You Don't Suck As Much As You Think You Do Remix

I absolutely love the blog article “You Don’t Suck As Much As You Think You Do,” by Lisbeth (check it out - http://wordswithlisbeth.com/2015/01/29/you-dont-suck-as-much-as-you-think-you-do/) so I decided to take her post and put a spin on it. You should definitely read her blog before you read mine, as it is written quite clearly and cleverly. She puts an emphasis on her perspective as a crossfit athlete, whereas my “remix” is simply about life. Keep in mind that mine is written from a 16 year old’s perspective compared to an older, wiser perspective originally.

If you’re going to make it through life, then you need to accept one thing: You do not suck as much as you think you do.

Most of us are far harder on ourselves than anyone else ever will be. We look at other people and compare ourselves, whether it’s on instagram, Facebook, or in the supermarket. We often cease to consider everything that has led up to this very moment in our life and theirs. We forget that developing skills,  knowledge, and physical abilities takes time and patience. This can cause us to beat ourselves up repetitively.

Our culture pushes us to suck less and be winners. Winners are celebrated and losers are forgotten. The person who looks the best and performs the best gets the most followers.  The person with the best posts gets the most likes. Get off of social media if you notice the amount of likes you receive affecting your mentality.

You will burn out if you repeatedly tell yourself that you suck. There’s only so long you can punch yourself in the face mentally before you just give up and breakdown. You shouldn’t have to live like that.

It gets old. No one wants to hang out with the one in the corner crying about how much they suck at everything and how no one likes them. I know because I’ve been that person.

One day, I realized I was spending so much time hating myself that no one had a chance to get to know  me. To change this I took a teeny tiny baby step; I asked someone for help. The person I asked gave me resources, listened to me, and gave me helpful feedback. They even helped me work up enough nerve to ask the question that petrified me.

“What’s wrong with me?” The answer is unambiguous. There is nothing wrong with me, or anybody for that matter. We all have plenty of issues, but that is part of being a human.

And now? After talking with people, seeking help, and facing my most dangerous question, I have started to accept that I am a pretty awesome homosapien.

Do I still think that I suck at some things? YES, but it’s okay to suck sometimes.

I realized that by beating myself up all the time about my shortcomings, I was creating a miserable life for myself. Simply put, you can’t grow as a person when you don’t believe that you deserve to be happy.

Does putting myself in a vulnerable position and opening up to people make me weak?  Maybe. That’s okay. I’m making progress and I’m happy.

The simple fact of the matter is that you do not suck as much as you think you do. You can do this. You are doing this. You’ve made it this far.

Stop obsessing about what you suck at. Address your issue head on. Practice coping with it, talk about it, yell at it, prove it wrong. Find someone that can relate to your issue, talk to a friend, talk to a therapist, join an online forum, or start a club to brainstorm how to deal with the issue from different perspectives. Do the thing that you think you suck at until you suck less. Above all accept that you can’t be perfect.

My Own Staircase

Someone’s loved one died this week. Someone else suffered an ACL tear. Someone else got T-boned on the intersection joining Highway 63 to 19th Street. I’d say it’s been a rough week for some people; myself included. Maybe life was going too good, and we all just needed something to pull us back to reality. Yeah, that’s what it was.

My wrist was healing significantly, slower than a snail finishing a marathon, but nonetheless it was healing... until I tried to do a Crossfit WOD with 95 pound deadlifts, burpees, and wall balls. I felt a slight tear-ish feeling and decided to call it quits, but now I figure it might have been a little bit too late. I can say with pique that I sat at home that night with tears running down my face and ice packs strapped to my wrist; while I convinced myself that I would never get back full range of motion and I would never be able to lift again.

