1/18 Mental Toughness Thursday

Our Coaches, all of whom have completed Level 2 CrossFit training, read several books a year as part of our professional development. Our first book of 2018 is Chasing Excellence by Ben Bergeron. 
I have highlighted Ben Bergeron several times on Mental Toughness Thursday. Ben owns CrossFit New England which just celebrated its 10 year anniversary. He also coaches the Fittest Man on Earth and several CrossFit Games podium athletes. 
I particularly love this podcast from Ben Bergeron. He discusses grit and how it relates to talent. I found so many nuggets of excellence in this podcast.  
Grit is when you get knocked down and you get up again. When I was training for the CrossFit LiftOff I had a training session where 160# cleans were literally knocking me on my ass. Over and over I jumped the bar up only to have it crash down on me so hard I wound up on the floor. This was incredibly frustrating because 160# is a weight I can regularly clean and is 20# below my max. 
It would have been really easy for me to just give up. Ask Heidi, she was there watching me get knocked on my ass. I had a moment when the tears welled up in my eyes and I was ready to end my training session. Instead, I stripped the bar down to 105# and started again. I successfully cleaned 105# twice, then I did 115 twice, then I did 125# twice until I worked my way back up to 160# and successfully racked it. It was pure GRIT that got me through that training session. I had to let go of my ego and any expectations ("But, I SHOULD be able to clean 160") and start from the beginning. When you fail, it's not final. Failure is a chance to learn. Grit is how you respond to failure. Will you get back up again?
You can listen to Ben's podcast on grit by clicking on the image below. 

Our New Year Whole Life Challenge starts Saturday. We will do our WLC workout in Monday's classes. We have an outstanding partnership with Complete Nutrition. Be sure to sign up for the WLC to learn all the details. Sign up by clicking on the image below. Did you do the WLC once, fail, and now you've decided you're not going to do it again. Where's your grit?

Click Here for The WOD