How community and accountability reshape your self belief.
Today I want to share a few little secrets we have here at CrossFit Armidale.
Look these aren’t really ‘secrets’ per se, but they aren’t necessarily things people think about before jumping into a health and fitness regime.
So I started training people 16 years ago next month, and I vowed that I would help people get fitter and healthier by avoiding all of the mistakes I made.
And one of the biggest mistakes I made was going it alone.
When I began exercising I was just doing my thing on my own at home. Back in 2003-4 there wasn’t as much stuff available online like there is now. Having said that, most of what was available then, is no different to now, there is just more of it.
When I was going it solo there were so many ‘reasons’ I could put off a workout. Ah it is a bit late, I might just do it tomorrow. I went pretty hard yesterday, so I will have a day off. It is cold in my little gym. I will wait until it is a bit warmer. Oh the SImpsons is on! Hmmm might dig bindies out of the lawn. lol
You get the picture, anything was good enough to put it off. The slightest inconvenience.
And with that came the doubt.
Can I actually do this? Am I just destined to not do it time and again? Will all this equipment just become expensive clothes drying racks?
I am thinking some of you are relating to this.
Doubts??
We all have our own internal doubts, and I still do to this day.
The number one thing I found for getting beyond that was finding others to help ‘carry the load’ so to speak.
At first for me it was joining a gym and then going with a mate or two to help keep each other to our agreed appointment times to go workout.
Then I discovered CrossFit. That is where I found out what a true community can do for you.
It went from just a few mates to a global community of people that all wanted to see you succeed.
CrossFit Armidale Community!
The thing for me wasn’t just about myself, it was seeing others become more and more consistent. Hitting goals they never believe they could initially.
I meet each and every person that starts here at CrossFit Armidale for a chat before they do a session at all. And over the last 13 and half years we have been a CrossFit Affiliate, the most common thing I hear is I don’t know if I can do it.
Most people are unsure if they can commit the time, are unsure if they can accomplish some of the movements, unsure if they can keep up, unsure about the soreness, unsure if they will fit in.
For some they talk themselves out of it before they begin. Especially when they decide to go it alone.
So a failure of mine was back in the olden days pre CrossFit, when I ran a women’s only bootcamp. It was mostly fabulous, we had a good bunch of people in it and we would run it in four week blocks. At the end we would ask if people wanted to do another round.
There were three women that said no, they were fine, they felt they could do it themselves.
I saw them at the start of the next block, at the park alongside us.
Week two there were only two of them. Week three, just one. And week four they had all stopped. There weren’t enough of them to do the heavy lifting for each other in the smaller group.
A Failure??
I had failed them because I had tried to show them how important it was to exercise. They knew that. It was the importance of the community that I had missed. What was helping the bootcampers more than anything was each other. And when I kicked off CrossFit it became apparent that that was it.
Once people come in the doors they realise they have an incredibly supportive bunch of their peers ready to help them. Then there is the commonality of going through something a little hard together to form a solid bond.
Peers support with CrossFit is second to none. I have watched as new members were taken under the wing of a longer term member and become part of the CF family immediately. This belief from someone else helped keep them coming back, and soon enough they believed in themselves. And well, now they are the longer term members helping the newer members.
When you look at society we all have our tribes, football teams, clubs, societies, religions.
And these are strong due to the numbers that turn up day in day out.
You don’t need to know it all to begin, you don’t even need to think you can do it. You might have plenty of motivation and drive. But that is where we come in.
Sometimes, you don’t need more motivation – you just need someone to believe in you. That’s us.