Who do you see when you look in the mirror?  Is the person looking back at you the person you want to be?  Are they living the life you want to live?  Are they empowered in their choices?

For a long time, I did not respect the person I saw in the mirror.  I knew him well.  He was not the kind of person who could stick to things.  He’d been passionate about fitness since he was young but as excited as he was to start every new training program, he never managed to stick with them very long.  A few weeks maybe, every now and then, when the stars aligned and everything went his way, he might even stick to his training program for a few months but, inevitably, something would arise; travel, illness, injury, work.  Somewhere along the road to becoming who he wanted to become, he would trip over a speed bump, faceplant and end up back where he started, out of action and scrounging around hoping to discover the motivation to start all over again.

This went on for more than twenty years.  Twenty plus years proof that he was not the kind of guy that could stick to something.  The weight of evidence was demoralizing.  Even finding CrossFit in 2005 did not change this.  The first three months he stuck to the program and got results like he had never experienced before then, after three months, though he checked the CrossFit.com workout of the day every morning, he only got around to doing it occasionally when inspiration moved him.  For three years he dabbled.

In 2008 at the age of thirty-six, something shifted.  One day, he looked in the mirror, frowned at who he saw looking back at him and decided he didn’t want to see that flake again.  Three times per week, he told himself.  No matter what.  Was he confident about it?  I can’t say that he was.  He’d said the same thing many times before.  But this time, he was resolved.  Every reason that came his way, he looked it in the eye and said, “I don’t care, I’m doing it anyway.”

No job?  No problem.  He paid his one-year CrossFit membership fees upfront so that lack of income would not be an excuse.  He didn’t know how he would be paying next month’s rent, but his gym fees were paid up, there was no financial excuse not to workout.

Injury?  So what?  During one warm up sprint he tore a hamstring tumbling over the curb like he’d been shot.  His classmates helped him up off the sidewalk and carried him back to the gym where he proceeded to complete the workout hopping from station to station on one leg. 

Travel?  Bring it on.  When there were no barbells to be found he lift cases of bottled water, industrial size garbage cans and even his wife and son.  He found bridges and bus shelters and washroom stalls to hang from in order to get his pull ups done.

It didn’t go perfectly.  There have been days off and even weeks off.  One time, on surgeon’s orders he had to accept seventeen days bedrest but that was the longest break he took from training since looking in the mirror that day in 2008 and making a commitment to himself.  And no matter how his plans got interrupted, he refused to let them derail his training commitment as he had in the past.

Because now, when he looked in the mirror, he saw someone else.  Someone who could stick to his commitment to himself.  Not just in the gym, but in anything he put his mind to.  It’s not just a clever marketing gimmick.  Just Do It are words of wisdom.  The excuses will always be there.  They never go away.  But they only have the power that you give them. 

And power is what we are talking about here.  The only power you have is the power you create.  And the greatest power is keeping your word.  Especially to yourself.  After all, if you can’t keep your word to yourself, how can you be trusted to keep your word to anyone else?

And here’s another thing: keeping your word only means something when it is tough.  Doing what you promise when the going is easy doesn’t count.  Doing what you said you would when it is convenient doesn’t mean a thing.  Everyone expects you to keep your word when it serves you.  Power is when you keep your word when it would be easier not to.  The only time keeping your word means anything is when it is hardest to do. 

Do you remember when people said, “My word is my bond,” and they meant it?  You are your word.  Your power in the world is measured by your ability to keep your word to yourself and to others.  And this all comes down to a choice that you make to be powerful or powerless.

Maybe you’re thinking defeatist thoughts like I once did.  Maybe experience has taught you that you are the kind of person who frequently fails to keep their word.  The solution is, stop.  Stop being that person.  Decide now that as of today, you will become a different person, the kind of person who keeps their word.  No matter what.

I have twenty years experience of failure, but the consecutive successes of the next seventeen years have wiped out the vestiges of the serial failure who used to peer shamefacedly back at me from the mirror.  Seventeen years of confidence built on success.  Confidence that when I say I will get it done, I do.  No matter what.  No excuses.  No derailment.  No failure.  I can look the guy in the mirror in the eye without averting my gaze.  I’m not the strongest guy, not the fastest guy, not the smartest guy or the fittest guy but, I am the guy who gets it done.  And that’s something I can hang my hat on.

My father was a pack-a-day smoker for thirty plus years until the day he quit cold turkey.  He quit in middle of a pack of cigarettes.  Instead of throwing them away to avoid temptation, he kept that unfinished pack by his bed so every morning he could remind himself that he was the kind of guy who did not smoke cigarettes even when they were right there in front of him.  He didn’t want breaking the habit to be easy.  He wanted quitting to be hard.  He wanted every morning and every night to stare temptation in the face.  Because every time he looked at that half pack of cancer sticks and said “No, that is not me,” he notched another victory over who he used to be.  He refused to be a slave to his addictions.  He never smoked again.

Stop hoping for easy.  You are more powerful than you know.  You are as powerful as you want to be.  You just have to decide.  Say the word and then keep it.

Monday
The 5km run is CrossFit.com’s most frequently programmed WOD. 
Today we will use the 4.88m route 8th ave to Trimble down to the waterfront and back to Alma (probably closer to 5k once you factor in the fractal nature of the beach route).  You may run it or ruck it.  If you are rucking you will leave at the top of the hour, come prepared to start right away.  Runners will get time to warm up in the gym.

15km on the Echo Bike or 5km on the rower or ski ergs are also good options especially if you enjoy keeping the coaches company.

Warm Up

Speed Warm Up B

Mini Band step outs l/r

Mini band lateral shuffle

Mini band forward/backward

Alt walking hi kick 2 hand

Walking Quad stretch step out lunge

Walking hamstring sweep

walking figure 4 forward bend

Walking lateral lunge l-r shift

Back reach run

Carioca hi knee crossover

Sprints

3x10

db squat jumps

dbl kb lateral lunge l/r

lateral speed skater power lunge

db rdl

single leg rdl to cone hi knee

3x3

broad jumps

WOD
5K Run