Shane's Article: It's easy to hate from afar.....

It’s easy to hate from afar, and it’s so common for us as human beings to be critical and closed off to what we do not know, what we haven’t experienced, and things we haven’t entered into. As a leader, I have the frequent privilege to serve and influence on several different platforms. I have learned, and I am certainly still in the process of learning how to value and appreciate those things I do not ‘know’. The older I get the more I realize how guilty I have been through the years of ‘hating from afar’ and being critically judgmental of what I do not know. As a part of development as a leader I constantly try to put myself around new people, into new environments and trying, as much as possible; to take on new challenges. This has an amazing way of broadening our perspective, and it certainly reinforces the truth that life is about relationships – and the quality of a person’s relationships is the determining factor in the quality of their leadership. I wanted to take a few minutes to share one of those recent challenges, joining CrossFit. Growing up I was a wrestler, in college I got into strength training and more recently I dabbled in high-intensity strength training. I remember vividly a few years back speaking negatively of CrossFit based on articles I had read, people who did it, and the primary fact being, I was ‘far’ from it. So, through a series of events I challenged myself to enter in, hesitantly, I signed up for one month of CrossFit. I stepped into this new environment, an environment outside my element, and one that, quite frankly intimidated me. I’ve met new people, people outside of my normal sphere of influence, people who were, as it seemed, very different from me. Very quickly my reluctant, hesitant perspective was transformed into excitement and anticipation of the possibilities of what could be. Yet, the most infectious component of my change in perspective was the dynamic community of people. Despite these great things, I also knew from past experience that the ‘honeymoon effect’ would eventually wear off……right? Well, I’m approaching my 1 year mark and I’m all in, but why? There are a lot of reasons, but 2 things in particular jump out at me, and both reasons are wrapped around the leaders, the owners….the coaches. The first is the deep appreciation and respect our coaches have for the robust community of health and fitness and the second is the environment they create, an environment of continuous learning, growth and development. A Deep Appreciation for the Robust Community of Health & Fitness The aim of CrossFit is to forge a broad, general and inclusive fitness. It optimizes fitness through constantly varied functional movements performed at relatively high intensity. So by nature CrossFit is going to span across many training regimens and will attract all types of athletes. Therefore by its very design it embraces or ‘enters into’ just about every kind of quality fitness program…and the foundation of everything is proper nutrition. All of this combined is where a true sense of appreciation derives from and is propounded upon every day. In my first year I have been privy to a running clinic, Yoga instruction, nutrition seminars, Olympic lifting training, classes focus specifically on mobility, counsel from certified chiropractors, leadership development breakouts and several community outreach events collaborating around health, fitness and caring for people. The CrossFit leaders I know spend the bulk of their time finding ways to create a synergistic community in order to promote personal wellness not trying to tear down other workout routines in an effort to claim superiority. That’s what great leaders do! An Environment of Continuous Learning, Growth & Development. Great leaders are who they say they are. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of authentic leaders and they always manage to create a positive, attractive energy. What has been astounding to me as much as anything is how humble the leadership team is. Humility is the most attractive quality in human beings. Humility is best displayed when people, especially leaders take the role of student or learner. These coaches are constantly surveying and studying the fitness world, networking with specialists locally and abroad in specific areas (Olympic Lifting, Yoga, Running, etc.) and of course, CrossFit itself is constantly offering regional training seminars to enhance the quality of their brand and the knowledge of their coaches. It’s impressive! I actually read something recently where someone said the problem with CrossFit is that trainers are certified in a weekend and then given the power to run classes. That’s certainly one perspective and one that I have not been able to solidify anywhere I’ve been. The culture of CrossFit is to always be learning, growing, developing – this is what keeps a person sharp and energized about what they do. As I close in on the completion of my first year I have constantly listened to outsiders speak of the safety of CrossFit. I have really grown to appreciate those who show concern here and mean well by speaking of poor technique, lack of oversight, or pushing people beyond their capabilities. They are correct, when you go this hard and push your body to this level of intensity these are legitimate concerns for sure. I have been injury free through my first year and almost everything I learned through this year was new to me. I thought to myself, maybe I just have great coaches where I attend, certainly that is true, but I have found ingrained into the culture of CrossFit something else equally as powerful. Safety. Technique is paramount and performing particularly skilled lifts is especially overseen. New members, regardless of their fitness background receive a three hour introduction class and are offered modified workouts every single day while they learn the more advanced movements or movements that could, if done improperly, cause injury. This notion of ‘going to hard’ or ‘going beyond what your body can handle’ or ‘being pushed too hard’ – I cannot speak generally or for anyone on this. For me, as I think about my life it’s in the midst of these types of settings that I grow the most, that I push aside obstacles and overcome my prior failures. This challenging environment is absolutely necessary for me, and is most of the reason why I get up at 5am and feel awesome taking on the day ahead. I don’t think I’m alone here but I’m pretty sure I couldn’t imagine working out any other way, I’m also certain I wouldn’t have made the strength/speed/mobility/conditioning gains I’ve made either. Are there CrossFit gyms out there that fail the safety test? Absolutely. Are there CrossFit gyms led by weak leaders? Absolutely. Are there videos of members or groups of members using poor technique? Absolutely. Don’t go to these gyms! When you’ve grown as fast as CrossFit has, and established over 7,000 gyms, there will undoubtedly be ‘bad apples’ – the good news is, you don’t have to settle for that. Those few gyms do not represent CrossFit, unless of course YOU want them to represent CrossFit. Remember, it’s easy to hate from afar. If we want to, we can view CrossFit in light of its weak points (‘those gyms’) or we could turn on ESPN, the ‘World Wide Leader in Sports’ and enjoy the fittest athletes on earth. I didn’t intend to write this to persuade people’s perspective about CrossFit but as you can see experience plays such a profound part in how you see the world around you. We’re all influence by things every day, primarily we’re changed most by the relationships we’re engaged in. Life is all about relationships. I used CrossFit because I was guilty initially before I joined it of criticizing it and I found myself guilty again of seeing it as superior to something else. I realized this when I actually got emotionally high-jacked from reading an article that deeply criticized CrossFit. I immediately started to think in my mind of ways to defend, to strike back, to return the ‘blow’. But thankfully, I quickly caught myself and remembered how easy it is to hate from afar. I realized people will see what they want to see and not only that I needed to find it within me to seek to understand the position others are coming from. In most cases, there is something there to value and appreciate; there is usually always something there to learn from. The best leaders are the best learners; they admit humbly that they don’t know everything. As a matter of fact they admit that there’s a lot they do not know, even in their area of expertise. I want to strive to lead this way, to influence others this way. I am by nature a critical person so I need to be internally optimistic and the best way to exude that is to be a servant leader who is aggressively learning and seeking to understand the best ways to grow the relationships around me. ~Shane