Perseverance
Definition: steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.
CrossFit is difficult. A bodyweight snatch is hard. Walking on your hands is hard. The Open is hard. Goals like these take a while to achieve and they require perseverance. It will be difficult. There will be obstacles. There will be days when you can barely overhead squat the bar comfortably, let alone snatch nearly 200 lbs.
If you did not start CrossFit with much perseverance in your character, you are certainly learning it. Every athlete who does this sport is developing perseverance. You would not simply quit during “Murph.” Definitely not, because your friends are suffering right along side of you. The great part is that this quality isn’t limited to our box. It spills over into life. We begin to persevere when dieting, as many of you learned during the Whole 30. We begin to persevere when seeking a new job that we think has some pretty unfavorable odds against us. Some persevere in relationships. When things get tough, you work through it because you know it’s right and it will be worth it.
“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame…” -Romans 5:2-5
Next time you are mid-WOD and it sucks and you want to quit, know that you are developing character. You are persevering. Be thankful that you can suffer in these relatively risk-free circumstances in our comfortable little gym and you are doing it and it will be worth it.
