Lisa and I have a question that we ask each other almost daily, “What was the best part about your day?” Often times she'll ask me in bed, just as I set one foot across the threshold from wakefulness to sleep. Apart from being jerked back to the realm of the living, it's a great little habit to cultivate because it facilitates communication and gets each of us to reflect and express gratitude about our daily lives. So along that same line, the best part of my week was the T-Town Throwdown planning meeting we had down at Marine Park yesterday. I had scouted the park out last week and was optimistic that it will work well for the event, but I tend to be a blissfully optimistic doer. “Of course this can work, let's get started!” Thus having other sober minds there is a good counter-point. So I was happy to see that they were even more vocally enthusiastic about it than I was. Now to go fill out the permit application.
The facility has been bumped up in my priorities this week. I had someone come in and look at the office/kids space and talk about relocating it across the building to where the front desk is now. I'll hear back from him about cost and time frame either tomorrow or early next week. I've also hired the YBM group to do some landscaping on the hill next to the parking lot. They'll chop down the brambles, throw down some soil, plant it, and haul away anything that we can't bury (those cement blocks come to mind). Once space gets cleared, we'll have a storage shed delivered and set up where the pile of wood is now. Into the shed will go equipment that we aren't actively using during the week (benches, sleds, sandbags, etc) which will help clear out the training space. Also on the list is to get brackets from which to hang rings and ropes from the ceiling down the center of the gym. Something that has held me back on that project is that I have a brilliant idea about a system that will let us lower rings quickly and easily, but I'm just not sure how to hold the end of the ropes so that it's idiot-proof and secure. I'll head over to NW Wire and Rope tomorrow to let a professional explain the options.
Travis continues to develop the template for a personal training program while I worked on the language for a training agreement. I think I talked about the challenges of personal training in a previous article. The short version is that it's very time-consuming and while it's fun at first, over time it can become routine and boring for the trainer. The goal is to establish expectations and responsibilities at the outset that will improve outcomes for the athlete and keep the trainer engaged. I wrote that list of responsibilities this week. The thing is, if you create a list of things for someone to do, you have to have some sort of follow-through if they fail to do it. Otherwise, you're just paper thin and there's no real accountability. So what to do, what to do? I have to admit I'm a little proud of my solution: If someone fails to uphold their end of the bargain (simple things like keep a journal, don't complain, take responsibility for their progress), we will donate their training fee in their name to the American Nazi Party. Or another beneficiary if they would find that more motivating.
Ebb and flow. Given that I was so ambitious getting things done last week, this week has seen a shorter to-do list. Now it's time to wrap this up and go play.
By Morgan on Saturday, May, 03, 2014