All that negative self talk made me very depressed, so I started calling psychologists. Most told me that they weren’t licensed to work with adolescents, or that they didn’t specify in sport’s injuries. After that failed quest, I got to my own devices and pulled an archaic college textbook labeled “Introduction to Psychology” out of my basement. I flipped to the section on motivation and found it fascinating, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Next I googled “sports psychology - mind of an athlete” and found some advice about making a staircase. It sounded silly, but I tried it. I made a staircase and immediately felt better.

Here’s my staircase:

It consists of all the tiny steps I have to take to reach a certain short term goal. The short term goal is to do a handstand (really I would like to snatch 180 and clean & jerk 200, but from where I am now that goal would be completely un-motivational because of how far I actually am from achieving that). The steps are made up of all the things I need to do before I can safely attempt that goal of a handstand. Making these steps visible and marking the ones I have already completed gives me a sense of how far I’ve come already, while still motivating me to work towards the higher steps.

This visual reminder helps me look forward to all of the little successes, and make sure that I savor every step that's conquered in training (no matter how minuscule). Never take for granted all the things that you CAN do, but also never stop striving for greatness.

5 Things I've Learned From Being A Coach

Being a coach comes with a completely different perspective from that of an athlete, but the goal is the same - to be the best. Here’s what I’ve learned about coaching over the last couple months.

What I’ve learned so far:

1. Stop Searching for Perfection

Every athlete wants to win gold medals, and every coach wants to have a gold medal program. You want people to look at your athletes and say, “Wow, that coach knows what he/she is doing!” Perhaps the biggest mistake a coach can make is doing too much in search of the perfect program. Should we do strict presses and back squats three times a week or should we just focus solely on the Olympic lifts? What about core - should we do it everyday or do front squats count as core? There are a million different programs out there that might all work, but it’s important to remember that if what you’re doing right now is working then your program is obviously pretty darn good (thanks to Dan John for that advice). Perfection in training is not the goal, but perfection in competition is. Just remember that.

2. Be patient

If something just isn’t clicking right with one of your athletes don’t give up. Things take time to learn, especially if they are used to doing it a different way. Try to put yourself in their shoes and remember what it was like to be a beginner. At some point we all had no idea why our coach was yelling at us to “get under the bar faster,” but eventually it made sense that if you got under the bar faster you could lift more weight. You may have to use a different cue or find a different drill for a certain athlete, but don’t give up when it comes to technique.

3. Stay open-minded

I almost had a heart attack when one of my athletes complained that their wrist was hurting. At the gym I trained at we rarely did wrist strengthening so as a coach I didn’t feel that things like wrist curls or farmers carries were a vital part of a good program; however, when an athlete has an injury that is the most important time to stay open-minded. After that incident farmers carries and overhead carries are now a regular part of our program.

4. Pretend like you know what you’re doing

When our team stepped into Cannon Falls High School for our first meet I was sweating and shaking. It had been a year since I had competed and I was letting every voice in my head tell me how badly things would go if I messed up, but for the sake of the athletes a coach must at least pretend that they know what they are doing when it comes to competition. The coach makes most of the decisions at a meet: when to warm-up, how to warm-up, what to put on the bar, how long to wait between sets, when to go out and lift, etc. If the athlete doesn’t trust their coach that’s just one more thing for them to be nervous about. Watch what the other coaches and teams are doing, and pay attention to details. You’ve got this.

5. If you want to go to the Olympics don’t be a coach

I’m sure it can be done, but the amount of work that it takes to program for others can be a huge stress on your training and it can dull your enthusiasm for the sport. In my situation coaching is keeping my eye for technique fresh, but for a healthy athlete with large aspirations it might hinder their motivation for training. When you are a coach your athletes always come first, but when you are an athlete your training always comes first. It’s tough to do both. When it’s time for me to go back to full-time training I will make sure to leave my athletes with a coach who is devoted to his or her athletes, because that can make or break an athlete’s career.

If you are thinking about becoming a coach you should definitely go for it, but first make sure that you have a solid plan and are ready to devote a lot of your time to your athletes. Coaching is very enjoyable, especially when your athletes improve and succeed :)

Why did the turkey cross the road?

