“Before Enlightenment, chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water.” – Zen Proverb

There’s a lot of buzz right now about things ‘changing’ in our Community and what that’s going to mean for us as affiliate owners.

Let’s jump right into it. What DOES it mean? I definitely don’t know, but I bet you don’t actually know either. And here’s the kicker: it doesn’t matter. Today I’ve got to show up to my box and try my very best to make things as awesome as possible with the hand I’ve got.

Every minute you spend focusing on something that is ultimately out of your control is time that you didn’t spend effecting the people and business that you are responsible for and can control. I learned this over and over again as an athlete. You cannot control the judges, you cannot control who your opponent is and you cannot control the conditions of where you compete. You can only control your effort.

It’s not that I don’t think the external situations have an effect – they always do. You even get to have an opinion about it, too!

BUT…it doesn’t allow me to change my approach, change my priorities, or not be accountable to my results. As a gym owner, we must be ferociously committed to achieving our goals regardless of the prevailing landscape. I’ve got to get to the box on time today. I’ve got to train my staff and get a little closer to achieving our big vision. I’ve got to coach some awesome classes and help my athletes move a little closer to their goals.

“But my town is small…but I’m a new box…but the economy is down…but this is different than how it started…” You still have to get to the box on time today. You’ve still got to build and train your staff. You still have to coach awesome classes and help your athletes move a little closer to their goals.

Part of what attracts many of us to run our own box is that we are in uncharted territory. It’s up to us to put the pieces together and attempt to make it happen. It’s up to us to navigate our landscape and decide what is right for our members and our gym.

Exhilarating, right? Right!

And that’s what we’ve signed on to do. It’s already what we do every single day.

No matter where this goes or what it becomes, we are defined by our effort…not by our past results, not by our future projections, but on our effort today. No outside force can ever change that…unless we let them.

We got here from hard work and we’ll get where we need to be by hard work. If we fail, we’re going to have to go back and work even harder.  Or, if we succeed, actually WHEN we succeed, we’re still going to have to work even harder.