Two or so weeks from now will mark one year of my start at CrossFit. I feel like a "What I learned from 1 year of CrossFit" post is mandatory when you're a CrossFitter and a blogger. I also just want to write about this because I just really love CrossFit. A lot of people say that CrossFit has changed their life. I don't know if I can honestly go to that extreme, but I can, without hesitation, say that it has changed me, and has changed me for the better. So, here we go. From 1 year of CrossFit, I learned... 1) Strong is beautiful, and strong feels great too. I thought I was strong before CrossFit, but now? Strong takes on a vastly different definition. It's not about how you look or even about how much you can lift. It's about how you value and take of your body. Similarly, beauty is also not about how you look and no, it's also not about how "it's what's on the inside that really counts". Beauty is the sheer grace and power that comes with being strong and owning that strength both physically ("on the outside") AND mentally/emotionally ("on the inside"). 2) You are stronger than you think you are. Ninety-five percent of the time I walk into class, the goals in my head are way too conservative. Primarily because sometimes I just don't think I can achieve the goals that I really want to. Yet, almost every time I end up lifting more and/or getting more reps or rounds in than I expected. It has taken some time, and I'm still working at it, but I've learned to shut-down that self-doubt almost as soon as I think it. Just remembering what I've already accomplished in that gym is the best reminder of just how much I am capable of. I mean, I started looking into CrossFit two and a half years ago but at first choose to do barre instead because I didn't think I'd make it even one day at CrossFit. Now I have year-end goals like 150# clean and jerk and 115# snatch. Which are not conservative goals for me... Which now brings me to the third thing I've learned... 3) Patience is everything. Snatching makes me want to cry. And it has. There are other movements that frustrate me too (more on that in point #4) but nothing makes me quite as...hm, how to say this... annoyed? irritated? angry? indignant? as snatching. I feel like I've gotten immeasurably better at everything in CrossFit EXCEPT FOR THIS AND IT'S THE WORST FEELING. THE WORST. Yet, I realized the other day that I've made small improvements and that's just how it has to be. I realized that the days I patiently chip away at my weak spots, those are some of the best days I've had in the gym. Isn't that true about life too? We're so much more fulfilled when we patiently work to make ourseves better at something rather than just trying it and having no problems or struggle. Okay, back to CrossFit... So, patience is required to even be good at this particular movement at all. Patience is something I have in abundance for others but not really something I have for myself. Thankfully there are coaches who model that patience with and for me and will say, "Just be patient. Take your time. Your biggest problem patience," over and over and over again for as many times as I need to hear it. Their steady patience calms me down and helps me work on my own. And thankfully there are coaches who also keep believing in me, guiding me, correcting me, extending grace to me no matter how many times it might feel like I'm directing my frustrations towards them :) Now bringing me to #4... 4) Community is everything.
I love working out, being active, and getting stronger. But I know that if I want to be successful and also not hate the process, I need other people. I need people to coach me, encourage me, silently suffer with me. I need to do life with and process life with other people. That's how I grow, learn, and keep my joy. I wouldn't have even started this crazy-but-to-me-totally-now-normal thing called CrossFit if a friend hadn't pushed me too. And I wouldn't still be there today if it weren't for the people I've met along the way. I was miserable when I belonged to your standard everyday kind of gym, just aimlessly wandering the weight room and then over to the elliptical doing the on mass transit-style, headphones in, don't make eye contact anti-socialness. Absolutely miserable. Community. People. We need each other. In everything that we do. 5) It's okay to not be the best at everything. This is a big one for me. I've always prided myself on not only knowing how to do things but on doing them well. Are there things at CrossFit that I do well? Of course. But do I do all of the things well? ...LOL. But you know what? I don't have to be good at everything and I'm okay with that. That is not something I would have said a year ago. I have a pretty wide range of abilities and most things in life haven't been difficult for me. Don't get me wrong, I've worked really hard for things. But I don't know that I can say that I've really persevered to meet a goal. I've just never really wanted anything that badly. This is how I've learned that it's not about being the best but it's about caring about something so much that you're willing to put your whole heart into it to get it. The work we put in says more about our character than our natural talent or ability. I've learned this is a huge way over the past year. Not only at CrossFit but in my classroom, as a Jesus-follower, and in life in general as well. This is something that I now tell the "smart" kids that I teach - that if things usually come easily to them, that's great. But not everything is going to and that is normal and it's okay, because continuing to believe in yourself and not giving up when things get hard is what really makes you smart. I guess all it took for me to learn this was finally really wanting and sincerely caring about something - loving and believing in my students so much that I want to be the best teacher I can be for them and I won't stop pushing myself to get there. No matter how "not the best" I feel. ...Loving God so much that I want to be the best Jesus-follower I can be and I will fight through the joy and pain of that process to get there. No matter how "not the best" I feel. ...Wanting to meet my next goal in CrossFit because I so much love what it feels like to be strong and I so value my body and health now that I'll pick up the barbell and kick back up to the wall and get back on the rings time and time again until I get it. No matter how "not the best" I feel.
4 Comments
Rich Birch
6/6/2015 10:39:56 pm
Great article! Congrats on one year!! That's a massive milestone.
Reply
Kelly Frazee
6/6/2015 11:37:54 pm
Thank you, Rich! And thanks for reading!!
Reply
John Kubisky
6/7/2015 12:44:21 am
awesome, I love how you put it all into perspective. Don't worry those snatches will improve, as long as you stay patient 😄. That worked for mine .
Reply
Kelly Frazee
6/7/2015 12:50:44 am
Thanks, John!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Author4th grade teacher. Writer. Justice-seeker. Encourager. CrossFitter. John 11:40. Archives
July 2017
Categories |