What Do You Say To Yourself?

"It's what you wear from ear to ear...and not from head to toe....that matters" You may recognize this line from the classic musical, Annie. I used to sing this song ALL the time growing up and it always perked me up! Let's go a step further and declare, it's way you SAY and HEAR from ear to ear that really matters.

It's what you think about.
It's what you think about what you're thinking about.
It's thinking...period.
It's about thinking good thoughts.
About having positive and great expectations for the outcomes of your situations.
It's about building yourself up.
It's about speaking that you are capable. And worthy.
It's about telling yourself YES I CAN.
And...I WILL.
It's all about what you tell yourself.

This topic actually greatly summarizes the purpose and meaning of "the well with all." What you speak about yourself not only to yourself, but to others can greatly affect outcomes and opportunities in your life.

A couple of weeks ago, I was training a friend. We were doing a 1-arm push press with a dumbbell. I handed her a 15 pound dumbbell (which we had never done before) and said, do as many as you can. She did 18 (and really she stopped because she had counted 15). We had both underestimated her capabilities. On the second set, I gave her a 20lb dumbbell with the same instruction. She struggled and couldn't seem to even press one rep. I said, "just get in 6 (reps)." All of a sudden she was superwoman and did it right away, with perfect form. I asked her why? She said, "I thought I had to do 15 again and I didn't think I could do it, but 6 seemed possible." Wow.. how often do we limit ourselves, based on how hard we think something is going to be?

On Saturday, we had workout 12.2 in the CrossFit Open. You did 3 sets of 30 snatches, increasing the weight with each set, and a timecap of 10-minutes. The second set prescribed a weight that I had previously never accomplished with this particular exercise.

Prior to my heat, one of the girls, whom I've seen grow into a suberb and determined athlete over the last couple years, seemed to believe that I would get to the third round. For some reason, I was being compared to these super-strong girls, and placed in a similar category. Now whether they were doing this too encourage me that I could definitely make head on the second set, or if they actually believed I could get to the third, I am not sure.

My brain was saying, "Have you seen me lately. I'm not exactly super-athlete material right. You are seeing something I am not right now."

But it did motivate me and encourage me that I will be better as I continue to get back in gear with my training (I will admit, I am SO much less sore this week than I have been in the past few weeks!)

Got through the first set no problem. 
Got 1 rep at the second weight and was thrilled.
Failed over and over for the next 2-3 minutes.

It was frustrating, because I knew I could do it and I knew my own mind was getting in my way.

Suddenly, I had a revelation and this is literally the conversation I had silently with myself:

"Monica, you said you could get one and that was your goal. So you got 1. You're failing now, because you only set the bar at 1. Other people think you can do 30. You know you can do more than what you are doing. Picture it, get set, go."

Guess what??!!

I hit the next rep.

Amazing, you might say. But truthfully, not really. I just got my mind right.

So my message today is well and simple:

If you are failing and you don't know why, check what you are telling yourself about yourself. Are you speaking victory over your goals, or defeat. Pour the right information into your brain and it will drown out the negative and the nay-say that might try and tell you--you can't.

CrossFit & "The Principle"

"Team Chill" @ Balance Gym CrossFit Bowl 2012

Today I lived and acted out a principle I have believed in for years. A principle that I even define as the core of my business practices and coaching. It was a principle that I had almost forgotten in my own life, until today. The principle is:

You can always do more than you think you can (and you can do even more when you are mentally prepared)

Just today, I competed in a CrossFit competition with CrossFit Balance. It was intended for all levels, with the ability to scale weights, so the competition ranged from elite to newer athletes. It was a team competition compiled of 2 guys and 2 gals. My team was 2 of my trainer colleagues, Duncan and Will, and a new friend, and strong competitor, Rachel. It was also amazing to see so many CrossFit DC friends whom I haven't seen in a couple of years, running this event and competing. It was electric.

We competed in 3 workouts:

1. 8-min AMRAP (as many reps as possible) with Deadlifts. All 4 of us competed, with 4 different weights. One person reps at a time, going for as many as they can unbroken. We had to switch out the weights as we went on. Our team performed flawlessly & efficiently, placing us at the top, after the first event.

2. Will & Rachel performed this one (thank goodness!). It was 3 rounds a piece of 12 hand release burpees, 24 situps on an ab mat, and about a 50-foot bear crawl (my least favorite exercise of all time!)

3. This one was me & Duncan. Another 8-min AMRAP, we had to press a bar over head from chest level, as many times as we could and then run 8 sprints, before the other could shoulder press. The sprints counted for nothing, only the overhead reps contributed to the score, so speed was key, as well as strategy. With this event we finished in the top 3, which was awesome!

Confession time. Leading up to this event and for the last 2 months or so, I have kind of let myself go a bit with my workouts. These are not excuses, but I think my career transition/focus & my move to a new apartment took up a lot more mental & physical energy than I was prepared for. When Duncan told me we were doing this (I don't think I actually had a choice!), I was super nervous. I didn't want to be the weak link and hold everyone back. I knew I had let myself go a bit, and basically just didn't want to suck.

All week leading up, I prepared myself mentally. I spoke words of victory, strength, and encouragement. So did others around me.

There were a ton of strong strong women at this competition, lifting way heavier weights than me, including my teammate. It was inspiring to see what I could do if I focused on it!

Before the first workout, I prayed for strength and stamina. And boy, did He give it to me. During the deadlift workout, I repped out 16 in the first set (that's 6 more reps than my previous rep max at this particular weight back when I was actually in CrossFit shape!), AND I could have kept going, but I thought pacing would be better, since I'd have to do it again. My original goal (what I thought I could do was 6-8 reps per set!) Exhiliration does not even begin to describe how I felt after accomplishing this.

In the third workout, again, I outperformed my own expectation again, because I didn't limit myself during the workout, based on what I had "planned" to do. I am pretty sure I yelled a bit for the first time ever, in a workout! It also helped that Duncan went before me and repped out 30 at his weight, so I kept pushing to 20 reps, in the first round.

How?

Mental preparedness, a will not quit attitude, and an awesome team around not only supporting me, but doing the work too! In my opinion, this trifecta makes you unstoppable in any area of life.

I had forgotten this. Or maybe just not experienced it in a while. So here's the message:

1) Do not limit yourself to what you think you can do
2) Do not call yourself weak, don't tell yourself that you've let yourself go, or that you suck...it may actually come true if you speak that on yourself 
3) Put yourself in situations outside your comfort zone. I promise, you will feel alive and exhilirated if you do!
4) Punch out the ceiling. Who says you can't, shouldn't, won't. Just do it anyway!