Architect the Future
I have been in both.
I am in both right now.
The principles that make one successful apply to both worlds.
People get frustrated in one and think the grass is greener on the other side.
It’s not.
The grass is still full of weeds, and you have to fight and work the same either way.
If you are a person who thinks and behaves like an entrepreneur, you will act like an entrepreneur in either world.
Don’t blame your environment.
Take responsibility for your reality.
We have heard this question over and over since we took over ownership of CrossFit Bothell. Usually asked in the short time between CrossFit classes, or by our non-gym friends and family. No matter who asks, it is usually with big, wide open, eyes and a look of pure disbelief and shock. Are we crazy?!?!?
Our lives were already full. Laura and I already work well over traditional full time hours at our “day jobs,” and we have two teenage daughters with their own activities that we attend and cart them around to. It’s not like we had a bunch of free time that we were looking to fill.
What we did have was a desire to give back to the community, and to take advantage of a new opportunity to serve the people who we have grown to love as family.
The latter part deserves a little explaining, because I was just as surprised to realize it, as those of you who know me may be to read it.
Two years ago, while I was judging a member in our gym during their open WOD, I was struck with a powerful realization. I love these people, and I care deeply about their achievements… I was floored.
I am not known for being a sensitive guy, or being any good as a care giver. If you are sick, I’m the last guy you want to be taking care of you. I’ll tell you to “Suck it up Buttercup” and toss you a puke bucket. What I am, is very protective of the people in my community circle. I care deeply about the longevity, health, and fitness of the people close to me. I am a fervent believer in the constant quest for improvement at all ages, across all domains. I am convinced that CrossFit is the most flexible, adaptive, method to improve physical fitness; providing balance between life, family, and fitness; and extending healthy life beyond “old age.”
I also wanted a business to run. I have been studying small business for many years, and I have been leading successful teams of people at my day job for even longer.
Laura and I are overly ambitious. We have always found that we can take on a just a little bit more. We have been itching for something new and different for the past year. A new learning experience, an investment opportunity, a way to give back.
I have a general rule in life: Whenever something is scary and exciting, and I don’t really know what I am doing … I jump in. Both feet. With commitment and drive. This has never failed me, and now I just can’t help myself. When this opportunity came up, we did not labor over the decision; we just leapt.
CrossFit Bothell just *felt* right from the first day we visited three years ago. We have grown to love these people more than they probably know. With talented, dedicated, coaches and an incredible blend of amazing members in the community, we have confidence that we can keep CrossFit Bothell serving the larger community, and growing it to have even greater impact. We also trust the members. We trust you to help us by telling us when you see something that needs attention, and trust you to be patient as we figure things out.
In short, we are excited by the opportunity to give back to the community that has given us so much over the years. We are here to serve you. Help us help you. Tell us what you need, and we will do everything we can to help. Tell us where you can chip into help your fellow members, and we will bring you into the circle to give back. CrossFit Bothell is a fitness community. That community is here for each other, let’s carry the torch forward.
Sometimes innovation involves recovering what was lost
Corner bars, human connection, accountability for your words, integrity
Bringing people together based on common goals, ideologies, and interests instead of random chance of co-location
But we are missing some element of connection.
Is it the physical touch? Only a little
Seeing their reaction to comments so that you can get an idea what they really think? Largely
Is it the speed of interaction? Partially
Is it the random interactions?
The unplanned conversations? Some of my best times were unplanned
Is it just looking in someone’s eyes and feeling a connection even in silence? Yes!
The joy of watching someone’s body language.
The sexual tension
The unknown.
Real conversations have to have the opportunity to happen, they build up and happen after many other discusstions
They can not always be planned
Sometimes we have to talk, then go our separate ways to think, then come back together
This has to be enabled and free to happen
How do we make safe conversations and let people come together to talk?
They need to be nurtured
We need the personal animation and hand/body language
Group conversations where some can observe.
Allow people’s personalities to come through
Democracy is the best government option that exists in the world today.
Lets concede that point.
Does that mean that we should leave it alone?
Does that mean that it can’t be better.
Those who are successful know that the same level of thinking and same behaviors that got them to where they are, will not advance them further.
Are we happy with the world around us?
Don’t we still want to improve?
I am not happy with the status quo. Maybe that is the problem. I think we can do better.
I am only concerned that things have to collapse before people will be willing to make a change.
Great leaders will inspire followers in their own time and beyond
Great leaders will know what drives their people and will target their message appropriately
MLK and Jesus both drove people to follow them.
Do I believe that Jesus was the one of the great leaders of our time, just like MLK
He knew what the people needed, and he gave it to them.
He knew how to communicate, and took advantage of the time and the situation.
A perfectly reasonable end to a means
I wanted to personally explore how I felt about this article. Should we not allow embryos to continue, or just cure them after they are born?
Should we limit suffering?
Should we do everything that we can to extend life?
Should we remove a child’s struggles so that they can focus on their contribution to the world?
Yes, I’d argue vehemently so.
Should we be selecting only the best embryos?
Should we filter mental illnesses?
Should we “fix” things like autism?
