Hurry is the Enemy

The plans of the diligent end up in profit, but those who hurry end up with loss.

Proverbs 21:5

What’s fascinating to me about the holidays is how often they don’t feel like a holiday. Especially Christmas. A holiday should be a time to celebrate – a time to break from work and the other stressors of our lives. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Bro, you mean a vacation!” Well, for most Americans, you’re right. There’s a huge difference between a holiday and a vacation. Did you know in Europe they actually call their vacations a holiday? Can you imagine, “Yes, we’re excited to holiday in Breckenridge this summer.” I don’t want to holiday, and why would I. Holidays have the opposite effect of vacations. Vacations slow time down. Well, unless you have an overplanning spouse. Vacations are times to sit and reflect on the goodness of life. Holidays accelerate time. Think about all the things you squeeze in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You decorate the house, put up the tree, send out the cards, go to party number one, party number two, the weird Zoom thing for work, get the gifts, wrap the gifts, hide the gifts, and don’t forget to move the elf. I can’t tell you the number of times Casey and I have sat on the couch Christmas morning, surrounded by a sea of wrapping paper, only to look at each other and say, “Phew, we made it.” When the speed of your life reaches a point where you feel out of control, you begin to hurry. And hurry is the enemy.

As a coach, I don’t want to see an athlete do anything in a hurry. Efficient, diligent, focused, those are all great. But don’t let me catch you in a hurry. Because when you’re in a hurry, you’re at risk to make a mistake. It’s one thing to forget to mail Aunt Edna her fruit cake, it’s another to load a barbell wrong or put yourself in a compromising position physically. The environment in our gym is built to foster encouragement as well as discipline. We teach athletes sound movement and encourage them along the way as they expose their movement patterns to new challenges. Hurry disrupts the entire process. And it operates the same way out of the gym. How can you really take in the goodness of life when you’re trying to get from Point A to Point B as fast as you can. You can’t. Hurry disrupts shalom. God’s never been in a hurry. Nowhere in the story of creation does it say anything about God hurrying. He wasn’t rushing to get everything created so He could finally have a rest day. His holiday, if you will, which we call the Sabbath, was so that He could enjoy creation. What’s moving so fast in your life right now you can’t even enjoy it?

Then there’s the cousin of hurry. A word that makes me cringe every time I hear it. A word that society has convinced us is a badge of honor. It’s busy. When I ask someone how they’re doing and they say “I’m busy,” I wonder what they’re missing in life at that moment. Think back to when you were in school and the teacher would assign a bunch of extra work. You know what we called that? Right, busy work. It was superfluous, unnecessary, and didn’t move the learning process along. Could you imagine your coach walking up to you in the gym and assigning some busy work? Or worse, what if your coach came over to see you during a WOD and you let her know that the workout was just busy work. We don’t chase busy in the gym, so why do we love it so much outside the gym? Getting the most out of life isn’t going to happen if you’re busy all the time. Busy makes us miss opportunity. I can’t see why God brought this new person into my life if my schedule is so jammed I can’t even grab lunch with them. Whether it’s a new business venture, a new friendship, or maybe just a new outlook on life, you can’t really dive into any of these when you’re busy. Margin is a hallmark of a spiritually fit life. And you’re the one in control of creating it. Maybe the new year will be less about pursuing busy and more about pursuing specific experiences, prioritized by what truly matters most in your life.

This year as you celebrate Christmas, I’m inviting you to take a true holiday. Clear your calendar and set aside some time to enjoy what matters most in your life – family, friends, your gym community. As you do, here are two conversation starting questions:

Where do you feel most hurried in your life?

What would it look like not to be busy all the time?

The harder you work to eliminate hurry and busy from your life, the more peace, joy, and satisfaction you’ll feel. It may not be easy, but trust me, it’s worth it. So, the next time someone says they’re in a hurry tell them, “hurry is the enemy.”

Relaxed Power

Reading: Romans 13:8-10

I love watching masters. No, not the golf tournament, though I do occasionally turn on golf to help me sleep. And not the “mature” CrossFit athletes, of which I am one. I mean masters of their craft – artisans. When you read the word ‘artisan,’ you may think of sculptors or painters or chefs. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely masters in each of those crafts, but I’m talking about athletic artisans. Masters in the craft of whatever sport they play. Let’s take one of the greatest masters of all time, Michael Jordan. Jordan was an artisan in the sport of basketball. When he stepped on the court, he elevated the game of those around him and he magnified the weakness of every opponent. There were things Jordan could do that seemed impossible. But he would do them again and again and again. Night after night, game after game, Jordan would put on a show and let the whole world know he was a master of his craft. So, how did he make it look so easy? Simple, he played within himself. He played with relaxed power.

