CrossFit Athletic Group

At first I thought of doing this on a weekly award basis, adding it to the Athlete of the Week post or something, but I figured it might be good to make it stand alone, and also not commit to doing one every week in case you unselfish slobs don't follow through. Anyway...

...........

There's a saying my coach used to always say that goes through my head a lot:

Work* and sports don't mix

The tricky part about this is there are obviously exceptions; if a kid needs to help pay some bills at home, then that's a different story, and so is a dude playing a sport that doesn't quite pay enough to make a living - Matt Fecht would be an example, as Brooks sponsorship and race winnings needed to be coupled with a teaching salary. But even in those cases, most work places will understand your priority if you explain it to them and give them enough of a heads up.

Dillon's a college kid, so she's naturally in that weird transition between allowing parents to help her and wanting to be able to buy things for herself. Even in high school I remember a few times where she'd let work at a random restaurant or some place get in the way of her training. But this week I thought she made a big step towards setting a priority for herself:

Chris, as Dillon walked into the gym: "What up Dillon! I thought you had work today?"

Dillon: "I still do."

Chris: "What time does your shift start?"

Dillon: "5 minutes ago... I'll just get there when I get there"

And guess what happened when Dillon finally made it into work... absolutely nothing.

At the same session the very next day we were getting our bars when Mr. Carey made an announcement to the group:

I'm pulling a Sharp today, fellas!

Same thing, only instead of working out to extend his sports career, Mr. Carey is working out to extend his life, in general. He's in the middle of something that's not quite a career change, but it's probably more of a shift than anyone in here my age or younger can comprehend, and it has kept him away from us way more than he wants. Apparently the inspired Mr. Carey decided that this short-term job could wait an extra 90 minutes for him to clock in.

I really find it helpful to view money simply as a trade. So here's a way Mr. Carey at 10 o'clock in the morning could frame that decision (we'll assume he makes $50 in 90 minutes): "Would I pay 50 dollars feel better than I do right now?" If that answer is yes, then he goes in late to work, if that answer is no then he skips the workout. Lucky for us, he made it our way, and nothing happened of consequence at the job.

*coach also interchanged vacations here, depending on if he was talking to Nick or Woods

As I was writing this I kept thinking, Damn, am I encouraging people to be deadbeats? I read it over a few times and I can see how it could come off that way, especially if you are used to doing things strictly "by the books". I also called both of them to make sure this post doesn't rat them out to Mrs. Sharp or Mrs. Carey (though Ricky might have something to say to his pops!) The point of this is that it's okay to view different things at different levels of importance, and often times acting on that, though uncomfortable at first, doesn't usually lead to a worst-case scenario.