THROW YOUR HEART OVER THE BAR

I attended a 3 hour self-talk seminar today at Crossfit Santa Clara with the original "firebreather," Greg Amundson.  It was very motivating and inspiring as he is extremely knowledgeable and passionate.  He told stories of how positive self talk can make you achieve anything from his many years in crossfit, military, and law enforecement. 

 "Self talk is the nutrition of your destiny," Greg explained.  Just like you would start an athlete with nutrition in his/her journey to improving a sport, you start an athlete in improving their character/destiny through positive self talk.  There is a progression pyramid that he detailed on improving the physical skills of an athlete and demonstrated how that mirrored the mental aspect.  He showed that after nutrition, you would take an athlete through some metcons (metabolic conditioning or "cardio"), then work on gymnastics, then weightlifting, and finally combining it all in sport, even if the sport is crossfit.  This progression parallels the pyramid of your destiny.  Your thoughts and words determine your actions, which turn into habits, this forms your character, which is your destiny in any activity you pursue.  

He backs up the power of positive self talk with many stories of how it takes belief to achieve anything you want.  This belief often starts with telling yourself you can, once that doubt enters, it will manifest itself.  One story sticks out.  To become a master trapezist you have to pass a test.  The test is to swing on a bar from one platform to another hurling your body through the air.  This is something that all elite trapezist do all the time, the only difference is in this test there is no safety net.  You can imagine how much more intense this makes it as if they fall it would most likely mean death.  One man got up there started to shake and froze up.  The trapeze master came up there to talk to him and said "don't worry, this happens all the time, you must believe.  Simply throw your heart over the bar, and the body will follow!"  This is great and I will take this thought with me when I want to let go of the bar.  This was a very motivating way to finish up my week.  "Simply throw your heart over the bar!"

*** I will post a recap of my weeks workouts and a video tomorrow... it was a good week.