We took off down I-90 at 75 miles an hour. My brother and I sat comfortably in the back seat with our headphones snug in our ears; I was listening to This American Life and Eddie was enjoying what he calls “gangster music.” After a longer than usual week of school and work, our family was more than ecstatic to finally take off for a week of pure relaxation and family fun. My mom called the attendance office to let them know that my brother and I would be MIA the following week.

Everything was going great, when suddenly we all looked up. I’m not sure if it was the sudden decrease in speed or the chaotic swerving that caught our attention, but we looked up just in time to see an idiotic turkey sauntering across the road. My dad swerved to the opposite side of the road and we all let out a sigh of relief thinking we had missed it. When my dad swerved the turkey must have realized its life was in mortal danger, so he sped up only to meet us on the other lane where he was promptly slaughtered. Blood splattered the windshield and we heard a nefarious noise that made us cringe in our seats. My little brother burst into tears as my dad pulled off to the shoulder. He whimpered, “F%#ing turkey! Our whole vacation is ruined!”

My dad stepped out to assess the damage, which was pretty severe. The radiator was busted and leaking, but to our luck it didn’t overheat in the short time it took us to drive the van back home. We cleared out our other vehicle, transferred our suitcases, and then slammed the doors before we backed out of the driveway. It was a silent ride as we bounced down the road in my dad’s black Chevy. My mom pointed out, “Maybe we hit that turkey for a reason. It’s not such a bad thing.”

We disagreed, and sat there pouting about our misfortune. Later, though we realized that it wasn’t that bad: we could’ve been killed or something much worse than hitting a dang turkey.

About 5 hours down the road, after forgetting the whole turkey incident, I was given the privilege to drive. The speed limit was 75mph and I was having a blast speeding past all the semis. Suddenly the rear window behind me was bitch black. We heard a bang and my dad decided that I should pull over. He stepped out to inspect the damage; the truck bed cover had ripped from the violent winds and high speed. We sighed and began moving our boots, coats, and whatever other light items we had to the cab of the truck. It was a tight fit, but my mom pointed out that we should be thankful it wasn’t raining yet.

After that things went slightly smoother than they had started out. The only obstacles we had left that night were fog, snow, and ice on curvy roads. That was nothing compared to a stupid turkey.

Mental Toughness in Weightlifting

Mental toughness is a must to be successful in Olympic Weightlifting. If you let fear seep into your mind before you lift that barbell there is a 99% chance you will miss it. A weak mental game causes injuries and “kills more dreams than failure ever will.” (Suzy Kassem)

Honestly if you want to succeed in the sport of weightlifting, resilience (mental strength in any situation) is a must. Accidents happen, but if you are prepared for them they can’t shake you. What if you forget your lifting shoes? What if the competition doesn’t have chalk? 

Here are some things to do periodically (but not too often) to keep your mental game in check:

• Lift in regular tennis shoes
• Train without any chalk
• Turn the music off
• Vary your rest times (in a competition who knows how long you’ll be waiting?)
• Lift at different times of day
• Train with distractions (like noisy football players)
• Share a platform with different people
• Know yourself

Learning to lift without your weightlifting shoes or buckets of chalk, and knowing how your body is going to react will prepare you for the obstacles you may encounter in your weightlifting career. Avoid failure by setting yourself up for success.

Kahi 160kg snatch in sandals

don't be a quitter

I grasped the frigid handle of the front door and swung it open. The first thing that caught my eye was a group of athletes upside down against the wall. They would kick up sporadically then flop down after a sweat inducing 30 seconds of attempting to breath upside down. My gymnastics years flashed back to me, I recalled myself doing 2-3 minute handstand holds and spending countless hours practicing the perfect handstand in my basement. My goal was always to get a strict press to handstand, but that goal was immediately abandoned after I messed up my wrist. 

