When I first arrived in Arizona at the end of September I attended the OPT CCP Life Coaching Level 1 course for the second time. I knew there had been some changes to the course since the first time I took it so I wanted to check out the latest experience. It was hands down the best seminar I have ever attended. Granted, it quite possibly could have been due to the timing of all other factors in my life, but nonetheless it was awesome!
One of my favorite aspects was the addition of a feminine voice with Sharon Prete presenting along side James. Yes, CrossFit courses have female instructors, but they are not presenting on their own material (at least not at the courses I attended, as I cannot speak for present day). This was the first time that I have attended a fitness related course that had a female instructor who presented her own material. It was awesome! Yes, I'm biased as a female, but being that the male coaches have numerous female clients I feel they benefited just as much if not more than the ladies in attendance.
There were multiple portions of the weekend that expanded my paradigm as a coach with various considerations to take when working with a large variety of individuals. From a personal perspective I most benefited from the exercise we did Sunday afternoon on values.
We were asked to write down our top three values at the top of the page. From there we answered multiple questions ie. how do you spend your money, your time, your energy, what dominates your thoughts, what do you most often talk to yourself about, what goals stand out in your life that have stood the test of time, and so forth. And while it probably comes as no surprise to many of you, perhaps maybe even those of you whom I have never met, but training was hands down my number one value with education/personal development and my business pursuits rounding out my top three.
So why was this such an eye-opener for me??
I realized how uncomfortable I am admitting to others that training is my number one value. I feel guilt around it. I feel I am not "good enough" to put such a high value on it.
Yep, there it is. That whole self-worth issue. Anyone else struggle with this one? Well, if so know you're not alone!
In the weeks since I've been working on embracing my number one value...training and more so letting go of the guilt around it. I get stuck on the fact that I feel I should value something that generates income or something that is most often mentioned as a high value to others....family. However, just because my husband, mother, sister or nephew do not regularly come up in my values it doesn't make me a "bad wife, daughter, sister or aunt". It just is what it is.
Furthermore, my highest value has nothing to do with making a living and far more to do with loving life! It's what I love to think about & what keeps me excited to get out of bed every single day. I have been awe-struck by athletes since childhood. I spent much of my childhood active & playing but never feeling very confident about anything involving athletics. (I'll save the back story for another day.) The important issue here is that I have continued to pursue fitness & athletics throughout my life. Once I realized that I CAN do far more than I ever thought possible well quite simply I started living in pursuit of discovering just how much more.
While I have goals...like the obvious of qualifying to the CrossFit Games and bigger dreams from there like having the opportunity to travel the world to compete in CrossFit, but personally it's not about the end result. Truly, it's about the journey.
I want to keep training for the rest of my life. When I first started working with James I told him it was my goal to qualify to the CrossFit Games even if it doesn't happen until I'm a Masters Athlete. In a bit of a confused tone he asked, "how old are you?" as I was 15 years from being a masters CrossFit athlete at that point. But that's just it...that is the point. I love doing this & I'll say it again, I want to keep training for the rest of my life!
In my present athletic life, as a distance runner, I became over-eager. I started to experience results & got locked into the "more is better" mindset to the point that I became extremely over-trained & burnt out. Because of this experience I was extremely hesitant to even begin competing in CrossFit. (Again, a post for another day.) I was enjoying life as a coach & gym owner at that point & didn't want to destroy that enjoyment. However, I definitely felt that inner burn to know. I had been watching videos what I could do and well I'm still learning today.
In one of my journals from 2010 I wrote, "All I want to be when I grow up is a professional CrossFitter. I think it's the closest thing we have to present day superheroes."
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