Have you ever heard the phrase ‘freedom is providing yourself the opportunity to fail?’ I recently heard the term “risk adverse” used to describe people that hold themselves back from taking risks because of fear of failure or for other reasons. I realized that I fall into that category and I guess I never realized that playing it safe might not always be the best thing.
I can’t help but relate all the lessons I’m learning in this season of life back to working out. I always say that everyone has at least one crazy CrossFit friend that will tell you all about it every chance they get, and if you don’t have one yet, now you have me.
In trainer terminology, we often talk about training to failure. Where you push your body and muscles so hard that you literally fail attempts at a rep or a movement. Business and financial expert Dave Ramsey talks about how non-fatal failures can create gut instinct and a wealth of knowledge from experience. I guess I never stopped to differentiate between fatal failures and non-fatal failures and when you don’t do that, then all risks are bad because they might lead to failure.
But when I look back on some of the best things in my life, they all had an element of risk to them. Calculated risk of course, all you analytical thinkers know what I’m talking about. 😉
Recently the light bulb has come on for me in realizing that for so much of my life I’ve just done what I should do, with what I want to do as an after thought. Now I see way too often people just do whatever they feel like and leave a path of damaged people and burned bridges behind them. But if every decision and choice in my life is safe and has very little risk of failure, how will I ever grow or get better?
Sometimes CrossFit gets a bad rap because people say it’s not safe. We could have a completely safe environment where we brought people into the gym and just had them stretch gently without any discomfort and never exert any energy above 30% of their maximum capacity. Our injury rate would be zero. But what would we lose in the process? Besides the passion and the fun? There would be no results, no change, no growth. I’d even say the relationships with one another would be stunted because there is a camaraderie that comes from sweating and struggling alongside someone else. Not to mention, I came back so much stronger and more knowledgeable and confident from an injury that I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
What I’ve found in getting to know Jesus better is freedom to fall because He’s always right there to pick us up. Sure Peter fell in the water trying to get to Jesus because he got afraid of the wind and the waves, but that was after he tried something no one else ever had and walked on water!
I’ve found not just the sport and training methodology of CrossFit to be a place for me to daily try new things, test limits, fail and try again. But specifically surrounded by some of the most amazing people in the fitness community that we call our “gym family”.
I recently did my first Ring Muscle Up. A staple gymnastic move that we also do in CrossFit on a regular basis. It looks easy when the rings are in the hands of a skilled athlete. And then there’s me. I spent months working on my grip on the rings, figuring out the rhythm of how to swing, doing ring pulls, and ring pull ups, watching videos of experts, practicing drills, and watching videos of myself. Bruised wrists, beat up hands, sore shoulders. Gymnasts have my complete respect for the amazing discipline and hard work it takes to be successful in just one movement. I can’t tell you how many times my early morning coach and gym friends watched me fail, over and over and over again. And yet with a little guidance, I started to move from failures to failures with purpose. Two steps forward, one step back. And then one day it happened. One of those magic CrossFit moments.
Was training with a coach and he gave me 5 attempts, and one of those was actually successful! Finally. Everyone around me was cheering me on and it was one of those victories that was not only satisfying because of the work I had put in but because of the people and other coaches around me that had devoted time to giving me tips or just telling me they were confident I would get it someday. I realized that when you grasp that someone is for you, that people want you to succeed, it has to be one of the most powerful motivators. If I can do that for others, in even a small way as a wife, a mom, a trainer or coach, then what does it matter if I have a few failures and imperfections myself?
I still fail at Ring Muscle Ups and I also still succeed at them sometimes. It’s all part of the pursuit of trying new things that are beyond my current abilities.
The freedom to fail is also the freedom to grow, to get better, to get a little stronger, to learn a little more. It’s finding what you love and dedicating yourself wholeheartedly to it, not holding back. Not dwelling on fears but letting go. It’s just like Paul says in Philippians, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on…Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Now excuse me while I try and capture video proof of me getting one of those elusive Ring Muscle Ups 😉
Jessica's Thoughts 