Permission to Fail
Jon Gilson
9 Comments
The curse of the novice is two-fold. Along with a wanton desire for progress comes a concomitant failure to realize that advanced skills are not the province of the beginner.
Little attention is paid to such lowly matters as the air squat while the newly christened athlete seeks the clean. The push press is left aside in favor of the split jerk, and the pull-up gives valuable practice time to the muscle-up.
This phenomenon is unavoidable in our culture of instant gratification, so there is little point in disparaging our collective lack of patience. Without fail, we’d rather be the CEO than the mailroom clerk, and ambition should not be dampened.
Nonetheless, our ring-wielding athlete is unprepared to succeed, and he hasn’t given himself permission to fail--a surefire recipe for rage.
Make your preparations, and assault your target, never forgetting that victory is the end state of persistence.
The first step to mastery is preparation. The dips and the pull-ups need to be there prior to the muscle-up attempts, or the frustration will be unending. Our athlete needs to own the basics, or advanced movement will never happen. Even with proper preparation, the athlete must be willing to fail repeatedly, practicing the impossible until it is no longer so. This journey, a seemingly endless parade of incompetence, is hard on the psyche. At every moment, it’s easier to quit than continue.
The ensuing struggle between ego and reality is won by the ego more often than not, and practice ceases in favor of easier tasks and quicker victories. This keeps experience within narrow bounds, impeding athletic progress for the sake of transient happiness.
Recognize that competence lies on the other side of slogging failure. Make your preparations, and assault your target, never forgetting that victory is the end state of persistence. You’ll find that the curse of the novice is no longer yours, as you’ve recognized that success comes only by embracing failure at every stage of the game.
Picture courtesy of J. Craig Zelinski, supreme dot commander of Fast and Light 2.0, atop An Teallach in Scotland.
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Reader Comments (9)
Great post. I'm brand new to the crossfit game after a few years of trying to figure something fitness related out in a globogym. I want to kick ass so bad, but need to give myself time to get the basics down.
When I first started CrossFit I realized I would have to embrace failure or I would be crushed. Since then I've used it as a self check. Failure is the last thing I want, however, how do I know I pushed my hardest when I haven't failed?
Great post. As a trainer, I believe it is my job to make failure acceptable to the client. But even more than that, my job is to make their progress incrementally challenging. There is nothing gained from complete failure and a feeling of hopelessness. My job is to give them things they CAN do while forever pushing that little extra for what they cannot. The trainer's job is to keep failure hopeful and teasing the trainee to greater and greater heights.
Your post is right on! As a new affiliate (and for older ones, too, I guess), it's sometimes hard to make people see the importance of "virtuosity". Just as you can't build a high-rise building without an extensive, deep, solid foundation, so is this sport of fitness, where patience and tenacity with the basics not only lead to achievements beyond our wildest dreams, but also keep us safe along the way. Thanks for the great posts that I can refer my athletes to time and again. Mind if I link to it?
Clay,
Link away, brother! Thanks for leaving your thoughts. I appreciate it.
Best,
Jon
Nicely said Jon - i'll be hanging this up on our board.
Jon,
Love reading your stuff and I could not agree more. As I look around @ the trainees here @ BizFit the people who stick with the CrossFit program are the ones that get your point. After a while you find yourself in a room full of people who are not looking for the quick fix. Who understand hard work and determination are a prerequsite for their fitness (and life) succes. Our challenge as coaches is convincing the masses of this point. Any ideas how we do it?
Mike B.
I printed this post up and gave it to all the people that I train with. Jon, keep up the great work. We all appreciate it and are doing our best to spread the good word.
Wow. The timing on this couldn't have been better for me. I have been very down on myself over the last week feeling like I'm not making progress compared to all of the young guns around me. This is a great reminder that I'm building my own foundation, my own house, and not theirs.
Thank you.