Dare to be great..... A motivational Post

One of the great discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do. --Henry Ford

Imagine yourself looking at the whiteboard. you look at the movements and think to yourself- CRAP... muscle-ups How am I going to get through this workout? Maybe if you are checking out CrossFit for the first time, you might be telling yourself, man this gym is really intimidating because everyone works so hard. maybe if you just finished the ramping up program and you're ready to answer questions, you are thinking to yourself " am I REALLY ready for this?" And MAYBE even still, you are standing on the edge of a black diamond ski run or the edge of a mountain to ride off on your mountain bike looking at the run and wondering to yourself if you have the skills to complete this task!

Today we are going to address something that ails almost every single person from time to time which affects all areas of our lives, Fear. and in particular, Fear as it may pertain to you utilizing CrossFit as your General Physical Preparedness (GPP) Program or for those of you whom are currently CrossFitting, how to look at new movements or even one's that might take your breath away and step out of your comfort zone and into a new realm of performance.

In the most simple of terms FEAR (False Expectations Appearing Real) is created from placing expectations on the outcome of a situation, the way a person will behave or what may actually not even happen. There are actually two types of fear I will speak about today- fear that we have under conditions that are out of our control (such as a person with a gun runs into the room and we can't know what they are thinking) and conditions within our control- (Expectations we place on the external environment)

I want to focus on the latter since this is where our expectations tend to lead us to challenges with fear in AND out of the box.



In the event of FEAR- we look at the definition of FEAR itself as I have laid out - FALSE EXPECTATIONS APPEARING REAL- yes it is an acronym, but think about it for a moment. In all situations in which you have been placed where nervous or anxious fear have been in place, what was the outcome of that situation? Positive in most cases?? You see, we as humans are inherently set up to believe the worst.- we are fearful, afraid of the next corner, the next challenge, the next task, the fact we might get hurt, we might drop the bar, I might need to be in shape before I try CrossFit. These "Fears" are all things we tell ourselves in any given situation or at any given moment.

You see, FEAR doesn't REALLY exist- it is simply a state of mind, a moment of existence in which we tell ourselves something won't do or the outcome won't be what we want it to. We don't even know if it will go that way, but at the slight chance it does, we are not even willing to take the risk for. You see, FEAR drives most people's lives. We tell ourselves we "expect" this outcome which sets us up for failure. Thus, placing in our minds our false expectations for performance, or whatever it may be. if you didn't expect a result, wouldn't there be a lack of FEAR for the situation? What if you went through life from day to day just trying stuff?

Those of you whom have watched the CrossFit Games videos and thought to yourself, man how do they do it? those of you whom have stopped by our affiliate or ANY affiliate for that matter and heard the coach from across the room telling their athletes to pull higher, move faster, row efficient. It is within these moments our judgements are being formed and we are creating in our mind the visualization of our expected result for ourselves. It is these crucial moments it is important to recognize where our fears are coming from.

99% of the time the fear is unwarranted- and even in that 1%, the fear will become self fulfilling prophecy if we tell ourselves this will be the outcome.

Having said all of that- (That's great coach, but what can I do about it??) Here are some strategies to cope with your fears and in fact for those of you looking to check out an affiliate pause for a moment and use this as well.

First, start to research and educate yourself on your fear. For example- if your fear is of a box jump, educate yourself, grab a coach and have your coach review the appropriate technique with you so you have some information to create an informed decision rather than one of false expectation.

Once you have some research done, then start to approach your fear from a logical level. A lot of us get caught up in the negative effects emotionally from fear and can't see the other side. We stop looking at the POSSIBILITY of a positive outcome and then have no option but to accept the negative. We only have this moment in time to believe in ourselves and this moment in time to take action on that belief. It is a here and now situation in every fear. We have the choice to tackle that fear through attempting whatever it is that ails us. Look at fear from a standpoint of if it is warranted, what is the history of the situation, what's the worst that could happen and heck why not give it a whirl!

Listen to what it is that you are telling yourself. I will use the Olympic Lift, the Snatch as an example. Many people have a hard time committing on this lift partly because of the complexity, but also in part due to the lack of confidence in themselves to catch the bar and ride it down. Is this warranted, maybe, maybe not however it is guaranteed that if you tell yourself.. I won't catch this bar, then you won't catch the bar. So if a fear comes up, stop and tell yourself something different.

We are going to continue this post in a few days. What are some of YOUR fears you face within CrossFit, and if you haven't come checked out a box yet, what is YOUR fear of starting CrossFit? We would love for you to share. you aren't the only one feeling it, we promise. we want to make you feel comfortable so please, feel free to share under comments. Maybe we can help overcome some of these things!