Sunday Story…GPP When we are faced with an impending disaster or catastrophe, and look around, we may realize we are not as prepared as we should be. Then we go to the store, and all our neighbors and friends have realized they're not as prepared as they should be, and the shelves are empty. At that moment in time, you might kick yourself a little bit, wondering why you didn't stockpile a little bit further in advance when the shelves were full. In CrossFit, we talk a lot about general physical preparedness. What if I had to walk 10 miles and be fresh and ready to go at the end? Could you do that? Are you physically prepared to achieve that task? That's the sort of thing we're talking about when we talk about general physical preparedness. It's not, "Can I do ten push-ups? Can I do fifteen pull-ups?" It's, "Can I pick up an injured person and carry them to safety? Can I sprint down the street if that was necessary to save my or somebody else's life?” This is general physical preparedness, and when it is necessary, and you don't have it, it is too late. Just like the old Chinese proverb, "The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is right now." Same thing for your fitness. Best time to start might have been twenty years ago, but the second-best time is right now. If you're already here and you're already reading this, you're already well on the way. If you're not, this is your wake-up call. Let's get prepared together. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Change Your Story Over the last couple of weeks, we've talked about making small changes to get big results. We've talked about changing our direction one or two degrees and finding an entirely new destination at the end of our journey. But often, we find ourselves stymied by the stories that we are telling ourselves about our history, about what's happened in the past, the things you could do, things you couldn't do, why you couldn't do it, whose fault it was, and all of those stories that we tell ourselves around what has happened to us. If we want to change our history, we must change the stories we tell about it. So, if you tell yourself, "I have never been athletic," "I have never been able to get in shape," and then you tell yourself, "I'll never be athletic," "I will never be able to get in shape." Failure isn't fatal, and success isn't permanent. All those things - failures, successes - are all part of the learning process. We want to shift the stories we tell ourselves: "I’ve never been athletic YET," "I haven't found what works for me in the fitness area." You're going to keep trying until you find something that does work for you, for your life, for your fitness. That's your journey to extraordinary; it's not some destination; it's the learning process; it's the story you tell yourself. So, let's keep learning and keep journeying toward the extraordinary. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412

Sunday Story…One Degree Last week, I wrote about how a small daily action can lead to big accomplishments over time. Here’s another idea. If you shift your focus, change your steering wheel, or increase your intensity just 1 degree, or 1 adjustment in any direction, your destination will change over time. Think about it. What would Columbus have discovered if he had shifted his course of direction just 1 degree over? Maybe he would have landed in Florida or Venezuela. At 211 degrees, water is hot; at 212, it boils, and when it does, it produces steam, which produces energy (think steam locomotives). Here is a little movie that shows you how small changes make big differences: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7XqZxsIyks Where in your life can you make a small change and reap different rewards? Maybe it’s as simple as saying something kind to someone. You thought the words but didn’t verbalize them. Nothing shifts; nothing changes. But what if those words landed and changed someone’s life? Maybe that person really needed to hear that today, and your words will change the trajectory of their life We don’t always know when our actions will have an effect far beyond what we planned for or expected. Making a one-degree shift in your outlook could change the world, or at least how you see the world. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412

We couldn’t think of a better person to celebrate as we begin a New Year, than the woman who has the highest overall attendance at the gym at almost 1700 visits. It’s hard to put everything we love about Mandy in one blog because there is just so much. Mandy has been with CrossFit Odyssey just over six and a half years, although she has been doing CrossFit for about 10 years.

