somewhat decent time, not how can I be the coach if I can't even RX workouts, not why would anyone listen to me when I'm still 25lbs overweight...ENOUGH! My mind was filled with those negative, unproductive thoughts and I wasn't getting better or having fun. This last week I have made incredible improvements because I made the decision to stop the crazy. I've been having a lot more fun too. This is what my self talk sounds like during a workout now:

"are you giving it your very best? Your very best Shanna, your very best? You promised me your best..." 

That's from Facing the Giants, btw...

Best scene from the whole movie! I love it and it's fueling my comeback! You can use it if you want. I highly recommend that you watch the whole movie too.


This doesn't just apply to CrossFit...this applies everywhere, with everything you do. I'm 100% convinced that the way you do something....is the way you do everything. Let that soak in for a second. I think about that a lot...do I half ass cleaning my house, playing with my son, listening to my husband? Am I too busy comparing myself to others to focus on what I need to do to be my best? Am I taking myself too seriously to have fun? Sometimes the answer is yes, I don't want to be that person ever. I don't want to just go through the motions. What's the point?

This year's mantra:

 "I live with purpose, I live with intention, I give it my very best every time and I have a freaking blast doing it."

Stick it Up Your Nose!

There's something about the smell of Crayola crayons that reminds you being a kid. I can't take credit for this idea, my favorite professor from BGSU who specializes in entrepreneurship and creativity in business, Gene Poor, wrote a whole book on this topic. I remember coming into class one day and he handed us all our own crayons. When we sat down in our seats he said "Okay now I want you to break your crayon in half and STICK it up your nose." We all laughed and did it. For a minute we forgot we were serious MBA students, we were kids again, we were laughing, dreaming, careless kids with limitless possibilities and unadulterated imaginations.

What happens to us as we age? When we make our goals every year, when we plan our future, where did that kid go? Why do we make the same mediocre goals year after year. Why do we limit ourselves? We call them resolutions... I hate new years resolutions, because it has become acceptable to break them. Don't do that to yourself.  Think I wrote something similar last year in my GOALS post. Here's the deal if you want to make a real change in your life then just DO IT. Commit to your decision to change and make it happen. I cannot help you do that. That kid that you used to be knows exactly how to do this. That kid knows how to dream, she knows how to make goals like anything is possible. She doesn't care about being realistic. She doesn't care about what happened in the past. She really doesn't even care what she has to do to make it happen. Seriously ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up....its a straight forward, high energy answer and it usually is stated like a fact. Like there is no doubt in their mind that they are going to achieve that status. Get in touch with that kid, even if you have to stick a crayon up your nose to do it!

That's how I started my goal re-evaluation for this year...with a crayon up my nose. I'm a visual person so after I wrote out my goals in the correct format..."I am_____, I have____, I did______" with the dates I was going to achieve them by,  I created a visual reminder of what I wanted to accomplish this year:

Last year we had three big goals:

1. New flip house

Check

 2. Babies

Check

3. Crossfit Gym. 

Check

If you followed this blog than you know we hit all of those! Be very careful on what you put out into the universe, it almost always comes true. Think about that the next time you are worrying or better yet complaining.  This year we have one major goal:

We are completely debt free by December 31st 2012. Total financial freedom.

Our gym isn't exactly a cash cow and we both don't have "traditional" jobs....we've been broke for long enough. We've learned a lot, we've grown a lot, we've been humbled and we've decided that we had enough.

Other goals of mine include: getting back to my pre-baby weight, 120lb snatch, a muscle-up, visiting my brother in San Fran, going to New York City in December and reading 6 new books.

Bring it on 2012! Bring it on!