Winning: A How to Guide for 2017

Before Nationals, we were told we could choose the music we wanted to lift to. At first, I hated this task and thought I would just not do it and let play whatever was playing. But I couldn't do that. I knew I'd have FOMO the moment the meet started and everyone else had cool music. So I come up with a playlist, and I was actually really proud of myself for doing it! I'm not a music person, so this was outside my comfort zone. The song that was to play on my second attempt deadlift, the lift that I had planned to put first place out of reach for anyone else was "All I Do Is Win" by Dj Khaled. Now I was having some fun with this but because the song was stuck in my head for the weeks leading up to the meet, I found myself saying it all the time. If I had a meeting at work, before I left the office, people would say good luck, I would say "all I do is win", so you get the idea. It has since been stuck in my head and taken on quite a few different meanings.

Fast forward to after actually winning the meet, all of my family and friends, there's all this buzz and chatter about going to world's and sponsorships, etc. So for a brief moment I get into it, I try to post more, hashtag more, build more of following, send some e-mails, you know important things. Obviously nothing much has come of it as far as a sponsorship goes, not to say it won't or that I've completely given up, but for now, that's where it stands.

The other night with my family, they are asking about sponsorship and make comments like "seems like it would be easy to get a sponsor, just tell them what you've done". That's when it hit me.

I have a small following (and I'm grateful for that), but compared to other athletes that may or may not rank as highly as I do, I'm really just a tiny little fish. I don't train or write programs for other lifters, I don't buy a ton of products or apparel, I'm not all that interactive with other lifters on the internet; I don't schmooze or network. It's just not my bag. I'm really just fine with that.

So I say to my family:

It's not that easy, I don't have much to offer companies. All I do is win.

The good news is I love winning and I love lifting and I love competing and I love getting better and I love my team and my people and love getting to be a part of them getting better. And that's enough for me.

So let's get to the point. What is winning? What do you define as winning? Winning is everything. You can decide that you are going to win anything and everything. Is winning just being number one? Is winning just beating your competitors? Is winning just having the most at the end of the day? Hell no. At least not how I define it.

Winning is taking the little idea that pops into your head and seeing it through. Winning is taking action NOW and not waiting until Monday or the first of the year. Winning is coming up with a plan and working the plan. Winning is NOT beating yourself up when you get off track or miss a rep or have a shitty session or shitty day at work. Winning is leaving all that behind and getting right back on the fucking horse. That's how you win.

Let me break it down for you.

1) Come up with a goal. I know you've thought of one.

2) Now, take it from your brain to real life.

3) MAKE A PLAN, MAKE A PLAN, MAKE A PLAN

4) Write that shit down. Get specific. Include dates.

5) Take action. NOW.
Do not get stuck in the waiting place. The waiting place is a graveyard for losers and ideas that never became anything more than an idea. The waiting place is for quitters. That's not you. You are a winner and the time to win is now.

6) Beware of the feelings.
You will have feelings and they will fall within the range of fear. Self  doubt, failure, not good enough, like you've ruined it, like you suck, like you don't belong, like everyone is better than you. You will have days that you don't have feelings of motivation. Take those feelings and stomp them into the ground. Then stand on top of them as you do the things that you've you planned out to reach your goal despite your sweet little insignificant feelings. Repeat. Do that until you're standing on top of the goal you set.

7) Ignore everyone.
All of your well meaning friends and family (bless them) will question you. All of their little feelings (fear) will come out when they ask you about how it's going and what you're doing to get there. Ignore them. You can teach them how to win by ignoring them and chipping away at your goal.

8) Roll with the punches.
Things will happen. Things won't go exactly as planned. That's ok. It's 100% normal. What's not normal is making the adjustment and sticking to plan. Normal is quitting. Normal is the ever elusive "starting from a clean slate" which is usually the following Monday after a binge of not winning, which turns into the eternal restart.  You're not normal anymore. That alone will put you into the winning category.

9) Do not give one single shit about failing
Failing is absolutely not the worst that thing that can happen. If you follow steps 1-8, failing is not the end. It's only the beginning. The experience of getting after a goal and taking an idea from your mind to real life, that's fucking winning. It's way more bad ass to see someone fail, time after time and their spirit not be broken than to watch someone live some mediocre life and not even scratch the surface of what they are truly capable of.

10) Believe
You must believe in yourself. It is often our own minds that are the hardest to tame. It is hard to think of yourself as doing something great, as being great. It is more difficult to truly let your mind go free and believe that you can accomplish these seemingly far fetched goals. Train your mind to get rid of toxic thoughts of doubt and fear. You already believe that it exists within you because you thought of it on step one, everything else is bullshit.

Can I coin the term "fearlings"? Seriously, fearlings are the grim reaper of the greatness that lies within you and you must defeat them. Every time you defeat them, you win.

So if you follow me and see the hashtag, #allidoiswin, you know my secret. It doesn't necessarily mean that I can not be defeated via competitive powerlifting, I can, and I will be, it's inevitable. It's just not enough to stop me from winning. Winning is choice. I will choose winning every time. Will you?

