2012

To the Vanguard Gym/CrossFit Manassas (VG/CFM) Team,

I can’t wait for all the great things 2012 has to bring!  2011 was a great year for us as a team and 2012 has all the makings for some amazing accomplishments.  In 2011 we expanded to almost 7000 square feet, giving CrossFit Manassas its own training space.  We added to the number of CrossFit classes offered, and added Kali, Yoga, and Fitness Kickboxing to our programs.  You have seen more than a few new coaches and instructors stepping up and contributing to the world-class instruction and programming here at VG/CFM.  All of these accomplishments started off as goals back in 2009 and 2010.

Around the gym you all will be hearing me talk a lot about goals in January!  In order to succeed, you have to set and work to achieve your goals.  At VG/CFM we are here to help you set, work towards, achieve, and surpass your goals.  Every year we have members reach personal milestones they never thought possible and it is such a rewarding endeavor to be along side of them every step of the way.

Goals aren’t things that just happen.  You have to decide what is important to you in your life, set your priorities, define your goals, and make sure that you are taking the correct steps to reach them to include spending focused time engaged in reaching them.  Every significantly great thing that has happened to me in my life has come from setting goals and working toward them diligently and sometimes even slavishly.  Any truly successful people I know have gotten that way through a goal setting and accomplishment regimen.

I have had some amazing coaches, mentors, professors, teachers, and friends help me reach my goals in the past; and I have an awesome team now on top of that who motivate me and pushes me to set and reach new goals!  As Head Coach, one of my goals every year is to help as many of my teammates reach their goals as I can.  In fact, the main reason I started Vanguard Gym and then CrossFit Manassas was to try to help as many people improve their lives by providing an environment to be engaged in Meaningful Pursuits.

I define Meaningful Pursuits as something you focus on to significantly improve yourself and those around you.  Entropy is busy tearing down everything, making the universe a colder darker place all the time, and mankind is one force that can fight entropy for a while, direct its will, and make things brighter, warmer, and better for themselves and those around them.  Meaningful Pursuits make you smarter, faster, stronger, more emotionally stable, build capabilities, provide values, and can help forge the bonds of great communities.  Having the support and fellowship of a group who shares some of the same values and goals helps dive us to greater heights as individuals and as a team.

I would encourage, or even challenge you to the following steps.  If you follow them and apply them I promise you that your life will only be better as a result.  Let me know if you need help with any part of this list.  I am here to help and all of our coaches and instructors are too.  I would encourage you to share what you are comfortable sharing with me and the other coaches so that we can help you as much as possible.

Step 1.  Spend some time thinking about how being involved with VG/CFM and our programs is a Meaningful Pursuit to you.

Step 2.  Identify all of the other Meaningful Pursuits in your life.   Everyone will have some similarities and differences, but some common ones are Family, Friends, Work, Finances, or School.

Step 3.  Set a realistic goal for each of the Meaningful Pursuits in your life.

Step 4.  Identify action steps you will need to take to reach those goals.

Step 5.  Prioritize and de-conflict your goals and action steps to make sure the less important things don’t pull you away from the more important goals.  Make a timeline and define your expected outcomes.

Step 6.  Write these prioritized goals down and post it somewhere you will see every day like the refrigerator, on your mirror, at your desk, or wherever works for you where you wont be able to miss it.

Step 7.  Spend a few minutes thinking about how good it will feel to accomplish each one of those goals.  Close your eyes and visualize the situation, feel the surroundings, and imagine the results of your hard work come to fruition.  Some people do this everyday for a minute, and find it helps push them to get into the tasks at hand.

Step 8.  OPEN YOUR EYES AND GET TO WORK!  Make sure you spend the requisite time per day/week/month you need to accomplish your goals!  Don’t try to do everything at once, you will drive yourself crazy.  Focus on improving just 1% per day and those small continual gains will add up into amazing results.  This will give you some time to relax and reward yourself for the short-term goals as well.

Goal setting is an iterative process, and we have to recognize when we have bitten off more than we can chew.  Similarly, if things aren’t moving along because we aren’t aggressive enough in our goal setting then we need to review and revamp our goals.  You can do this monthly, quarterly, whatever it takes to get it right.  I review short-term goals weekly to make sure I am hitting the priorities, making progress, and to make tweaks to parts that need to be adjusted.  If you are organized in your approach it will pay dividends.

As I said 2012 is going to hold some great things for everybody on the VG/CFM team.  What you get out of it is purely a function of what you get out of it.  Whether or not those Mayans are right with their crazy calendar ending in December or not, I know we all will be better off and ready for whatever challenges 2012 brings by being part of this great team and community!

Here’s to your continued successes!  We at VG/CFM are here to encourage, push, cajole, or even browbeat if that’s what it takes to help you get where you want to be!

Happy New Year

Coach