The Beginning!!

Its been a while, but back from the dead!!!!

Anyways, remember your first day of school? No? Me neither. Remember your first Crossfit workout? What about the time you first attempted a kipping pull-up and you felt like you were the biggest spazz on earth? Well the thing is we all have to start somewhere. Every fire breather, Olympian, professional athlete has started at point A. Now there are some people who are genetically better than others at certain things. That doesn’t mean it’s any easier for them. And yes, there seem to be people in society who just appear so gifted that they never have to struggle, and everything comes to them with ease. Even if that is the case, we are talking a very small part of the population.

The beginning is the most fundamental step in any endeavor we embark on. The old saying goes, “you have to crawl before you walk.” This is a very important, albeit clichéd’ statement. The fact is, if you don’t start at ground zero, you will never reach the limits of your potential. It’s those “bricks” you lay in your foundation at the beginning, that are going to support you when you reach up to be the tallest building in the sky. Everyone wants to be the next great one. But how many of us will step out on a limb in the beginning to fall down, get up, and try again until we are so good at step one, that step two is easy by comparison?

So when you start something new, embrace that beginning. It’s the only time you will be doing “it” for the first time. This is the time when you can say to yourself, “I may not be the best at this, but I’m going to put in the work to be the best at it that I can be.” And hey who knows, maybe a fire breather is beginning to take shape in you.

That's pride #$%%^ with you! F#$ pride.

Pride often prevents us from doing things that we would normally reconsider. Thor's previous article about starting from the beginning is linked also one one's ability to put pride aside and be willing to start from the bottom up. How often do we stay in our comfort, or shy away from having someone new coach us with different techniques-whether it be how to lift better, run faster, or perform Olympic lifts because we are afraid it may make us look inadequate or like a novice.

The key to improving as an athlete during performance, or life in general, is to allow ourselves to be continually open to new information, even if that information rocks old and deeply entrenched dogma that we tend to cling so stubbornly to. Just because you've been doing something your whole life doesn't mean you've been doing it right the entire time. Ideas on techniques are always changing and improving-be open to it all and don't be afraid to change your scheme. Muscles, much like your mind, grow faster in change.

Don't be afraid to go from varsity to freshman every now and again because you may have missed something on the way up. Whether it be taking a non-paying internship to get to the next level, or going to specialty gym to deconstruct your preexisting techniques and relearn how to do something, taking pride out of the equation allows room for another factor-success.