So you did it! You’re a CrossFitter!
You are setting PRs, and you finally know the difference between a power snatch and a power position power snatch (well, maybe you still don’t know that one, but you know the difference between a snatch, a clean, and a thruster!).
You look forward to the one hour of your day where nothing else can preoccupy your mind. No work. No financial worries. No family concerns. Just new friends, loud music, high fives and fist bumps, and lots of sweat! Perhaps your sixty minutes at CrossFit has even become the best hour of your day.
But then it happens…. Another area of your life creeps in and takes away that hour (and sometimes even a week or more). Maybe you have to work late or go on an extended trip. Maybe a family member is ill and needs your help. Maybe your kid’s practice runs over. Maybe it’s just a traffic jam.
You’re upset. Perhaps you’re even angry because you lost the best hour of your day (and before CrossFit, you didn’t have a best hour of your day!).
You might find yourself fretting that now that you missed that hour or that week, you won’t make the progress you would have made if this thing in your life hadn’t interfered.
It’s time to take a deep breath. It doesn’t matter if you miss that hour or that week. You are training for life, and that includes life’s unpredictability. You are training to be better every day. If you miss time at the gym so you can help someone or complete necessary work, then you are succeeding!
Remember, CrossFit’s purpose is to make life outside the box better. When the day gets turned upside down, think of it like a workout that isn’t going the way you planned. Pause, breathe, refocus, stay present, and carry on. The box will be there tomorrow, next week, and next month.
What might surprise you is that tomorrow may bring unexpected gains, ones that a forced time off may actually have made possible.
So if you miss a day, a week, or even a month, remember, it’s all part of training for life.