Author: Rob Shearer

We live in a world which believes that information is power

We drown in information and don’t know what to make of it

So we study more, looking harder and harder for the answer

Then we regurgitate it to each other

Sometimes, it’s not what you know from reading and talking 

It’s what you do consistently that matters 

We can all learn from reading  

But take it from a writer 

Words fail.

Words will never tell you the whole story

That’s why we obsess and keep writing 

We can never quite give you all the details that you need 

Sometimes, you have to DO 

Sometimes, you have to be there

Sometimes, you have to live through the challenge

Sometimes, you have to feel the pain yourself

Sometimes, you have to see the expressions on people’s face

Sometimes, you have to pick up the puppy yourself

Sometimes, you have to fire someone who needed the job

Read.Talk.Think.Simulate. 

Then get out there and just do it

Do the grunt work

Write the code

Pick up the hammer

Talk to the person being a PITA

Make the sale

Then tell me about how you know what you are doing

Chris Sacca: “Your inbox is a Todo list to which anyone in the world can add an action item” 

I have liberated myself from my inbox, and it feels amazing.  

I am not a slave to my email.  

I check my mail several hours after I get up in the morning. 

After I have taken care of what I want to take care of. 

Take back your morning, take back your day.  

Impatience and frustration are huge reasons most people fail to reach their goals. 

Having unreasonable expectations of time leads to this frustration. 

Work Ethic and Will Power always overpower this frustration.  

My Father used to say that he could “out-stubborn” any problem.  

Strive for that level of tenacity.  

It takes the time that it takes.

It takes the effort that it takes.

Resistance to the real world variables will just make it take longer.  

You can add more resources to move things faster.  

But adding drama, complaining, loosing focus, and getting off track will delay you. 

Yes, we have to move fast.  

But only a fool moves fast today, just to move backwards tomorrow.  

You are smarter than that.  

You can see the path to the long game. 

Play the game. 

Win the game.

We will not stroke your ego. 

In fact, we will tell you to leave your ego at the door. 

I get it. We all like to feel better about ourselves.  

But stroking your ego is just a surface feeling.  

It is temporary. 

It fades as soon as you go back out into the real world. 

Don’t be shallow. 

Be awesome instead. 

If you keep just doing that one thing you are good at, you will continue to be a one trick pony. 

It’s time to branch out. 

It’s time for you to show the world that you are more than what they see you as today. 

You have more skills and strengths. 

Find them. 

Build them. 

You have weaknesses and soft spots. 

Find them. 

Improve them. 

We gravitate towards our strengths because we want to be in glory.  

Are you flexible and supple? Grab a barbell and get strong and stable in those positions.  

Are you strong as an ox? Get that ass to grass and mobilize your back. 

Amaze them by being a functional human. 

Then you will find what it feels like to have pride that runs deep. 

Our culture has shifted into a world where more people are considered “Knowledge Workers” than “Laborers” 

Many of us don’t use our bodies for our work anymore. 

We are thinkers and talkers and writers and planners. 

Unfortunately, this has led to an abandonment of balance. 

You are more than your brain. 

I see people that are treating their body as a tool for nothing more than transporting their brain from place to place. 

This makes me sad. 

I am sad because of the lost opportunity for efficacy.  

I am sad because they will not live and contribute as long as they could have. 

We don’t all need to be competitive athletes. 

We just need to understand that our bodies and our brains are linked. 

Our brains differentiate us from other animals. 

But still… 

Our brain needs nutrition to operate. 

Our brain is affected by hormones. 

Our brain thrives when our bodies are active. 

If you are a knowledge worker and value your mind. 

Take care of it! 

Work your body and improve your brain. 

Each needs the other more than we realize. 

There are three kinds of work, each at a different level of contribution. 

Task work 

Decision work 

Initiation work 

Tasks are the very first level. This is about checklists and todo’s. 

This take very little autonomy or planning.  

Many businesses are run on the back of an army of task workers.  

Task workers require management. 

Decision work is the second level. This is about deciding what gets done today and how it gets done. 

This takes planning and a broader view of the values and principles of the organization. 

In most business these are the managers.  

Initiation work is the highest level. This is about ideas and inspiration. 

This takes vision and passion for where the organization wants to go. 