Back to the handstands, these athletes were finishing their warm up and I had arrived just barely in time for the workout. They finished their handstands and we all grudgingly pulled out an one hundred pound assault bike from where they were lined up like an army against the wooden boxes that have wreaked havoc on many people’s shins. After the assault bikes were all lined up in the middle of the room the clock started counting down.

Our coach shouted, “3, 2, 1, GO!” so we started pedaling fiercely as if in a race against time. We had 14 minutes and 59 seconds left on that bike. As if these 15 torturous minutes weren’t enough, I made the stupid mistake of letting myself slip one negative thought through my mind. At first it was one, “You could of done those handstands if you hadn’t hurt your wrist,” but then it kept getting worse; “You are so stupid, you missed out on an entire year of opportunities because of one mistake. You ruined everything, and I bet if you had both wrists healthy you could make this bike go a lot faster.” Soon enough I had tears welling in my eyes and I let my feet off the pedals. Someone encouraged me to get moving, so I took a deep breath and tried to get a handle on my thoughts. Positive: “You can still bike, you can run and squat, all things happen for a reason, this is making you a stronger athlete mentally.”

The entire workout was like a teeter totter, my mind running back and forth between optimism and narcissism. When it was finally over I was proud to call out my results and I realized that I didn’t do that bad compared to two handed people. I’m not saying comparison is good by any means, but in all honesty it reassured me that I am at an okay place in my training and that I’m not losing athleticism even though I can’t work out at 100% physically.

I felt like giving up, I really did. I was already planning what I was going to do with all my free time that would no longer be spent at the gym, but then a quote by Lance Armstrong reminded me, “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or even a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” I’d rather have a handicapped arm for a year than to live in the presence of failure for the rest of my life.

Every so often days like these occur and that’s when I really have to tune in and focus on being positive. There are always going to be days when we feel like quitting, and things just aren’t going right. Those are the days that we have to take a step back and get real with ourselves. Is it really as bad as it seems? If so what can we do to fix it? Sometimes the answer is to just keep showing up. Eventually the downer days will lead up to a day or a week where we feel stronger than ever, where each rep is effortless.

I’m really looking forward to that week and I hope it happens soon, but in the meantime I guess this means I need to suck it up and keep moving forward. :)

Photo Creds:

https://www.facebook.com/649492038474180/photos/pb.649492038474180.-2207520000.1416023427./706479106108806/?type=3&theater

http://www.pinterest.com/tashanixoxo/weightlifting/

Mentality for a Tough Day

  Here’s a mental approach for any challenging task in your life. It works for diet, it works for back squats, it works for long runs too. It doesn’t involve willpower, and even if it did you wouldn’t notice it. So here it is: JUST ONE MORE!

One more rep, one more mile, one more step, one more minute, one more hour, one more day, one more year. Just one more good decision can lead to an entire day of good decisions and likewise so can a bad decision. Basically it is an approach that doesn’t let you give up on yourself unless you want to experience the shame and guilt of failure. I say it doesn’t involve willpower, and here’s an example: you really want to eat a cookie, but you know you shouldn’t so you tell yourself “Oh, just one more hour until I can have the cookie.” But by the time an hour is up you’ve already forgotten about the cookie, so you won’t have to exercise that muscle they call “willpower.”

I have found that this mentality extremely effective so far in many aspects of my life. I dare you to try it and see what happens!

Not Just Another Haircut

I had about 6 inches of my hair chopped off the day after surgery. The number one reason is because with a cast on I can’t really style or brush knots out of my hair on my own, and the second reason is that it symbolizes a slow and steady comeback. I lack a little thing called patience, so I think my hair will be a constant reminder that I need to slow down and give myself time to heal; it will remind me to look at the bigger picture. It takes an entire year for hair to grow out six inches, and I’m pretty sure that will give me enough time to get back to near 100%. So by the time my hair is grown back to it’s normal length hopefully I will be snatching 80 kilos!:P

The Keys to a High Quality Life

Nine habits that I believe are essential to a high quality life no matter your age, income, or social status.

