Weekend Thoughts

We All Suck

Posted by Lisbeth on Feb 7, 2012 in Essays | 0 comments

Courtesy of Crossfit Lisabeth (and a crossfit junkie who found it.)

We all suck. That’s the first step. If you can admit you suck at something, then you’ve got a chance — because you’ve got heart.

See, we speak so much of the valiant efforts of the accomplished, the winners, those who distinguish themselves in competition and trial that we often forget that the most heart is unseen. The biggest effort in many gyms often happens before the WOD ever starts, before the “3-2-1-Go!”, before the first warm-up, before the first hello.

The biggest effort is often just walking through the door. Think about it.
People — grown adults — show up in CrossFit gyms to learn, to admit that they don’t know everything, that they’re not accomplished at everything, that they need help, they need to learn, they need to grow. It’s a declaration no one wants to make. Our ego fights against it. We pride ourselves on knowing what to do, what to say, how to be. We are adults, after all. Our bravado masks our fear of the world.

And in the CrossFit gym, we take off those masks and simply lay bare our fear in many, many domains and aspects. And we try. We fail. And we try again. Maybe (hopefully!) we eventually succeed: at this skill, at that movement, in this WOD, in that goal.

But we fool ourselves if we believe that success is our most difficult moment. No, success is reaping the rewards of many difficult moments, each met and conquered. Success is a culmination.

But it all starts with the walk though the door, the admittance that you suck at something, at many things.


You suck, so what. We all do. Welcome to the road to success.