YOU ARE NOT...

... your past. your future. your stories. your excuses. your timidity. your body. your mind. your conversations. your lack of integrity. your strengths. your weaknesses. your successes. your failures. your thoughts. your identity. here and now: you are the Self. acknowledge your human being. let it be. push it aside and be the possibility of anything and everything from nothing.

Time to get...

...CUTTHROAT.

*Games Season 2011*

Harmony.

Happiness comes when what you think, 

what you say, 

and what you do are in harmony.

-Gandhi

Have Faith

The great lesson is that the sacred is in the ordinary, 

that it is to be found in one's daily life, in one's neighbors, 

friends, and family, in one's backyard.

- Abraham Maslow

Last night a small group of us gathered at Jeremy Thiel's house to watch The Secret. I hadn't seen it since November of 2008, and it was a brilliant reminder of the power of the LAW OF ATTRACTION and our ability to MANIFEST great things for ourselves through the power of our minds and unwavering, childlike faith. Thanks JT.

Sweat, play, suffer, learn...

...all before sunrise.

Kanye West - Runaway

Seriously considering taking up ballet...

Love me some videos!

Two great videos for the day -- Enjoy!

http://www.sicfit.com/speaker/5761-Carey-Kepler/video/409624-Were-Going-All-The-Way-This-Time-CrossFit-Centrals-Games-Training-Dec-10-Jan-11

http://www.sicfit.com/speaker/5761-Carey-Kepler/video/407207-CrossFit-Central-2010-Year-in-Review

Who's YOUR Coach?

Am I an idiot? This picture seems to suggest "Yes."

The following is an excerpt from Dan John's book Never Let Go:

"The coach who coaches himself has an idiot for a client.

Even a good surgeon doesn't pull out his own spleen. A good coach can't coach himself. Listen, I tried it for years and here's the problem: You simply don't have enough RAM to do it yourself. Yep, that's the computer term. You simply don't have enough space in your brain to do what it takes to train yourself.

First, designing a program takes a level of honesty people can rarely match. Oh, sure, we can all see the obvious with glaring faults and issues, but the fix might blow up some happy little beliefs you're afraid to confront.

Second, anyone can design a program or plan. I see it all the time. In coaching yourself, you have to follow this program. Will you give it the time to work, or, like me, immediately begin to tweak and change it so by week two the original plan is completely lost? I know this by experience... thirty years of it! Can you follow your own plan? Some can, like Clarence Bass, but most can't. Even Bass, by the way, changes quite a bit from book to book.

Third, do you have enough will to push through your own program and not find the easy way out? I'm a master of talking myself out of tough workouts and back into my rut workouts. Like Earl Nightingale used to say, "A rut is a grave with the ends kicked out."

Fourth, can you honestly address your weaknesses at the start of a workout, in a strange gym, or when other alpha males are are training near you? The moment guys who look like frat boys start training near me, I front squat. I'm not doing sets of triples in the pull-up when these guys are working their heavy tricep extensions. Bro. Sorry, my ego can't handle that.

I have another idea to help you with this, but let's continue to unpack this concept. Let's just say it the opposite way. On the Velocity Diet, I drank six shakes a day. Why? Chris said so. If I follow Alwyn's workout and you ask me, why? I answer, "Alwyn said so." When Dick Notmeyer coached me, the answer was the same: Coach said so.

Said so is genius. It completely divorces you -- and I mean completely -- from any responsibility for your training. Why seven sets of four? Coach said so. Why fish oil? Coach said so. It's an amazing moment of clarity; you can pawn off all your responsibility on someone else. It's genius."

What are your thoughts?

Never Let Go.

Never Let Go

This is the title of the book that I am currently reading... and THOROUGHLY enjoying. I picked it up at my parents house over the break (there was a break?) after I saw that my dad had another new book he was reading (dads have a way of knowing good books). My dad was also the one who told me my freshman year of high school that I should focus on  three lifts: the Squat, Power Clean, and Bench Press. Ahhh if only I had listened to him... But then I wouldn't have known-it-all.

The book is written by Dan John, and details his philosophy of lifting and living (as he has done much of both - more than me anyways). It is smart, witty, informational, and highly entertaining to anyone who likes to lift anything. If you are looking for an "old-school" philosophy and a no BS account of how things should be done, I highly recommend it. This guy doesn't reinvent the wheel, he takes off all the bells and whistles and makes the complicated simple. Outstanding.

2011: My Year

For me, 2010 was a year full of learnings, successes, trials and challenges. 

2011 will be a year unlike any other year. I can't wait. 

DON’T QUIT

Don’t quit when the tide is lowest,

For it’s just about to turn;

Don’t quit over doubts and questions,

For there’s something you may learn.

Don’t quit when the night is darkest,

For it’s just a while ‘til dawn;

Don’t quit when you’ve run the farthest,

for the race is almost won.

Don’t quit when the hill is steepest,

For your goal is almost nigh;

Don’t quit, for you’re not a failure

Until you fail to try.

-Jill Wolf