PERSEVERANCE
noun
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persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.“medicine is a field which requires dedication and perseverance”
In the box you might see this too, people moving through the workouts with “ease”. Moving weights that seem impossibly heavy and doing it for multiple reps. They link their pull-ups, muscle-ups, and walk around on their hands as if it were just as natural as walking on their feet.
A lot of the time we only see (choose to notice & remember) the finished product. We miss/overlook what it took to get to that point, the practice, dedication, and patience. They didn’t start off being amazing, they had to go through the same struggles that we all go through, sometimes having great successes and others times stumbling.
Have you seen this commercial of Michael Jordan talking about his failures, it’s worth watching.
In a recent article on ESPN, Lindsey Valenzuela (2nd place finisher at the 2013 CF Games) talked about working on her weaknesses; “her first competition, the 2009 Southern California regional in Orange County, didn’t go well because she couldn’t do chest-to-bar pull-ups. The next year she got another DNF because she couldn’t do one of CrossFit’s more demanding workouts, the muscle-up. But Valenzuela persevered”.
Lindsey appears to have figured out those muscle ups.
Then there’s Rich Froning, 3-time CF games champion, the man is a machine. But that wasn’t always the case. Back in 2010 Rich’s weakness…Rope Climbs. In the video below (go to minute 23) you’ll notice that he tries to do a legless rope climb. Not because it was part of the WOD, not because he thought it was cool, but simply because he had no idea how to use his legs. You’ll notice other familiar names too, and their rope climbs of 2010 look nothing like the rope climbs in recent events.
So where ever you are in your journey just remembers that everyone struggles, everyone has disappointments, and everyone has successes. Focus on your successes and learn from your failures.