There are certain God given talents each of us is born with. Michael Jordan was gifted by God to play the sport of basketball. Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey have the gift of elite fitness. Yet all of us can learn to operate with relaxed power. Ask any high-level coach about training programs, and they’ll be quick to point out that elite athletes rarely go all out. Read that again – rarely go all out. Let me tell you what relaxed power is not. It’s not going all out in the gym every day. Do you really think that CrossFit games athletes show up to the gym every day willing to give whatever it takes in order to be at the top of some digital leaderboard? That sounds hilarious I know. And yet some of you reading this walk into your gym with this type of mindset every day. You’ve either yet to realize the bigger picture, or you’ve forgotten it. Relaxed power means operating within your capacity. What expands capacity? Discipline.

It’s hard to fully appreciate the discipline it takes to become an artisan. For every playoff game or competition, there have literally been years of choices leading up to that moment. What we view for a couple of hours they’ve been working on for decades. Discipline is the basis of power, and it’s what expands capacity. Fitness is simply increased work capacity, and discipline is what actually gets you there. Discipline means having a clearly articulated goal every time you walk in the gym. Dominating a leaderboard or doing a workout as prescribed no matter what are honestly weak goals. Next thing you know, you’re doing someone else’s workout and no longer training within yourself. You’ve lost discipline. As you prepare for 2021, spend some time reflecting on your “why.” Why are you coming to the gym? Why is fitness an important part of your life?

You also need to begin throttling your power. Jordan didn’t drive down the lane with the same intensity every time. He used the necessary power to achieve his outcome. You need to do the same. If you approach a light barbell the same way you approach a heavy one, you’re missing the whole point. Relaxed power means having some in reserve. There’s no way to build a reserve without developing the ability to throttle. At lower power outputs, there’s more time to focus on mechanics and movement patterns. That’s why great coaches give the same amount of attention to warming up their athletes as they do to urging them on in a WOD. Where are you applying more power than necessary? What mindset do you need to change in order to start throttling your power?

There are artisans of Spiritual Fitness as well. Masters in their craft of loving God and loving others. Not because God requires it, but rather they enjoy living life that way. And some of the things they do look so easy. They can walk into a room and brighten the mood of everyone in it. They can ask you an insightful question that makes you think they can see your soul. They can sit with you on some of your hardest days and bring a ray of hope. Masters of their craft. Their marriages, their careers, their kids, their friends are all expressions of their desire to pursue shalom. They make it look so easy. But discipline is also the basis of power in our spiritual lives. Much like discipline expands the capacity of physical fitness, spiritual discipline expands our capacity to live the fullest, richest, most fulfilling lives possible. I suspect almost all of you are about to sit down and write some goals, or resolutions, for 2021. This year, the number one spiritual resolution was, “Improve Mental Well-Being.” It was the fifth most popular resolution, the first four relating to losing weight or exercising. Improving mental well-being. If you really want to be your best self in 2021 and live the best year of your life, it’s time to build, enhance, or refine your spiritual habits. What’s in the way of a deeper relationship for you with God? At the end of the day, what do you think you really want out of life, and how will you know it’s happened?

Relaxed power - the ability to operate within your capacity. It’s essential to building both physical and spiritual fitness. When you see a master of their craft, they make it look so easy. Yet we know it was discipline in their lives that expanded their capacity to operate. What would life look like for you if at your most difficult moments you were completely relaxed? There are aspects of all our lives that need to change. Some of us need to throttle our power. Every situation does not require you to show up with the same intensity. Others of us need to rethink our goals. Loving God and loving others is at the root of human flourishing. Until we reorder our lives around these principles, we’ll never fully experience what it means to be alive.

Questions for Reflection:

Why is fitness an important part of your life?

Where are you applying more power than necessary? What mindset do you need to change in order to start throttling your power?

What’s in the way of a deeper relationship for you with God? At the end of the day, what do you think you really want out of life, and how will you know it’s happened?

