Go kill it out there.

I had this conversation a while ago now.

A member had recently returned from a selection course.

The first thing I asked her, excited and confident that I already knew the answer would be good.

“Hey, how did you get on?”

“Oh, not too good. I failed!”

“What the f%#k happened?”

Probably not the answer most people would ask, and probably not the response she wanted. However, I genuinely wanted to know. I have a substantial amount of confidence in my members, and I truly, often believe in them more than they believe in themselves.

“It was so hard! I mean the theory was hard. And I knew the physical would be hard, but it was much more difficult than I had thought.”

“So, when do you go again?”

“What? I don’t know, probably not”

“Why not?”

Think about it like this.

Have you ever played monopoly? The objective of the game is to be the last player on the board. You achieve this through buying property, which other players pay a ‘rental’ fee when they land on the space or property which you own. If you cannot afford to pay your ‘rental’ fee then you are declared bankrupt. As a result, you are then removed from the game. Throughout the duration of the game players encounter multiple chapters,

The “Im rich, anyone want a loan”, or

“Hey, want to donate some of your money?”, or

“That’s it! I am going to mortgage everything, I just need more cash”, or

“Yes! FREE PARKING, time for some hotels”.

No, doubt there are plenty more.

Now tell me, do you give up the first time you pay rent?


So, what’s the difference?

When you were a child, at some stage you began to learn to walk.

Let me tell you a secret …

You fell over. A lot.

No one woke up one day, and decided ‘today, is the day, that I shall walk’. It doesn’t work like that. It took time. It took practice. And, you failed countless times. You paid rent. You probably paid a lot of rent.

What about now? Your ‘walk and fall’ rent isn’t due all too often. Because you passed that test and moved onto the next.

 Life is full of speed bumps. Moments in life which will test you. There may even be a couple of walls you need to get over, or go around. And you can.

It is up to you to succeed or fail. It is your choice to fail, and leave it there. Or fail, maybe fail again, and again but someday, when you truly believe in yourself, and ACTUALLY apply yourself, you will succeed.

I thought about what I had said. Was I too harsh?

No way.

I decided to send her a message …

“There will be times when you do not improve, when you do not achieve the goals you have set yourself, and you feel like you are wasting your time. The difference between being the champion you could be, and the person you perceive yourself to be, is knowing the reality of what success involves, knowing the struggle that individuals go through. The difference is the ability to work through that same struggle yourself. Do not be mistaken, there will be speed bumps, and there will dead ends. But, no matter what there is always another way.”

To her reply …

“Thanks Gilly. It's funny, people always ask why I'm so passionate about CrossFit and especially loyal to Taurus. That message plus everything else you teach us on a daily basis is why. You're an incredible coach & athlete & I'll continue to take any advice from you as Gold, really appreciate it thank you”.

You are stronger, more capable, and more determine than you think.

Go kill it out there.

Michael Gillum