This is an executive mindset. 

Some people fit into their niche of one. 

We need you to identify where you fit, and we will help you thrive there 

There is art in all movement.  

This is easy to see in a dancer. 

But it does not stop there. 

I am just as inspired when I see a beautifully executed snatch 

The perfect combination of  

• Strength – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force. 
• Flexibility – The ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint. 
• Power – The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time. 
• Speed – The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement. 
• Coordination – The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement. 
• Agility – The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another. 
• Balance – The ability to control the placement of the body’s center of gravity in relation to its support base. 
• Accuracy – The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity. 

This is beauty in the human form. 

Screw traditional beauty. 

The human body is beautiful when it is used. 

Commitment and determination is beautiful. 

When you see that movement, you know the athlete committed time, energy, and thought into it. 

They took action to get better at something. 

They made a choice and they went after it. 

Respect. 

We spend a lot of time in CrossFit training our intensity. 

By definition, CrossFit is constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity 

There is huge value in this, and it is one of the things that we are here to help you find.  

Most people don’t know where their redline is, and we help you find it. 

But there is more to life. 

This is why we also care about endurance.  

ENDURANCE: The power to withstand pain or hardships; the ability or strength to continue despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions 

I also call this Grit. 

Sometimes, we need to tune back the intensity. 

Sometimes we need to learn how to put our head down and grind through. 

Sometimes we need to practice the act of enduring. 

Life does not always just come at us in short bursts that we can blast through. 

Life is sometimes also about the long haul. 

We are here to make you stronger, fitter, tougher, and ready for anything life throws at you. 

You are building character traits that translate into every other part of your life. 

If you can do this, you can do anything. 

This is why we have Endurance classes every Sunday. 

There is nothing to fear. 

Endurance class just means that we skip the skill section of the hour and have a longer WOD.  

A WOD where you pull back some punches, and learn to put your shoulder into it instead. 

Try them out, you will surprise yourself.  

Then come Monday you will have a little more Grit to face the week with. 

Inspiration: Squat is my favorite movement – it defines me 

I love to squat. 

The movement represents who I am. 

I am complete when I am squatting. 

The barbell is heavy. 

As it presses down on my shoulders and I tense my body 

The steel and I become one  

We move together. Fluidly. 

I don’t resist gravity. 

I flow with the gravity and use it to let me lower into the squat. 

The gravity helps me build the tension to rebound 

To Launch 

Every movement is intentional. 

Every fiber of muscle and mind are aware. 

I am present. 

Focusing on position and form 

The iron body drops into the hole 

Then I choose. 

I choose at that point if I am going to get stronger today. 

I choose that I will do the work. 

With intensity and intention I drive up  

Always moving. 

Always progressing 

Through the difficult points 

Not suppressing the inner demons. 

But recruiting them 

They are part of who I am 

They are on the team. 

We work together. 

A guttural yell 

Heart spiking 

The rest of the world is black. 

It is just me and the squat. 

Hips open at the top.  

I breath in  

The world comes rushing back 

More vivid than ever 

More real than ever. 

Rack the bar. 

Sit down. 

Too tired to show it 

But smiling on the inside. 

I love Olympic Lifting.  

Because I hate Olympic Lifting. 

It beats me up. 

It beats me down. 

It is demoralizing. 

I can count a handful of times in my life when I felt the amazing fluid pull and catch of a perfect Snatch. 

But those times were AMAZING. 

They made me feel more alive and more human than any other movement. 

Those perfectly executed snatches made me feel like an athlete

Why is that? 

There are Ten Fundamentals of Fitness: 

1. Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance. 
2. Stamina. 
3. Strength. 
4. Flexibility. 
5. Agility. 
6. Balance. 
7. Coordination. 
8. Accuracy. 
9. Power. 
10. Speed. 

To be a fully functioning physical human being – you need all of these components. 

See if you can hit the perfect snatch without any one of them. 

Is the Snatch actually a functional movement – no. 

But you will be hard pressed to find any other single movement that teaches you the complex neural pathways to combine more of the ten fundamentals than the Snatch. 

Want to be a better physical human and only able to do one thing? Snatch. 

Then get ready to spend the rest of your life perfecting it.