For these, I don’t think we are ready to make the call. Our capabilities to detect and control the human body and mind is unfortunately slightly ahead of our ability to predict the impact of our meddling.
I will always drive to advance human capability and science’s ability to improve the human condition. I also recognize that we may normalize ourselves and kill off future advancement if we are not careful. How many brilliant scientists were children who would have been identified as deficient? How many ideas have been borne out of human suffering?
Should we really tame the human experience until it we are all the same? Sanitize our genome and remove the disturbing variations?
It is too early, and we are far too ignorant for this.
One day, we will all have the capability of being everything and anything we choose to be. We will be able to choose the experience causing the right pain to trigger the poem we feel lurking inside. We will be able to suppress our hearing and sight so that we can experience the world through heightened touch and sculpt the graceful flow of love that we feel in our heart.
But until then, some of us have to accept who we are. Accept what fate chose us to be. My request to you: push against your limitations and help build the world that allows us all to break through.
When I was in high school, I read a book of poetry titled “Some Men Are too Gentle to Live Among the Wolves.”
I still clearly remember the feelings I had and the effect that this book had on me. It made me realize that it is ok for a man to have strong feelings.
Empathy is not a bad thing.
There are people in the world who will try to take advantage of you because they will misinterpret caring for weakness.
Men can be gentle and strong at the same time.
I am firm in my commitments and flexible in how I deal with other people.
I have learned over the years how to be myself, and succeed because of it.
Empathy can be a superpower.
Those who know how to read moods, emotions, and needs can control both their own and others.
This is my source of power.
I know myself, and I read others.
I wrote a children’s book when I was in high school called “Edmund Learns How To See.” This book was about a boy who lost his sight, but gained the ability to “see” peoples auras. He was then better able to communicate with people once he could see them more clearly.
This ability to see who people really are, and what they are feeling, is a very underappreciated skill.
We forget how to really see people and work with them directly.
We live in a world where decisions are rarely logical and technical, but we try to force them to be so. We have forgotten that it is relationships and communications that make the world really turn.
This leaves us frustrated and exhausted at our ineffectualness.
For as long as we are still meat-bags in the wild, we must maintain these connections to make progress.
The complexities of the human experience is still beyond our capabilities to describe or define.
We must go through our lives learning every day how to better work with the people around us.
What does this have to do with coaching? I’ll let you decide.
To me – it means that it is ok to care.
To me it is the difference when we are coaching between seeing if someone is hurting or *hurting* during their workout.
When someone pushes themselves physically, you can see their soul as they fight their demons.
Does the athlete need to be pushed, or nurtured?
A good coach knows the difference.
We are watching over you, and not just checking your squat depth.
It’s something unpredictable but in the end it’s right I hope you had the time of your life
Constantly varied blog posts…
To my daughters:
Whatever you do.
Wherever you go
Embrace the unpredictable.
Enjoy the little random curve balls that life throws at you.
This is what makes life worth living
It is not the planned events and adventures. It is the moments in between.
It is the “stuff” that fills in the gaps of your life that you will tell stories about.
You have to work hard and plan and act to make the kind of life that enables you to have these moments.
But it is those random moments that you will treasure.
Talking to a random person on the street. Running into someone who knows an old friend. Watching a child explore their world.
Drinking a cold glass of lemonade, sitting in the sun after working hard in the yard while smelling barbeque on the grill and hearing your favorite song on the radio.
Listening to your child play piano, glass of wine in your hand, spouse sitting next to you, and looking at a painting in the wall.
You can’t plan these moments, you can only prepare yourself to experience them, and embrace the moment to appreciate them.
These are the times of your life.
These are what life is about.
Be prepared to recognize them.
Enjoy them.
Live them.
Do you love life?
Is your own life precious to you today?
Will it be precious to you tomorrow?
Do you think it will be less precious a year from now?
Don’t you have every responsibility to protect that life from being extinguished?
Is here anything more important than life?
Age is worse than every other disease.
And yet we quietly sit by and let it take our family and friends.
Why are you not fighting it?
Because you think you can’t win?
Have you given up just because the fight is hard?
Because no one else has beaten it yet?
This is a new day.
You have new tools at your disposal.
We have never been more capable.
We get more capable every day.
Join the fight and don’t give in.
We need your help.
You may just be the one who tips the scales.
What differentiates us from other animals is our ability to control and understand our own thoughts.
Our thoughts are at the source of all progress. Believing that your life is driven by chance and luck begets failure. You do not have good luck or bad luck, you have consequences and rewards for your negative or positive thoughts and actions.
If you want to succeed; believe, think, and act in the direction of your goals.
This is not to say that you have to control every part of your life. There is pleasure in the random and spontaneous. You can learn and grow from dealing with the unexpected that comes from putting yourself in a situation where you can not foresee the outcome. You will gain new skills and confidence in your ability to cope with the unexpected. Use these times to your advantage, and splice them into your life in places where they are not likely to divert or hamper your real long term plans.
Control, when it behooves you to control,
Flow when you want to see where the world takes you.
Make each one a conscious choice.