Comebacks

Reading: Daniel 6:1-23

I love a good comeback. Don’t you? I’m not talking about a one line zinger that gets the whole gym laughing. I’m talking about a return to greatness. An ability to overcome the odds. To get up one more time than you get knocked down. There are many different shapes and sizes of comebacks. You’ve got the typical 35-point comeback in the NFL (nice job Bills); There’s the fall and rise of a popular entertainer or athlete (i.e. Tiger Woods); And then you’ve got those stories of people who battle a tough disease like cancer and beat it again and again. No matter the flavor, I would argue we all have a taste for comebacks. Why is that? What is it about the underdog that brings us to our feet when they achieve the impossible? I think part of it is that we’ve all been there before. We’ve all faced moments in our lives that looked insurmountable, and for many of us those moments represented a setback.

Setbacks are a part of life, amen? Breathe air long enough on earth and you’ll notch a few setbacks in your belt. Webster defines a setback as a “reversal or check in progress.” Setbacks are momentum killers, or should I say potential momentum killers. It’s so easy to let a setback knock you off your game. Let’s take a basic example in the gym. Have you ever had your jump rope break in the middle of a workout? Talk about a setback! No doubt you were in the middle of a really good set of double unders (that’s two rotations of the rope per jump by the way) when suddenly, wham. Off goes the rope leaving you with an empty handle and a brief moment of confusion. Welcome to setbacks. And in that moment you might be thinking one of these thoughts: “Why me? Why did this have to happen to me?” Or maybe, “This always happens. Just when things start to go my way, here go the wheels falling off again.” Or the slightly more drastic but just as popular, “Where’s God now, huh?”

Of course, I have my tongue slightly embedded in the cheek here, but metaphorically ropes break in our workouts all the time. The diagnosis comes, the job unexpectedly ends, a global pandemic enters the scene. Setbacks are going to happen. Now, think about something in your life that reversed or checked your progress and re-read those three thoughts again – “Why me?” “This always happens.” “Where’s God now?” Perspective is vital to a purposeful life. So, let me sharpen your perspective on setbacks. Setbacks provide the platform for our greatest comebacks. Let’s look at three things we commonly do as a result of setbacks that limit our capacity to come back. The first thing we do is isolate.

During a setback, isolation can take you to some dark places. Now don’t get me wrong, I think spending time alone is very healthy. We just to need to monitor that time and make sure it’s not an escape mechanism from reality. Community is a vital part of our spiritual lives, and it’s even more important when we face difficulty. I have been spurred on to some great comebacks in life by close friends who reminded me to focus on the big picture or just hung out while I worked it out. Isolation may be keeping you from living your best life right now. So can insulation.

When we insulate, we wall ourselves off from the world through our favorite distractions. Whether that’s binging Netflix, cooking excessive meals, or indulging prescription pain pills, the goal of all insulation is the same, and that’s not having to face reality. Setbacks can be really painful. But if our response to pain is an over pursuit of comfort, we’re developing an unhealthy habit. Comebacks are all about facing our setbacks. We need to work the problem, develop a plan, and get to work on it. If not, we face the third common thing people do, they procrastinate.

I am a world-class procrastinator. Nothing feels quite like putting off until tomorrow what I really need to do today. I tell myself things like I work really well under pressure. But the truth is I feel overwhelmed. I allow the work to show up like a mountain and then convince myself there’s no way I can climb it. But the longer you wait to engage your setback, the worse this feeling gets. This is what happens to athletes who have to (or choose to) take extended time off from the gym. They get convinced that the work is too much or that they’re too far behind, so they throw in the towel. No comeback ever started by throwing in the towel. For procrastinators, all you need to do is something! Just move. Engage one part of your setback and see the relief that comes from realizing it wasn’t as impossible as it seemed.

As 2020 comes to a close, I urge you to take some time to reflect on your setbacks. What were the unexpected things in life that reversed or checked your progress? Then give yourself an honest evaluation of your response. Did you find yourself isolating or insulating or procrastinating? As God opens your eyes to become more self-aware, come to Him in prayer about how you respond to setbacks. I say this all the time in the gym – we’re all working on something. Let God work in your heart to begin to change how you respond to setbacks. Because believe me, He didn’t allow the setback to take you out. He allowed it to create a platform for your greatest comeback.

Questions for Reflection:

Share a setback you faced this year. What was your initial response?

What’s one of the greatest comebacks in your life?