What I learned

This little journey has kind of come to a weird conclusion. I would just like to recap some of the things I learned along the way. These are not all of the lessons, but they are some of the ones that stick out in my head.

1. Patience- This may be the most difficult thing to really achieve. I am still not patient, but I have learned that like most things it requires practice and confidence. For me patience really means "SLOW DOWN". I am still young, and I have a lot of things going in the right direction. My problems are trivial, and I'll figure things out. While I may have rushed into this trip, I don't need to rush into anything.

2. Do things- You can sit on your ass and think about what you wanna do, and you can tell people what your are going to do, but if you never actually do it your just kind of jerking off. The only expectations you have to live up to are your own and maybe the 15-20 people who have really vested interest in what you do. Those people really just want you to find something that makes you happy, they don't care if your a badass Navy SEAL, or a kindergarten teacher. You can talk about what you would be good at, but you have to try it to really find out. In the words of Yoda, "Do or do not, there is no try"

3. Focus- If you really want to be good at something it requires a long time. Deliberate practice and years of it will add up. Rod Stewart, before he pooped his pants, sang a great song about "wishing he knew then what he knows now". Well at leas I know that things take a lot of hard work. I still haven't really figured out what I want to "master", but I know I love to train, and play sports. When I do figure out what I want I'll try to get as good as I can.

4.Things are what you make them- This trip was going to be me hitting a bunch of Crossfit Gyms. I love Crossfit- style training, but I realize now that it is not the end all. Have fun doing what your doing, and make quality a big part of that. I came to Catalyst for many reasons, Olympic Lifting was one, but the biggest was the fact they kind of fell of the Crossfit bandwagon. Long story short their emphasis was on quality training, and some amount of individualization in program. Good business takes the individual into account. You can't just throw up a random "one-size fits all" model for everyone to follow. Every athlete has different needs. This is analogous to business and life in many ways. Further, pursuing quality in just about any endeavor can lead to success if you are truly concerned with your practice.

5.Pay attention- You can learn a lot if you just Look, and pay attention. Get the fuck off your iphone, puter, or whatever and just take things in every once in a while. It's amazing what you can figure out.

6. Life requires agression- You have to go out and get things. This seems contradictory to the first thing I learned, but life is one big contradiction. One of my favorite cues from Greg Everett is "you can't fuck around". The Olympic lifts are precise and violent. You can't phone them in. Most encounters in life require some amount of civil aggresion. Be courteous and respectful, but don't let others walk all over you.

7. Humility- somewhere there is someone working in a grocery store who is 5 times smarter than you. Be thankful for the opportunities your family has given you.

8. Living space matters- My brother, who is an architect, said to me, "you did everything right, except you messed up your living arrangement". Where I lived served its purpose, but I probably should have found a more hospitable home. Comfortable living can make loneliness a bit less lonely, and your life as a whole a lot better. I feel awful for people who don't have a safe place to sleep at night.

9. Be good to your family, and friends- you never know when your going to develop a cyst in your butt. Be thankful for the people that give a damn about you, and give a damn about them, because people are the only thing that really matter, besides maybe in-n-out.