And sometimes pain is just REALLY pain.
Picture taken from CrossFitEndurance.com - are you surprised???
And in life, not just in CrossFit, you need to learn to distinguish between the two. How do you really know the difference?
I don't know about the rest of you but there are definite times within the course of a workout that takes me all of 7 whole minutes that I grab a moment to truly contemplate. It is almost as if for a whole minute (at least) a question is throbbing through my brain - will this kill me or will this help me be better?
Over and over and over again - will this kill me or will this help me be better?
I could be wrong but I don't think that this question arises to those outside of CrossFit and the world of intense sports. For the most part, most normal people with normal lives and normal days (who are those people anyway?!?!) believe safer is better. Why play with fire? Why do something that hurts? Why test your self? Why keep going when you're tired? Why bother trying when you really just don't want to? Is there nothing to be got on the opposite end of the spectrum? Is too much simply too much?
I wager - that occasionally, getting a little delirious and doing things we may fail at is what we were made for. It is how we learn.
I personally don't want to live an unexamined life but I also choose my examinations wisely. I like calculated risk. So sue me. (Well - most of you signed waivers so hopefully you can't.)
Examples:
1. Alyson Terranova likes sky diving. A. LOT. I see it as one more way to have bad dreams for months on end.
2. I will go exploring in Jerusalem, but only in certain parts of the city and with certain company. I will plunder Pompeii but only for a certain amount time and to certain depths.
3. I don't date people I don't know outside of one context. Frankly, I can't date strangers. Too many bad things can happen. Though so far, bad things happen either way... Hmm...
So, I'm a little picky. I leap cautiously. I don't like walking in water I can't see through. I don't like beginning a day without a plan... and I don't like feeling in a workout that I might seize up and just die.
But here's the thing. A workout - in the end - is just a workout... the worst that happens to you is that you stop. Yep. Right where you are you just stop. Maybe you've got an acute injury (seen a lot of those), maybe you're having an asthma attack (and I've seen those too), maybe you're just plain not ready to handle another thing emotionally...
In the end, the worst that happens is you're still alive, and you're just wishing that for once - in a controlled environment - you chose to leap where you could not see.
All I know is - there's something about what I do and teach for a living that really does this for people. Quite literally if you think about the mechanics of a box jump (which I have now semi-mastered for the first time in my life, thank you, DT) and the kind of courage that can only come from self-discipline that it takes to land confidently under a bar in the Oly Lifts.
Of course - like all great things that humans eventually accomplish - you must have a plan B. You must have a way to fall, a way to fail, and a second path to run. But if you have never dared to find out what happens if Plan A works... that's just not living yet. Calculated risk - is still risk! You must be willing to fail in order to succeed.
Success springs from moments of intervention. These are times when one is able to turn the tide of the mind. For a moment your fears are pliable - captive in your hands. There is absolutely no need, and no room for self-doubt.
And it may sound silly, but I love this overcoming of perception. I love convincing myself otherwise. That I can run harder than I thought, that I can jump faster, that I can pull one more rep, push one more time. It spills over into my life. It gives me joy. It gives me strength. It makes me wonder at the way we are made and all the potential we hold.
