Beyond Workout & The Ranch joined up to discuss and experience Creativity in leadership through the lens of F3 – Fitness, Fellowship, and Faith.

As I spent time preparing for this Beyond workout, a lot of what I planned to cover resonated pretty heavily with me.

I asked 3 things of the PAX: (1) challenge yourself (2) encourage one another (3) engage in the workout/discussions and begin responding to the challenges in the days and weeks to come.

Started with dynamic warm-ups: a combination of mosey, toy soldiers, knees to chest, ankle toward chest, karaoke.

The Thang:

Mosey to first location at the end line  of soccer field in front of Springfield Elementary School. Talked about part 1 of 3 things that I believe is necessary to achieve creativity in leadership: Get out of your comfort zone, leading from the front and when more appropriate partnering, delegating and/or supporting.

There’s the adage “don’t Q it if you can’t do it”.  In every workout I Q I try to push myself and the PAX outside of the comfort zone, because the biggest gains come from being challenged.  There is a guy I’ll refer to as Geronimo, who once said “if you want to run faster, you have to practice running faster.”  This  can be applied to many facets of your life – whether talking about actually running faster or getting stronger or if you want to be a “better” husband, father, friend, employee, saver, giver, fill in the blank.  Get out in front of it (outside the comfort zone) and hallenge yourself.  All f that being said, there are enevitably things that are not my/your strengths or are the strengths of others – where it s doesn’t make sense to lead from the front.  In these situations, Partner, delegate and/or support those around us that have those strengths.  It could be the PAX to our left/right or our M, a Whetstone partner…again fill in the blank.  We are all HIM, but we can’t do everything ourselves. Remember that 1 grain of sand doesn’t make a beach.  Challenge: Think of the impact we can make when we both lead from the front and (when more appropriate) partner, delegate and/or support those around us.

exercise group 1: First, from the end line, lead from the front in a soccer field length sprint (if your not in the front or are the 6, make sure you challenge yourself).  Down and back 3 times.  Next, on the sideline, partner-up and support someone by carrying them across the field.  Alternate back and forth 3 times.

Mosey to second location at the bottom of the hill at the bus loop in front of Springfield Middle School.  Talked about part 2 of 3 in achieving creativity in leadership: always look for opportunities to set yourself apart.

When I took the reins at Varsity, we had plenty of bootcamps and I was reluctant to Q “another bootcamp” – it was winter, attendance was very low, and frankly there was talk of consolidating the AO.  I knew that for it to remain on its own, it needed to stand apart from other workouts, which resukted in choosing the HIIT workout format.  The AO went from many weeks of myself and maybe 1 or 2  others to consistently 10-15 PAX.  I believe that the uniqueness of the AO and the willingness to try something new outside of the comfort zone is what drew the PAX.  Challenge: Think about what it means to start ourselves apart in how we interact with those within our spheres of influence – out Ms, 2.0s, coworkers.  Light always frowns out darkness.

exercise group 2: The PAX we’re split into two groups with group 1 running the bus loop while group 2 performed a modified Jacobs ladder of 3 burpees at the top of the hill and 3 v-ups at the bottom until the first group returned.  Switcharoo.  Rinse and repeat until each group ran the bus loop 3 times.

Mosey to the third location at the back entrance to the middle school.  Talked about part 3 of 3 in how to achieve creativity in leadership: don’t be predictable.

I was a runner pre-F3.  In fact, that’s is what drove me to F3 (a story for another time).  When I was asked to Q my first kettlebell workout, my natural inclination was to run with the bell. There have been many iterations of that since – bells, blocks, rocks, flat ground, hills.  My goal is to alway challenge myself and the PAX in ways we may have not been challenged before.  There are reasons why there are different variations on the merkin or squat!  Not to mention I get bored doing he same thing over and over.  Challenge: think about he areas of your life where you are predictable – your relationship with you M or 2.0s or how you exercise your faith – what are some ways to break out of that comfort zone and be less predictable?

exercise group 3: 3 LEGIT reps of each – Merkins, Squats, Diamond Merkins, Sumo Squats, Wide Arm Merkins, Alternating Solit Squats, Hand Release Merkins, Pistol Squats.

Running out of time, bear crawl to the straight away and then mosey back to COT.