Sometimes just the exposure to good ideas or great men can make you better. Most times you have to work for it. Woody Allen said (paraphrasing) something along the lines of “half of life is just showing up.” Even if that’s true, it’s still only HALF.

So how did you get here? How did you reach this point where you are willing (and able) to look at the alarm clock with bleary eyes and then ignore the lie your body (and that angry little troll in the back of your mind) tells you and go ahead and get up and make something happen. Every man has their own personal reason for pushing himself. I’m not so interested in the exact reason most of the time, I’m mostly only interested in the fact that you keep pushing.
Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it is getting. You don’t like the results? Change the system.

So, throughout our workout this AM, I peppered in some of my half-baked thoughts around leadership that I’ve learned in my short time on the Blue Ball…
First, from Boy Scouts: Leave everything, and everyone, better than when you found it/them. That’s our goal for today. (And mine for every day that I breathe)

THE THANG:
Warm up
• Jog around the park with dynamic warmups – then circle up in cul-de-sac
• Windmills x 10
• Merkins x 15
•Squat x 20
• SSH x 25
• Then, as a special treat, since no one brought FNGs, 10 burpees OYO as punishment.
• Mosey to the playground and grab a partner. Size always matters.

PART 1:
The hard work of this world will not be done by weak men. It will require physical, mental, and emotional strength and sobriety. We cannot execute the work we have been given by SkyQ unless we are willing to push past limits. We also can’t let the men around us be weak. (So get to EHing!)

Leader Thought 1: As a leader, going it alone is a terrible idea most times…
• Each PAX will need to get to 75 pullups. You will work until you can’t anymore, then you will call for your partner. He will lift you for as many as you can, then you will switch, and keep switching until each of you hits 75. If one of you isn’t doing anything, plank.

Leader Thought 2: A leader doesn’t stop until it’s over.
• 1 minute AMRAP burpees. Push the entire minute. DO NOT slow down, DO NOT rest, DO NOT stop.

Leader Thought 3: When you are a leader, conflict will arise. It may be between two of the people you lead, it may be between you and someone you lead. Leaders know that there are 2 sides to EVERY story – which means you aren’t always right. As Grandma would say, you can’t slice cheese so thin that it doesn’t have 2 sides. So we are going to create something that has 2 sides to point this up.
• Back to back squats x 25
• Mosey to bottom of driveway into park

PART 2:
YOU CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY – The things that keep you from doing what you want are largely in your mind. They are the BS stories that you tell yourself as to why a thing can’t be done. Can’t is a BS word. It usually means “won’t” or “am afraid to try”. I tell my girls, “I am yet unable” is a fine answer, but don’t EVER tell me can’t.

Leader Thought 4: Choose the harder thing. It’s almost always the right answer.
• In one hand, I have a harder exercise. In the other, an easier one. You pick. I asked CSPAN. He picked harder. You’re all welcome.
• Grand Old Duke of York – bear crawl up the hill, 5 jump squats, crawl bear down, 10 merkins (supposed to be 5 rounds of that, but time only allowed 1)

Leader Thought 5: The difficult people in your life are difficult for a reason. As a leader, your job is to find out their story and then offer lots of grace. Take a chance on those people and on being able to make it work with them. Think of how much grace and what a chance God took on you being their leader…
• Find out the age of the oldest guy (sorry Double D) – do that many flutters in cadence (49)
• Back to COT

Final thought: Remember, in any fight, love always wins.

NMM:
– When you are about to share a thought that starts with “I learned this when I was a Boy Scout”, make sure it’s not immediately following some comments about rear ends, or anything else questionable.
– Birdcage likes partner carries. He complained about not doing them. Then again, it may have been sarcasm…
– Bounce House will always make you look slow. Also, I wish I had half the maturity and drive at 17 that he does.

Until next time…
Helmet, out.