One of my favorite exercise from this session was ‘WAR’. Its an old school tug-o-war battle with a climbing rope I repurposed for training. It forces everyone to give 110% because if you don’t you’ll get pulled down to the concrete, and sometimes even if you do give it your all it still happens anyway. A lot of life lessons in this one. My training notes for the exercise and topic talk are below:

NOTES:

War is a battle. This one is a competition, where there is a winner and a loser. But in losing there is not loss, there is GAIN. If you are willing to learn, and to consider why you lost, you have gained something very valuable in that loss. The only path to success is through the path of failure. Were going to do this 3x. Each time I want you to get a little bit better, figure out what went bad, what went good and do less of the bad and more of the good. That’s how we not only succeed, but how we conquer.

WOD:

Gratitude doesn’t come with an asterisk.

We all know pretty well what that little symbol * means when attached to a statement. Its used as a stand-in for something that’s been left out. A lot of times, and esp. in contracts or agreements that ‘something’ is the real terms you’d better be paying attention to. The important stuff.

Gratitude is a big idea these days. Gratitude is an attitude of thankfulness, or simply being thankful for the things in our life that we usually take for granted. It can unshackle us from negativity and lift us to a higher place of peace and joy in our lives.

Its almost always associated with focusing what we take for granted in our lives that is good. But that is where that little hidden asterisk lives. What is left out is the real part, the important part of gratitude –  being truly grateful means being grateful for not only the good in our life but the bad as well.

The times we failed, the pain & suffering we endured, maybe the loss we experienced. Being real with gratitude means recognizing that God works his best through us in the trials and the pain we experience, the failures, the loss. It is within the worst of our experiences that we are offered the opportunity to experience the best that God has in store for us.

But it has to start with acknowledging and being thankful for the pain and the trials that we are being put through and thanking God for those circumstances because with faith those circumstances will manifest themselves into some of your greatest opportunities for growth and success in life.

But you have got to not only accept your circumstances, but have the faith to be grateful for them, before those doors of opportunity will open for you.

Learning to be truly grateful in this world, the real definition of gratitude, means living a life of gratitude that DOES NOT have an asterisk attached..  

Humble beginnings.. looking back on our first session I went out there not knowing at all what to expect, if anyone would even show up, etc. Well, people did show up and some of them continue to make every weekend session to this day and I am truly grateful for that. This was also the first topic talk spoke on! That has become my favorite part of our session and I look forward to sharing it every week.

WOD:

Who control’s your thoughts?

When you say to yourself in life “I can’t overcome this”, “This is too hard”, “I have no value”, whose thought is that? Are you looking at this workout saying “I’m not there yet” “I CAN’T DO THIS”

Who’s doing the talking?

The devil’s number one strategy is to plant unhealthy thoughts in our minds, repeating them over and over until we believe that they’re OUR thoughts. But we know these thoughts come from him because they’re all LIES, and he is father of all lies.

Wherever you are in life right now, whatever is dominating your life at the moment – it’s his goal to keep you there, chained there forever.

Be vigilant over your thoughts, EVERYTHING you do starts with your thoughts. I challenge you today to recognize the source of your unhealthy thoughts, and start to take control over them. Capture them when they occur and take away their power. Use your faith to your advantage, and let God be the strongest voice in your head. Resist the devil and he will flee.