Are You Instructing, Or Impacting…

Aug 09, 2011 22 Comments by PCF

Maggie…

”Almost every bit of instruction I get, I forget. Everytime someone has made an Impact, I remember forever.”

I watched a valued trainer impart her knowledge onto a very green athlete the other day. I saw that unteachable quality that makes an amazing CrossFit trainer, for sure. But who really gives a shit about just being a better trainer? It makes you a better human, and that’s what it’s all about. If CrossFit wasn’t such an amazing “better human maker” then it would be just another fad.

This trainer said things that have been said before, but I could tell, as could the athlete, that this trainer truly cared for them. This trainer was truly impassioned about helping them succeed. This trainer wasn’t there for themselves, but for another. If we lived every day making sure we positively impacted another all that forgetful, bullshit instruction would be a thing of the past.

Five years ago I wanted to be right for my sake. I wanted to have the answers for all the wrong reasons. All maturity does is give us time to see who we wanna be, and who we don’t. I realized some time agothat being right for myself was never enough, and that I still didn’t like me. When I craved for my friends to be happy strictly for their sake and enjoyment alone, I began to Impact instead of instruct. Instructors want to be right for themselves. Impacters want to be right for others.

It seems the hardest part about being a positively impactful human is that it doesn’t guarantee nice, or silent, or tactful. Sometimes it guarantees that while we are doing our best to impact someone, they will be too sensitive. They will be impacted for sure, but not in the positive way we have hoped.

The greatest humans of all time suffered these same trials. Impacting others may very well lead to quarrel after quarrel, but better to be assassinated for impacting the world than blend in, simply, giving and taking instruction on how to survive. Never truly living.

We have so many chances to impact our friends, our loved ones, and strangers everyday as long as we are open to the opportunity and place their needs in front of ours. The people who want to impact others the most are never looking to make the world a more comfortable place. They are looking to make the world a better place. Comfort does not equal better.

Our surroundings have made instruction the norm. Our lives have made instructing, or being instructed, boring, mundane, lifeless, comfortable. Our saving grace is never to instruct anyone. Never to waste time being instructed by someone who doesn’t love or care. Our enlightenment is leaving a hole behind when we go. Something that only a huge life of impact could have created.

Strength:

Rest

For Time:

-Squat Clean 105/155

-Hand stand Push-up

5/4/3/2/1

rest 2 Minutes

-Hang Power Clean 105/155

-Burpees

5/4/3/2/1

Rest 2 minute

-Rack to overhead 105/155