Guest post by Mollie Lipka, Rhapsody CrossFit Member
We have three core values at Rhapsody CrossFit in Charleston – humble, hungry and happy. Recently, Head Coach Alan Shaw asked what being humble meant to us. I thought about it briefly before giving my mind over to the workout of the day and moving on.
Fast forward a few days. My 9-year old son came out of a team huddle at the end of a football game in tears. He wasn’t physically hurt, but his ego was. This was his second game of the season and their second loss. As we drove home, I listened to him rattle off every excuse in the book for the team’s poor performance – his teammates were too small, they didn’t know the plays, his coach didn’t give him the ball enough, and so on. He was annoyed and frustrated and told me all he wanted was to win. He indicated that his team was the problem.
Mollie Lipka at Rhapsody CrossFit in Charleston, SC.
After letting him speak, I asked him if he thought he’d been giving 100%. He started to answer, but I cut him off. You see, during that second game I took note of how often he wasn’t paying attention to his coach, how slow he was moving, how his body language told me he was bored and didn’t even want to be there, and how he was too busy screwing off on the bench to encourage his teammates. I know he was about to tell me that he was giving 100% but I stopped him in his tracks. He wasn’t giving 100%. He was barely even in the game but was masquerading as someone who was. Being humble is assuming responsibility and owning up to what we have or haven’t brought to the table without blaming others.
I went on to have some more real talk with him. We aren’t always going to win. In fact, there may be times when we are downright defeated – in life, in relationships, in sports. Being humble is choosing to show up well even when we are at our lowest.
He fought me a little before admitting I was right. He knew his head wasn’t in the game. Prior to the first snap, he had himself completely convinced that they were going to lose again. Instead of hoping for smaller wins (like: What did you improve on today? What did you help someone else improve on?) he was too focused on the bottom line. We short change ourselves when we focus on the black and white instead of considering the gray area in between. We must train ourselves to look at the whole picture. Being humble is having an abundance mentality.
If being humble, hungry and happy are core values you’d like to adopt in the new year, join us for a free class at Rhapsody CrossFit in Charleston! We’d love to help you integrate them inside and outside of the box.