Sunday Story…Small Tasks We all know that consistency is the key to long-term growth and success. But it is very easy to lose sight of the significant accomplishments that take place from doing small tasks every day. I recently got a recap from my Whoop strap of my activity over the last year. I am not going to bore you with all the details of my activity over the previous year. Suffice it to say, I found the recap very revealing in the overall progress made. Remember, this was my “knee” year, when I had my knee replaced around Thanksgiving. Here is my point about consistency and how a small effort can turn into big results. Last year, according to Whoop, I walked about 4.2 million steps. 4,193,741 steps to be exact. Whaat!!! My first reaction was, “There’s no way! 4 million??” That is the equivalent of climbing Mt Everest 46 times! But when you break that down to a daily achievement, it is 11,490 steps every day of the year. Granted, I am probably moving a lot more than most people, but that still seems like a lot. Not 11,000 a day, but 4 million a year. What did you do last year that surprised you at the end of the year? Did you get to the box over 200 times last year (that’s only 4 per week!) Did you tell your loved ones you loved them over 300 times last year (less than 1x day)? What else? If you want to end next year with some impressive accomplishments, start small, start now, and do it every darn day! You'll be surprised at what you can accomplish by doing small tasks every day! If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Goals and Dreams It's that time of year again. The end of the year, when we start thinking about the things that we accomplished and the things we wanted to accomplish but maybe didn't quite get to. As we look forward to the coming New Year, what are your fitness goals? Are there any skills you'd like to improve? Skills that you meant to get better at this last year but didn't quite get to? Perhaps there are some things you're sure will show up here in a month or two for the CrossFit Open, but you're not quite ready. You haven't done the work that you needed to do to be as good as you know you can be. Well, it's time to figure out how to get to them. You can go ahead and schedule a goal review with Alex, if you like. You could talk to Ellie. You could talk to me. We can schedule a private session or two, or if you have some friends who have the same issues, they need to work on the same skills, we could set up a special class on a Saturday afternoon or maybe a Sunday morning, and get those skills honed in and ready to show off for the Open. Maybe it's something even simpler than that. Perhaps it's just "I want to be able to (fill in the blank here). I want to be able to back squat an extra 20 pounds by this time next year. I want to be able to do five strict pull-ups. If that's the case, then we need a plan. You need a plan to make that happen. If you don't have a plan and a date, all you have is a dream. So let’s set the goals, make a plan, and make it happen. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

Sunday Story…Be Kind! We're coming up at the end of the year here, which really means we're coming up on the 1st of the year. As you know, there'll be so many of your friends, neighbors, and relatives who are going to make resolutions. They're going to go to the gym. This is the year that they're really going to get in shape. And then, in the middle of February or the 1st of March, that resolution will be tossed into the garbage bin. We need to help those people. We need to give them a path to fitness so they can enjoy the same benefits you all do from the work you're doing. So, look through your friends and relatives and see if there isn't somebody who needs your help. I'm offering a new class. It'll be mid-morning Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 am. That limits the population. We could be talking about people who have more flexibility in their schedules than those in a regular 9-5 job. But the point is that we're going to get stronger in this class and improve our cardiovascular fitness. We'll be doing that using Zone 2 training, VO2 max training, and sprint training. We'll include all those things throughout the cohort. If we care about these people, we need to show them the path. It's just like you can't make the horse drink water, but you can show him where the water is. Your job is to show him where the water is. Tell him what's going on here, who we are, and what we can do for them, and get them on their own journey to extraordinary. It's an act of kindness. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412

Sunday Story…Indulgences It's that time of year again, you know? Sweets are everywhere, drinks are flowing, and the resistance begins to break down. You know you can have one drink, but more than one becomes a problem. You know you can have one or even two bites of a sweet, but more than that becomes a problem. This is where we all struggle: finding the willpower and the desire to continue our journey and maintain the consistency of our diet and exercise. It would be a shame if we let one or two weeks ruin all our progress in a year. That's the prize to keep your eyes on. All of the progress that you've made, all of the good things that you've done, you don't want to erase in one meal or one week. Can you indulge yourself? Of course. Can you overindulge yourself? You can, but you probably shouldn't. So, look at the table groaning with all those delectable morsels, pick one or two, and have a bite or two of each, enjoying the hell out of every bite. Chew it thoroughly, close your eyes, and enjoy the taste, the feel, and the aroma of the food in your mouth and on your tongue. And then have another bite, and as you do, realize that maybe that second bite wasn't quite as satisfying, quite as good as that first bite, and you know every bite after that won't be as good. After that, it just becomes something to do that you're supposed to do. I'm supposed to eat the whole piece. I'm supposed to finish my plate. You don't have to. There's no “supposed to” here. Enjoy your indulgences, but don't overdo it in a way that sabotages all your progress. If you're interested in building muscle and strength, sign up for a free fitness assessment at www.crossfitodyssey.com or reach out to me directly, and let's get you started on your journey to extraordinary results. John Mariotti www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com www.crossfitodyssey.com 775-338-2412