Go Be Awesome....at Whatever You Do

a packed and stacked Monday evening..

Quick Notes:

1) SAVE THE DATE: PSKC 2nd ANNUAL GAUNTLET CHALLENGE - JUNE 2ND. This is gonna be pretty damn cool loaded with badassery

2) New beginners' program starts Wednesday at 7pm. Email me to grab a slot.


So you've found PSKC/Crossfit/Kettlebells/Paleo/cool people ..pretty awesome right? Some of you have even taken it to a new level by competing in the worldwide Crossfit open. This is your sport/hobby/passion...and you're excited about it, dare I say even passionate and obsessive (journaling your workouts, food, etc) about it? Is that a bad thing?

Well, if you have a valid explanation and reason why being passionate and happy about becoming healthier and developing your mental and physical fitness is a bad thing..then I'm all ears.

Another question that needs to be considered is before you found barbells/kettlebells/lifting/running as your hobby what hobbies did you have that gave you the same sense of fullfillment and accomplishment? Xbox? Golf? Fishing? Shopping?

Throughout my life I always had a ball to chase..growing up it was football and sports. Then it became the Army...then around age 27, I became a civilian and got a "real job". I didn't have a hobby/extracurricular activity that I was exciting/passionate about. So what was I doing? Playing Xbox, and going out and drinking beer on the weekends. Yeah, I'd workout on my own....but it damn sure wasn't like being able to workout at a place like PSKC in a team environment being surrounded by people who encourage you and want to be better.

That desire to compete, to train, to be better..the prey drive...didn't go away..it was just suppressed unable to find an outlet to manifest itself. That prey drive is a pretty vital important part of who I am and for a lot of you out there as well.

"Primitive talent is an award given to each of us. An award we take for granted by keeping it locked up deep down inside. We subdue our screaming subconscious with busy-work, social media, and projects that make us feel accomplished, when in reality we are more empty than before. Our intrinsic nature quickly becomes a distant memory in exchange for monotony. We soon begin to live defensively forgetting what its like to ever have the ball."

Now that you've found this passion for becoming healthier, faster, stronger, mentally and physically fit you'd like to think everyone would be happy for you. It turns out...sadly...not everyone is. Some can even be turned away and made bitter by the fact that you are taking steps to be better....once your friends...now your critics. (<--click and read this great post by JB).

"Unfortunately, the success of others motivates the critic to bring down the achiever instead of rise to greatness."

Some of the guys I used to play Xbox and drink beer with started to make fun of me and the fact that I was an "exercise Nazi" and wasn't around as much for our nightly Call of Duty sessions and beer drinking Saturdays. It used to bother me at first...but it doesn't any more. Sometimes you've got to realize your true friends are the ones who support and challenge you to become a better person.

Unfortunately, not only do the critics come from your inner circle but from the outside as well...and what seems like the strangest places...damn near the same hobby as you..the fitness community.

In the spirit of full disclosure and honesty, when I first found Crossfit and drank the functional fitness kool-aid I used to make fun of everything that wasn't crossfit/kettlebells/lifting...then I realized something...I was an asshole (still am but trying to less of one).

If you're a Yoga/Zumba/Spinning/brisk walking person and that's how you found found fitness, and you become better and healthier from it...that's pretty damn cool.

Would I love to open my garage doors to you...turn your hands into rough/calloused paws capable of moving weight...give your barbells and kettlebells to lift/squat/press/swing? ...YES

Would I love to show you things like burpees, AMRAPs, pullups, sprints, slamballs, done as fast as you can because I think it's a better path to health and fitness? ...YES

Am I cooler/better than you because I do this stuff and you don't....NO

On the flip side...I can absolutely marvel at a runner who runs a sub-5 minute mile or completes multiple marathons. I find it incredible and amazing when a powerlifter deadlifts 800lbs. So I'm dumbfounded when the competitive runner and/or powerlifter wants to be critical of me for the way I train.

Some folks are way too invested in trying to prove they are better than other people...especially when it comes to the fitness community. Imagine if they used the same energy to help and make one another better? Just go be awesome....at whatever you do. Our workouts are not the end product...they are tool we use to better ourselves for whatever life throws at us.

"The day you realize the loud cries of critics everywhere are nothing more than applause with a different tone is the day the world plays by your rules. The day you get the ball, keep running. Direct your living in such a way that you become far too busy creating your own world to hear the criticism from those surviving in the world they were given."

So keep on keeping on...and keep keeping on with a smile on your face. Go be awesome...