Training with a purpose – Aurora Gallacher
For years I spent time neglecting weaknesses or avoiding doing things that I wasn’t confident with (or particularly good at) as I was so concerned with how I appeared to others.
I wasn’t scared of failing. I was scared of others knowing it.
Forget about just Instagram being a highlight reel - I tried to do this in all aspects of my life. This meant weaknesses never got any better, neither did my mindset. I felt as a coach and a good athlete in my gym that if I was not good at a specific exercise or workout it would be an indication of how I was as a coach i.e. not worthy of teaching others if I couldn’t do everything myself.
I knew I did this when I lived in the UK. I could do 40 unbroken chest-to-bar pull-ups but not a single muscle-up! Then when I got muscle-ups these were only ever practised when I was training alone and the gym was empty so no one saw me failing.
This also meant that when I had a training session planned that had movements I wasn’t confident with that I would already set my mindset up for failure as I had already pre-anticipated that the session would go to pot.. And, well, I was right about that - at least I was the one who had made that decision before I even started. I hesitated approaching the workouts and didn’t have the confidence to fully commit when these movements came up.
I invested time and money working on my mindset when I moved to teach abroad. I felt that my mindset was worse. Seriously how could I be in charge of CrossFit and Functional Fitness at a WORLD CLASS SPORTS RESORT if I couldn’t do everything 100% perfect myself. Especially as the gym is literally in the centre of a stadium that 100s of guests walk past several times a day. I couldn’t possibly have all these eyes on me failing muscle ups or handstand walks…
I wasted so many hours getting stressed about not being seen to be bad at something rather than investing the time to get better. I mean, if I spent half the time training the exercises than worrying about them you would probably see me at Tokyo 2020 for GB gymnastics.
I have been trying to work on this confidence and accepting that it is ok to fail, because it is ok to fail!
No one got better at anything without failing first. Of course I am not perfect and I will still get up at 5am to train when no one is around over having people see me fail, but I am working on it.
Use the training you have to develop who you want to become as an athlete and as a person.
Train with a purpose and know that sometimes training will be for failing but these training hours will add up to help you get better every day if you chose to invest your time and effort to use these hours effectively.
For example, if you spend 1 hour training 5x a week for a year that makes 260 hours. You have the choice to treat these hours with intent and purpose or without.
If you approach every training session knowing that at some times there will be days that don’t always go your way but that every hour is one more towards your goals then you will get better. Don’t do what I did and waste hours not working towards what you really want because you are scared of the opinions of others!
Everyone has these days and if their Instagram or public social media says otherwise, then remember people only share the stuff they want you to see!
Happy training!
Go and work towards those goals. Whatever they may be!
Aurora Gallacher,
Fitness & CrossFit Manager, Club La Santa