Day: December 12, 2021

Warm Up

Seal Jacks 15

Heals to Heaven 15

Wide Outs 15

Cross Railroad Bridge. Bear Crawl and Lunges

DORA

100 Merkins

200 Heals to Heaven

300 Squats

50 calf raises X 3 sets

11s

Merkins-Am Hammers

Announcements

Christmas Party-F3

Prayers- Family Members & Neighbors

The sound of rain drops hitting the roof is definitely not my favorite sound when I wake up in the morning and have the Q. Fortunately, the rain was pretty light and all but quit by 5:30 am.

A few guys got in some mall walking and a few got in some running. We all did more than the guys who fartsacked.

After a night of revelry at the annual F3 Christmas Party I had some concern about posting this morning. I did have a few libations but thankfully not nearly enough for me to grab the microphone so I could underwhelm the audience with a voice only cut-out for a solo car ride. If we’re being honest, I hum along in church and really don’t enjoy singing Happy Birthday. I love music which is why I appreciate those talented to play and sing. Thanks to Huck, Allen Tate, Bubba Sparxx and Broke for putting on a great event.

My alarm went off at 0600 as today is the first day of adding miles preparing for my next half in January. I was one of several runners scattered about the course this morning. There were three Ruckers and Roscoe shared this:

Three PAX answered the call to ruck at 0600 am where we celebrated an early Festivus by airing our grievances during the ruck. Whoopee started out airing his grievances in mile one and then Flintstone aired his in mile two. By mile three, Roscoe was bursting with grievances. By mile four there were no more grievances and we finished our last mile with a renewed positivity. We basically took the Whoopee Sandy-V Slack Channel and brought it to life.

COT: no announcements; Prayers: Roscoe’s friend Tim fighting cancer, his M, and his Father-In-Law; Purple Haze and Bedpan fighting COVID. I prayed us out.

Moleskin – We’re wrapping up 2021 Q-Source with Dealer’s Choice. During Whoopee’s GasHouse Q, he brought the 8-block exercise to life all the while teaching it’s meaningful purpose to guide men through the year. Something about writing down your goals after thinking through them can set you on a course for success. During the teaching, “blind spots” were brought up several times. With a new 16-year old driving in my family, blind spots have been covered. But this morning I thought it would be worthy of discussion among our PAX.

Weaknesses are aspects we can overcome with practice, time or desire. The key thing is we can be made aware of weaknesses. But when it comes to blind spots -they are hidden and can significantly derail a leader if they are not prepared.  So we discussed 10 core blind spots that should create some awareness to detect.

1. Going it alone (being afraid to ask for help)
2. Being insensitive of your behavior on others (being unaware of how you show up)
3. Having an “I know” attitude (valuing being right above everything else)
4. Avoiding the difficult conversations (conflict avoidance)
5. Blaming others or circumstances (playing the victim; refusing responsibility)
6. Treating commitments casually (not honoring the other person’s time, energy, resources)
7. Conspiring against others (driven by a personal agenda)
8. Withholding emotional commitment (emotional blackmail)
9. Not taking a stand (lack of commitment to a position)
10. Tolerating “good enough” (low standards for performance)

Among our group, we discussed addressing difficult conversations and conflicts quickly is very helpful to mitigate issues. #1 – being afraid to ask for help will cause blind spots to impact a man. Accountability via a Whetstone or Shieldlock are good ways to gain sight to the issues you don’t see. What else can help? Here are some additional tools you can use:

Curing Your Blind Spots

Follow these steps to gain clarity around your blind spots, which will open the door for growth, learning, and performance improvement.

1. Solicit feedback in the right way.
   Ask for 1 piece of feedback at a time. Communications expert Carole Stizza suggests these 2 options:
   “What is the one blind spot you think I have that I should be more aware of?” OR
   “An assessment identified some unique blind spots. Do you feel there is one area this particular blind spot of _______ shows up in how I approach things?”
2. Surround yourself with diverse thinkers with the intention of learning from them.
   Your communities of learning should reflect a variety of perspectives, experiences, and approaches to problem solving that you can adapt.
3. Examine your past to identify patterns.
   How have you succeeded as a leader? How have you struggled? What situations have led to both desirable and undesirable outcomes? What feedback have you received from mentors, coaches or advisors regarding decisions you’ve made that indicates a pattern of questionable choices?
4. Identify triggers.
   We all have triggers – situations that cause us to impulsively or instinctively react without thinking. In his bestselling book, “Triggers,” leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith explains that every waking moment is filled with either people, events, or circumstances that have the power to shape how we act or react. When we master our triggers, we master our responses and make them work for us, rather than against us.
5. Seek out a blind-spot buddy.
   Once you’ve received feedback on your blind spot, enlist someone you trust to hold you accountable to behavioral change.

This material was in this post by Maissa Levin in Inc.  If you would like to read more about it.

As you begin to think about 2022, I hope you’ll consider doing the 8-block exercise. I did it last year and upon review I have a lot of work. I compare it to running this morning. I was able to push the pace for the first few miles and felt really good. But once I hit the “gut check” (the elevation gain up Robinwood) I slowed considerably. I finished the run and the goal, but knowing there is a lot of work to prepare for the 13.1 miles in Biloxi on January 30th. There are blinds spots we all have – make sure you’re looking for those along your daily course.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.

Short Sale

It was raining, and lots of PAX fartsacked.

YHC was all alone under the canopy of New Hope Elem.  Then, at the last possible minute, Tesla rolled in.

We got started on the warm-up, and then Dr. Seuss showed up.

The workout was a DoD (Deck-of-Death) type, with runs in-between exercises.  YHC decided to do the DoD where you pick two cards:  one card to tell the exercise, then the second card to tell you the # of reps to do.

Even with lots of shuffling of this brand-new deck the night before, the deck was somehow sequenced so that some type of Merkin was slotted in-between every other card.  Merkins came up nearly every time we drew cards.   We did a LOT of Merkins of all types.

We stayed dry under that canopy.   (The PAX should know that most AO’s have a canopy or roof of some sort, and that rain is not really a good reason to miss out on a solid workout.

Announcements

Christmas Party

PAX Awards

Prayer Request

Tesla’s business partner’ situation

YHC’s brother’s eye injury

Pledge

Name-O-Rama

Dr. Seuss took us out.

—-Bubba Sparxxx