#allidoiswin #poweryourown

The Notebook (by Annie, not Nicholas Sparks)

My beloved notebook is running out of room.  After this week, I’ll have three more pages, which means I’ve got three more training weeks, which means I’ve gotta get my ass in gear and find a new notebook!  I’ve known I was running out of pages for a few weeks now and knowing I’ll be filling it up soon has got me looking back over the pages from the past two plus years’ worth of training sessions.  The very first entry is from August 18, 2014.  A Monday so it was bench day (and duh, who doesn’t start on a Monday?).  That session was touch & go 6-6-8.  My numbers were 80lbs x 6, 85lbs x 6, and 70lbs x 8.  Its so funny to me now to see that.  Not funny in a “haha let me make fun of myself for being so weak” way, but more of a “oh my gosh, have I really improved that much” kinda way.  My last session of 6-6-8 from a couple weeks ago (according to my handy dandy notebook) was 130lbs x 6, 135lbs x 6, and 120lbs x 8.  The first squat session was 135lbs for 6 sets of doubles and this week’s doubles were at 205lbs.  The first deadlifts back in August of 2014?  165lbs for 15 singles.  This training cycle, I started with 15 singles at 235 (which just so happens to be my 3^rd attempt from that very first meet!). And today was test day, I pulled 330 and was oh-so-close to pulling 340.  Do the math.

                My first real powerlifting meet was in July of 2014 and I started training with Wade Johnson the following month.  Wade said “get a notebook, write stuff down.” So I did.  Of course, I found a cute little spiral bound one with pink flowers and “Believe you can” written on the front because #girlie, but it had blank pages so it served the purpose.  I’ve been known not to follow directions well, but I’m glad I listened to this one. 

Every session since 8/18/14 is written down in there, the PRs, the misses, the days when I skipped assistance, and even the blank spaces where I missed entire sessions.  One thing that I don’t see written down in there though, are meet results.  It just hit me, right now at this moment, I neglected to write down anything related to meet day lifts.  It’s not because I didn’t have my notebook with me on meet day (believe me, it’s ALWAYS with me), but nope, not a single meet lift is written down in there!  It certainly wasn’t intentional, but I wonder why I did that??  Don’t we train so we can put it all together on the platform for the coveted 9 for 9 and big PRs on meet day?  Oh there are entries with projected meet attempt selections written on pages titled “MEET WEEK!” but none of the actual results.  Hmmmm.

I’d like to claim that the reason for this omission is because I’ve always just “embraced the process” of training.  Yeah, that’s it.  I’ve never been upset over a missed lift or a bad session or having to make adjustments because my body just hurts too damn bad and I know all of that is part of it.  That would be a flat out lie.  But maybe, just maybe, I had an inkling of how important the process really is.  Maybe I know how much I like to look back and see progress.  Maybe I’m psychic.  Nah, that’s not it either, maybe it was just a fluke and the natural progression of how things work out and I just did what I was told to do.  We always document the PRs, the big moments, and the highlights, and even if we don’t share them, the lows and the misses are just as much a part of it and just as important.  If it weren’t for the bad days, the good ones wouldn’t be so sweet.  That's really easy to say and type, but pretty hard to accept!

When I look back through the pages, I don’t just see a bunch of numbers scribbled down.  I see my whole powerlifting life with little pieces of real life sprinkled in all over the place.  That week I went on the cruise for Cassie’s bachelorette party?  Yeah, that’s in there, written in as “workout on the boat.”  Or that time I hurt my back coaching gymnastics:  “pulled 135 for 2 singles, couldn’t even put the bar down.”  It’s all in there. My story.  My journey.  My process.  If I try to imitate somebody else’s process, I begin to lose sight of my own journey and my own goals. 

Speaking of goals, I remember when all I wanted to do was bench a plate.  One hundred and thirty five freaking pounds.  Impossible!!  That’s just crazy to want to do that!  But you know what?  I did it.  On July 23, 2015 to be exact (I know because my notebook says so).  Now when I think “All I want to do is squat 300,” I have no doubt in my mind that it WILL happen.  And it will be documented in the new notebook (and probably highlighted and circled with a big pink sharpie).  Imagine the possibilities in all aspects of life when we stop putting limitations on ourselves!  To sorta quote a girl "perceived limitations are BS!"

One of the things Wade always says (a Wadeism if you will), is: “If all I’ve done is make you a better lifter, then I’ve failed you as a coach.”  If all I’ve done is lift some weights, then what’s the point?  If in the process of lifting some weights, I’ve become stronger, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, all of the “lly’s” then I can look back through the pages and appreciate the process that much more.  My life over the past two plus years has been a rollercoaster. Mostly good, some bad, lots of change and growth and more change.  Training has been one of the constants and so have my people.  Most people don’t understand why we do what we do, and to them, it is just lifting weights.  To me, to us, it’s a way of life.  A lifestyle.  It’s not all that we are, but something that we do.  My little notebook documents that part of my life and helps me remember #allthethings. 

                Moral of the story?  Get a notebook.  Write stuff down.  And when you get hung up on the Insta-Celebs who lift 1 million more pounds than you do (or do whatever it is that you wanna do), flip back a few pages, look in the mirror and make the only valid comparison necessary:  you vs. you. 

You’ll thank me. 

#believeyoucan

#poweryourown