Do what you love

The new On-Ramp class listens as I drop knowledge bombs and mind bullets at them.

I clearly remember the day I decided to make CrossFit my full time career. I drove to a consulting job in Santa Monica. Like always there was a ton of traffic and a 20 minute drive took me 90 miserable minutes. I finally get there and it’s street sweeping day, so parking was like Sunday afternoon at the Trader Joe’s parking lot. I finally get to the office and it’s the standard Wednesday: Birthday/going away party for someone I don’t even know or like, bad coffee, bad lighting, bad conversation, bad cologne, bad jokes, bad management. Everyone had a general misuse of the speakerphone function on their phone. Then there was this one lady. This lady was totally unhappy and was doing just enough in her job to not get fired. She worked there long enough to get her office with no windows accompanied by a worthless title of some sort of manager with empty responsibilities. She walks in the office and cackles at someone saying “it’s only Wednesday, can’t wait for the weekend” like she has some big exciting plans for the weekend when she’s really just going to groom her shivering dog and eat 15 Lean Cuisine meals. Her phone ring tones consist of an Enrique Inglesias song and/or a Michael Buble song. I know this because she lets the phone ring at full blast all day long because she thinks that customized ring tones are so hip. I watch her go to the dozen donuts and cut them in half and then scurry back to her office chewing with her mouth open. She does this 5-9 times in the day. Might as well just take the whole dozen. She makes me want to lick each donut and put it back. She’s so out of shape that she wheezes when she walks like someone hid a puppy play toy in her purse. She has to grab her desk to sit down and stand up. She was miserable and she made me miserable by proxy. She made me hate people. (see my Facebook post about the lady who cut in line in front of me at Whole Foods the other day)

After my commute home I drove straight to CrossFit. I walk in the gym and I was immediately refreshed by that familiar sound of barbells and loud music. I was greeted by smiles, high fives and excitement to do the WOD. All those crappy negative feelings I had magically disappeared and amidst all the chaos of the gym, I felt peaceful. Right then at that moment I decided to make CrossFit my full time gig. I talked to Mariessa about partnering up and the rest is history.

Daylan and Regan either going for a high five or waving at each other way too close.

I absolutely love my job. How can I tell that I love my job? First of all it’s not a job to me. Technically I work 12-14 hour days, but I never think of it as work. My work is my play and vice versa. My passion is also my responsibility. I don’t wake up every day dreading a commute or wishing it was Friday. I wake up every day to pursue the dream that I share with Mariessa for CrossFit South Bay. Inching our way toward our vision of what CrossFit South Bay will be. Always proud of our accomplishments, but never resting on our laurels. I have found my passion and will do whatever it takes to be successful. Why is this important? Because it directly affects you, the athlete. If we looked at CFSB like it was just a paycheck, we would do the bare minimum. We would stop building a community and trying to make improvements and having town hall meetings. We would stop caring about your progress and only care about our bottom line. Instead of being surrounded by jerks, I have great coaches like Remy, Matt and John and a great partner, Mariessa. I have people like Chris and Scarlett who do so much to help prepare us for competition. I’m excited to come in every day to see who had a PR and who has the time to beat and who got their first kipping pull-up. I even love all the other stuff. I love doing the accounting and keeping the books. I love running errands for the gym and updating the website and editing pictures to post to Facebook. I love all the little intricacies and imperfections that come along with owning CFSB, because it’s not my job, it’s my passion. I’ll trade cleaning the toilets (which I do every day) for seeing someone finally get how to snatch or muscle up or see someone do a workout Rx for the first time. I fucking love it.

Looks like a CrossFit drug deal.

Maybe CrossFit isn’t something you love and maybe you won’t make it your career. That’s fine, but find what it is that you DO love. Stop wasting time being miserable, surrounded by miserable people. I was afraid to admit that what I wanted to do was open a gym and make fitness my career. I was afraid of people judging me for bailing on a good job and steady paycheck. I’ve never managed a gym before or even worked in one. The extent of my experience was being a member of a bunch of shitty gyms. I was afraid to make the jump. I was terrified, but I would rather make the jump and fail gloriously than spend one more day being a chump for the man. Find your passion, or maybe you’ve already found it or, better yet, maybe you’re already pursuing your passion. Make the most out of your time and spend it being happy.

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Workout of the Day 7/14/2010

A. Power Snatch 2-2-2-2

B. AMRAP 15
5 Handstand Push-Ups
10 Deadlifts (185/135)
15 Sit-ups