Last week I had the opportunity to present to the Secret Service in Philadelphia.
The idea for the presentation came from something CrossFit created years ago called the Sickness-Wellness-Fitness Continuum.
The thought was that you could take different markers like blood pressure, resting heart rate, body fat, strength, etc., and everyone would fall somewhere along this continuum. Some people would be closer to sickness, some closer to fitness, and others somewhere in the middle.
I took that same idea and looked at it a little differently.
What if we exchanged sickness for liability and fitness for asset?
I asked everyone to think about what we can do every day, within our control, to keep moving ourselves toward being an asset.
Be an asset to your family and your community. If you show up when someone needs help, what reaction would the people around you have? Would they be relieved that you were the person to step in?
We all fall somewhere on this continuum, and the goal should be to keep moving in the right direction. Train hard so your health markers improve. Train hard so your physical capabilities improve. Train hard so your ability to help the people around you improves.
The other piece of this that I think is important is building a hedge.
Life is going to throw you curveballs. Injuries happen. Work gets busy. Kids get sick. Your routine gets disrupted. Things happen that are outside of your control.
If you’ve spent years building yourself toward the asset side of the continuum, you have room to absorb some of those curveballs and make corrections before you ever become a liability.
But if you’re already creeping toward the liability side, it doesn’t take much to push you further in that direction. Suddenly you can’t get off the couch without help, your health markers are going the wrong way, or you’re the one who needs assistance instead of being able to provide it.
I’m going to do everything in my power to train hard, take care of my health, and build the capacity to be useful.
It might sound crazy to some, but I want to be the guy people ask for when they need help. That means I've done something right.
Keep training hard,
Jason
