Good, Old-Fashioned Hard Work
Talent alone won’t ensure success—it only happens when you put in the effort. This is especially true in CrossFit, since the sport draws from so many individual movements. Someone can be a naturally fast runner, but speed is only needed for part of the competition, as there will be events that call for endurance and other fitness components, like skill, strength, and power. That’s why it’s great to see so many diverse athletes in the Games—those who make it there succeeded in pushing themselves where they don’t have natural abilities in order for them to excel in the sport. They learned to lean on another essential talent—discipline.
It is indeed a talent to show up day after day, focused and ready to work hard. Talent is what gets your foot in the door. But for you to get through that door, you’ve got to actually put in the work. Sure, people may think Tia has attributes that are beyond those of the average person, but it really comes down to her work ethic superseding her talent.
No excuses, no shortcuts. Do you put your head down and push through anything, or are you all about showing off how much you can dead-lift, posting it on Instagram for all the instant likes? Do you think your talents alone are going to get you where you want to go?
If you truly want to get better, stronger, perhaps even compete, you’ll need to integrate purposeful training into your workouts. It’s more than just keeping track of the time displayed on your treadmill touchscreen. If you push yourself that hard and truly go to your limit, you wouldn’t enjoy it—you would hate it but you’d do it to get to the next level. The feeling of showcasing your true potential in front of a crowd on the world stage far outweighs the pain you feel every day in the gym.
Feed the Good Wolf
People, especially women, tend to overthink and second-guess ourselves to death and tend to underestimate ourselves. Studies have shown that men overestimate their abilities and performance, while women underestimate both. It’s second nature for women to think they are “less than.” In her book Mindset, Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck talks about how women who struggle with failure fall prey to “fixed mindsets,” or the belief that their abilities are static or permanent. An athlete would take a poor showing at a race or match as a personal criticism of her core self rather than a reflection of her performance that day. This only leads to low self-esteem.
Many people are scared to fail, but there are some who can be scared to succeed. They will put up barriers to protect themselves from the horrible feeling of falling short of something, and they believe (irrationally) that they can’t reach their goal or fulfill their aspiration. They can’t help but get in their own way. And research shows that it’s worse for women.
Whether this difference in approach stems from nature or nurture (probably a little of both), women tend to be a bit more hesitant than men when it comes to taking on something new or hard. Similarly, women tend to focus on our shortcomings rather than our potential; men don’t. How do I avoid this? By recognizing that fear is normal, and you can’t bypass it; the only way to deal with it is head-on. So focus on your best, don’t compare yourself to others, and remember that fear is only a thought, not a reality.
We all have battles to fight, so why fight with yourself? No one else is going to believe in you. You need to believe in yourself, and those people who have it in for you—those who think you are going to fail—won’t ever have your best interests at heart.
Perfection Is Unattainable
The beauty of CrossFit is that it’s very broad—you need to be great at so many components of fitness, 10 to be exact: cardiovascular/respiratory, endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. Since Tia is one of the smaller athletes on the field, she made it her mission to be the strongest out there. She makes up for her smallness with power and brute strength—and do what she can to beat the taller, bigger women. Inevitably, the bigger athletes will sometimes say they can’t do all the body-weight movements as efficiently as she can because they are heavier. The smaller athletes say they don’t have the body weight behind them to lift as much as the heavier athletes. You are always going to have an advantage in one or more things—and a disadvantage in one or more things.
Don’t feel sorry for yourself—embrace those differences and make sure you take advantage of your best assets and minimize the downsides. There will always be things that I need to improve on, but don’t look at them as limitations, because if you look at them that way, you’re telling yourself that you’re not good at something. That’s a defeatist argument. You should believe that you’re good at everything you do.
You can always improve on things, of course, but be careful about slipping into perfectionism. There is a saying, “Perfect is the enemy of the good,” and it is true. Perfect is not attainable, but just do the best you can every day. There’s a fine line between striving to be unstoppable and striving to be perfect. If you try to be perfect, you will constantly disappoint yourself because perfection is unattainable.
Sharpen the Sword
Outside of concentrating on the present moment, no other thoughts should creep into your head. If you physically challenge yourself enough, you shouldn’t have time to think anyway. Nothing else matters but the task at hand. There is nothing to do but compete—all else can wait until after the buzzer goes off. Even the quickest flash of a negative thought will break your flow. And you won’t be able to achieve it again. You see it on the tennis court all the time. Someone may have a great headspace going into a game, but then you see them crack under the pressure. They lose a point here and there, then they lose a set. They can’t get back their mojo and they end up losing the match.
Like a battery, you can deplete your energy source; staying in the zone takes a lot of energy. So only use it when you need it. You will need to recharge, since it doesn’t last forever. Find it and use it sparingly. Just like anything in life, too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing.
Throughout her journey, Tia has been very conscious of not burning out. She definitely pushed the barriers throughout training for both the CrossFit Games and the Summer Olympics back in 2016; training for both the CrossFit Open and the Commonwealth Games in 2018; and training for the Winter Olympics and the Rogue Invitational in the 2021–2022 CrossFit season.
However she has been able to understand and set priorities throughout these experiences and found fulfillment in the process of training for them all and not burning out by switching off when the time is right to recharge and reset. The more you use it, the easier it will be to turn on and off. You’ll become more energy-efficient as you’ll know when to flip the switch and conserve or when to turn up the heat full-blast.
Letting go of your thoughts is easier said than done. Often, when you’re nervous about performing, your breath can become more shallow: You may not take in as much air (and its oxygen) as you should. According to a 2013 article published by the National Library of Medicine, the depletion of oxygen to the brain will cause your focus to plunge, exacerbating your nervousness. The trick is to take four deep breaths—count to four as you inhale deeply through the nose, into the abdomen, and exhale through the mouth, also for four counts. Do this four to five times; this calms your nerves and brings on a sense of calm.
Stay in the present, not the future or the past; slow everything down and do what you need to do to execute and anticipate anything that could happen—but don’t visualize the actual moment of winning. Game day is all about execution. Winning is merely the by-product.