What's Your Win?

So I got up a little early on Saturday morning to learn how to be a champion.

As I’d written in the previous post, I was not expecting any silver bullets from the Performance Intelligence seminar – in fact my expectations for this sort of thing are usually kind of low. I never really expect that a stranger or even a coach is going to understand what drives me or what may cause me to succeed or fail.

Well, as expected, silver bullets were not distributed. However, I think that the seminar did provide me with some new tools to help me understand and even control what goes through my head before, during and after a WOD.

The seminar was led by Julie Bell, who has written a book called Performance Intelligence At Work, The Five Essentials to Achieving the Mind Of A Champion. Dr. Bell did an excellent job of breaking down the factors that go into a successful workout.

As simple as this may sound, I had never really spent much time analyzing how I approach a workout. The mad dash from Irving to the box in the middle of rush hour traffic after a long day at work usually consumes the focus of my concentration just before a WOD. By the time that I arrive at the box, all I have going for me is the adrenaline rush born of weaving through traffic on 75. I do not have a WGP.

Dr. Bell introduced our group to the concept of a Winning Game Plan (WGP). The WGP can be applied to any type of goal, not just a WOD. The development of your plan requires that you define what exactly you hope to achieve, and then the method for achieving your “win”.

I though that this concept was really interesting, and I have a feeling that the WGP is going to become a model that I base many of my decisions on in the future. Is staying up late watching HGTV going to help me with my WGP? Does Haagen Dazs 5 Mint Ice Cream contribute anything to my ability to realize my WGP?

Dr. Bell also delivered some helpful advice regarding an issue that plagues me every day at that box, confidence. She broke this one down very simply: “be confident in your ability to create the outcome, not in the outcome itself”. This means that your confidence should be inspired by only that which you can control.

For example, I cannot control whether or not I am going to be the fastest runner, or the strongest lifter in the box. Any doubts that I have of ever actually being the fastest or the strongest will effectively destroy my chances of executing the WOD with confidence.

However, I can be confident of my ability to lift a certain weight that I choose, because I am in control of that decision. Or I can run at a certain pace that I set. By focusing on the areas of the WOD that I can control, I can eliminate self-doubt and establish confidence in my own abilities.

It sounds like common sense, but I had really never thought of breaking down the elements of a WOD like that. It kinda makes sense – I am going to at least give it a try.

The seminar included a workout that Spencer customized for each participant based on some of our individual challenges. I was assigned “Death By Pull-ups”. This WOD requires that you do a certain number of pull-ups in consecutive order, every minute (minute 1, 1 pull-up/minute 2, 2 pull-ups, etc., etc. until you die). I really hadn’t planned to workout during the seminar, (I thought it was just going to be a seminar), so I didn’t feel very prepared for the Death By Pull-ups challenge. I did make it to Minute 10 though.

At first, the insertion of the WOD into the seminar had felt like a distraction. I had planned on a "rest day"...what did pull-ups have to do with my silver bullet? But afterwards, we all got together and kind of analyzed our WODs while it was still fresh in our memories. What went wrong? What went right? This conversation kind of brought everything together in "realtime" during the seminar.

So in summary, while it was very indulgent to dedicate a whole day to all of this introspection, I think that I walked away with several benefits from the Performance Intelligence seminar.

• A foundation for understanding some of the mental obstacles that occur with not just every WOD, but any challenging situation
• A proactive method for building my confidence
• A formula for developing a Winning Game Plan
• Some excellent feedback from Dr. Bell, the coaches and other members of CFDC

Other than that last bullet item, I think that many of the benefits could probably be realized just by reading Dr. Bell’s book (though, I have not read it yet). But #4 was also a huge benefit – spending a whole day listening to other members and coaches talk about their individual experiences with Crossfit, what drives them and what challenges them, was also very interesting. The personal feedback that Dr. Bell and the others shared was definitely worth the price of admission.

Performance Intelligence Training = FTW