Sunday, December 2, 2012

The Real Challenge: Discipline

This is the busiest time of year for many of us; work, family, gym (those are the only 3 things in our life right?)and then the Holidays throw in a nice little wrench in...Anyhow, those 4 things probably are demanding all of our time...where did we free up room for the Holiday's anyway!? Not to mention once again The Open is upon us (initial details released this past week, kicks off March 6th).

These things are all daunting enough and managing your time & efforts proportionately is where it gets messy. It doesn't help our situations when we try to extend ourselves beyond our capabilities. Whether this is trying to hit a Christmas part every weekend in December, doing 2/day workouts to make up for said Christmas Parties or getting together with family and friends for good eats and libations. We need to be extremely conscious of expectations and asses how this will all affect our long term goals...I suspect most of you made goals to reach by the New Year and If you hit them already (i know a lot have and CONGRATS) does not give you the opportunity to take December off. Reassess those goals and get a new ones on paper or the white board stat.

The last thing we want to do is set ourselves up for disappointment or failure and this is one month of the year that will test every piece of willpower you posses.

Things to keep in mind for the next 30 days (lifetime actually):

Was your goal to limit your partying; do the Palo Challenge; increase lifting #'s; be generally more healthy; Get to the gym a certain amount of days, attend Yoga or Oly at least 1x week, introduce friends to CrossFit, not Snooze your alarm, gain weight, lose weight, get a promotion at work, earn more money, etc, etc, etc.

Now step back, look at the next month (and last month) and pinpoint where the challenging areas currently lie...better to have solid contingency plans in place now so you're not thrust into a situation that you then attempt to wing, in hopes that you'll make the right decision. Hate to tell you but willpower is not typically many of our strong suits. That simple word "NO" is so hard mutter and if you truly are committed your goals, you are going to disappoint some people in your circle that just don't 100% understand, be it family, friends, co-workers.

This is piggy back of the last post, but it is increasingly important that we take charge of our own situation which also happens to be the only one that you are directly in control of...some aren't even in control of that!

Tip - if you're trying to gain a bit of weight and strength, take advantage of the wonderful fatty foods you'll be eating the next month or so as the additional calories may be beneficial when reaching some of your goals (Squatting more cures all, haha). Note I didn't say cookies and Bon Bon's although I'm quite confident I will partake in a few of each!

P.S./Rant - Extra challenges, weight, days at the gym, the damned RX, Wod's are not the answer you may be looking for and unless you have a degree in Kinesiology I'd be pretty careful what you take on. For instance...a 5000 rep challenge is fine when attacked as a "challenge", this is not designed to see who can do it the fastest, really c'mon! When these challenges present themselves each of you should attempt to model them similar the beloved (joking) 100-day Burpee challenge (as Trainers we should explain this better also)...1 Burpee day 1, 2 Burpees day 2, 3 Burpees day 3 and so on...falling off the wagon to only then do 300 Burpees/situps/etc to make up for missed days does nothing for you other than show you can do 300burpees. You've completely missed out on the entire idea of what the "Challenge" portion of the whole thing was! Also, don't feel pressured into any of the challenges...in my opinion, you are way better off not putting your name on the board due to peer pressure if you do not have 100% intentions of completing it. Again always be setting yourself up for success on your own terms, screw what everyone else is doing!

-Garrett