You have seen posts about it on my personal social media. You have seen posts about it on CrossFit Be Someone social media. You have heard me talk about it at the whiteboard and just in general. My approach to how I live is by chasing excellence. And if I’m not chasing excellence in everything in life, then I’m truly not chasing excellence at all.
Who I am bleeds over to everything. There is no separation of lines to my roles in life. I don’t put a cape on and become someone different when I’m at the gym. The person you see at the gym is who I am everywhere. The way I approach the gym is how I try to approach everything in my life, with excellence. Is it hard? 100% yes. Is it tiring? 100% yes. Do I slip up? 100% yes. Can I do better? 100% yes. But I am aware that if I want to become the greatest version of myself, I have to chase excellence in every role: father, owner, coach, boyfriend, son, brother, uncle, friend, mentee, veteran, Aggie and other roles. No matter how difficult or tiring it may be at times, my chase should not stop.
The approach of chasing excellence is not about being a “stickler” or micro-manager or always on the edge. The approach of chasing excellence is doing the right things and giving your best effort. It seems so simple yet it can be so hard because as humans we convince ourselves that it’s ok to just do a layup with certain tasks. We convince ourselves that no one is looking so it doesn’t matter. We convince ourselves that it’s such a small thing, it won’t matter in the big picture. If that was the case, CrossFit Be Someone would not be where it currently is. I would not be where I currently am. It’s the small things that have made us who we are. Chasing excellence has allowed us to keep our lights on.
I use to convince myself that I was a good part-time coach when I coached for Universal CrossFit on the side in 2016. I look back and now I know the truth. I attempted to chase excellence as a coach but never truly did because I didn’t chase excellence in anything else in my life. Again it bleeds over. My habits, my approach, my decisions, my discipline they all bleed over and it did. All I was doing was going through the motion and checking the box. I was not chasing excellence in everything else I did so how could I actually be a good coach? I wasn’t, even though I thought I was just because I knew how to teach some movements.
So I ask you what’s your approach? Are you chasing excellence? Are you doing the right things and giving your best effort?
Respectfully,
Josh Melendez