#1 Move it or Lose it: Humans were designed to run, jump, crawl, and play as a form of enjoyment and also for protection. As we age our bodies stiffen if we don’t practice movement; therefore make sure you are moving as much as possible. Take the steps, park in the most remote spot, walk everywhere within a couple miles of your house, stretch out while you’re watching TV, etc. On top of that if you do an intense workout you can get some endorphins flowing, which will make you feel on top of the world. Who wouldn’t enjoy that?

#2 Step Outside: Breathing fresh air is essential to our existence, so do it everyday. Connecting with the universe is renewing, reassuring, and helps you explore the world that we live in.

#3 Sleep like it’s Your Job: Someone once said, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” No you won’t because you’ll be dead. Our brains are like rechargeable batteries which means they shut down when they don’t get enough charge. Sleeping repairs not only your body (beauty sleep), but also your mind. Another thing I’m sure you haven’t heard before is that people who get enough sleep usually feel happier and more energized. Make time to sleep and enjoy it.

#4 Eat Real Food: Good food is worth the slightly higher price you will have to pay for it. Have you considered the price of cancer lately? How about heart disease? Diabetes? You pay with your life. A much better trade off would be to eat high quality foods as much as possible that come from local farmers who are dedicated to your health and longevity. The environment, your paycheck, the farmers paycheck, and the animals will profit from your purchase (plus your body will thank you). Just a tip - if you stop eating out and cook all of your meals at home you can actually save money buying organic food compared to buying cheap produce or meat from Walmart and eating out often. Remember that no one is perfect and it takes time to make the transition to buying/eating organic food, alas deciding to start is half the battle.

#5 Avoid Pesticides: Pesticides can cause memory loss, slow reaction times, bipolar behavior, cancer, and they screw up your hormones which leads to even more unfavorable diseases. Avoid pesticides by making your own cleaning supplies and toiletries, buying organic/grass fed foods, and by having a no-shoes rule in the house (shoes track in lawn fertilizers). Below are a few DIY recipes.

Shampoo - 1 cup water + 1 tbs baking soda

Conditioner - 1 cup water + 1 tbs apple cider vinegar

Lotion - coconut oil

Jewelry cleaner - baking soda + water

Laundry detergent - washing soda + borax + shredded scented castile soap

For more easy recipes and tricks check out http://www.diynatural.com

#6 Drink like an Elephant:

Water makes up more than half of our bodies and about 75% of our muscle tissue. The recommended amount is 6-8 cups per day, but I would suggest about a gallon a day. You will probably have to pee a lot more than usual but eventually your body will adapt. Water also aids in digestion, endurance, and survival so drink up.

#7 Live Minimalistically: Simply put don’t buy stuff you don’t need. Do you really need a monster energy drink every morning? How about a TV? Do you need all of your old college T-shirts? Do you need 78 different pairs of shoes? These are all wants, not needs. If you feel like your items own you, I suggest you try the minimalist challenge. http://www.theminimalists.com/game/  Being freed of your material items will greatly reduce stress and make life much easier.

#8 Live Passionately: Cultivate your talents and do activities that you enjoy often, but also try a little bit of everything because you never know what will catch your eye. Don’t just follow the crowd; lead the crowd by being authentically you and not collapsing to peer pressure. Be creative and innovative. Set attainable goals and work to reach them. Never let your passion die out.

#9 Meditate Like a Monk: Get in the habit of meditating for at least 10 minutes a day. I prefer to do it in the morning because then the calmness I find stays with me throughout the day and I don’t get as stressed. No matter when you meditate it will diminish stress, calm your body, help you take control of your mind and renew yourself. Me time is especially important in the busy world we live in today.

What do you think? Are there more to add or maybe one that doesn’t fit? All comments are welcome!

-Liz