Embrace Failure

I was sitting here thinking back on the past couple of days of workouts. They drove home the fact that this life is truly about the journey. As I’ve said before, there are going to be good days, and down right bad days. This applies to not only what happens in the gym, but life in general. I see this on a regular basis in my business as well. Lots of ups and downs and I’ve found I have had to develop a pretty tough skin and I will always say I don’t like failure.Now, what I mean by this is not that I don’t fail, because you better believe there have been those times. What I do mean is that when those times happen I evaluate what went wrong and what can I do to not let it happen again. I have gotten pretty good at picking myself up and plowing ahead.Take this picture for example. It’s of a moment during the workout today. It might not look like much, but to me this is one of my major victories. I performed 120 wall balls today and hit parallel on the squats. 1.5 years ago I underwent major knee surgery to repair worn down cartilage. This surgery was a bandaid for my problem and I knew that regardless of that surgery I still had significant cartilage wear in both my knees to the point that I physically couldn’t get to parallel without excruciating pain. Only recently when I really focused on technique and knowing my limits have I seen progress. I deal with my knee issues and chronic pain on a daily basis. I don’t share my struggle with my knees often. I know what my limits are and don’t push them and this will never go away.CrossFit keeps me sane, strong, and has taught me that I am capable of so much in life. It has given me confidence and made me a fighter. I will be forever grateful to this sport for what it has brought in my life.Now for a little perspective. Today I finished the workout in 19:19, which was one of 2 people to finish as of the 12:30pm class. I was the first and only to finish in our class. It’s quite an accomplishment.Yesterday was a whole different story. Every lift felt heavy and I was no where near the 1 rep max clean I hit only a week before. The workout was grueling and a true test of my desire to fight. I was the last to finish by a long shot. I’ve done this sport for almost 6 years. I know that there will be many other days like yesterday, but I won’t let them bring me down. I will learn from those days and come back more determined.To grow I truly believe you need to push your limits and do things that make you uncomfortable. Don’t be afraid of failing, hit it head on and be stronger from it. Only when we take those risks and see failure do we really grow.