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Two Powerful Business Lessons from One Painful CrossFit Workout

Whether you’re working out or pushing past your professional limitations, getting stronger means showing up consistently and leaving your comfort zone.

I remember the moment like yesterday: I was splayed out on the floor in a pool of sweat, gasping for air. And I hated myself.

It was February 2019. I was about three years into CrossFit and had just finished a workout for the CrossFit Open, a worldwide competition among CrossFit athletes worldwide. I say “competition” loosely because there are some people who actually have a shot at winning the title of CrossFittest person in the world.

I didn’t have a shot. I had a dad bod in its mid-40s. I was doing CrossFit so I could drink more beer on the weekends and eat whatever I wanted, with minimal repercussions.

Still, I am pretty competitive, and I worked myself well into the pain zone. The thing about CrossFit is that friendly competition makes you push the envelope. You’re working out in the company of your peers, and you don’t want to embarrass yourself by slacking.

I didn’t slack on this workout. I pushed hard but still felt embarrassed. I lay there, splayed out, hating myself.

This particular circuit was extra challenging for me: Row until you hit 19 calories burned — about a minute or so of rowing. Then do “wall balls” — throw a 20-pound medicine ball 19 times at a target ten feet high. Repeat for 15 minutes, doing as many rounds and repetitions as you can before you die in a pile.

If you think that sounds torturous, that’s because it is. (I know, you have to have a screw loose to enjoy this stuff.)

This workout doesn’t favor people like me. I have very few strengths, and physical stamina is not one of them.

But there’s one guy in particular who excels at this workout. At the time, he was new to CrossFit. He’s about my age and in great shape. Probably a runner or something.

This workout was made for him. You know, the types that get up and casually run 10 miles on a Tuesday. Those kinds of psychos.

This is the exact type of scenario that brings out my competitive side — the side of me that wants to be better, but also wants to perform better than anyone in the vicinity.

Mr. Effortless Fitness did the workout the day before me, so I knew what marks I needed to hit to beat him. He’d set the bar high. So I paced myself throughout the workout, teetering at just the right pace — until the end, when I collapsed into a heap.

This dude ended up beating me. I had spent three years at CrossFit, and he had just joined a few months before. I peeled myself off the floor and thought, Did I just waste three years of my life, for some guy to come in off the street and whoop my ass?

It’s not over, I told myself. There were four more workouts left in the CrossFit Open. One of them might play to MY strengths. Maybe I could beat this guy in another round.

But a funny thing happened: The other guy didn’t show up for the next four workouts of the “competition.”

I know, because I was biding my time, waiting for a workout I could nail. Watching for that fucker to reappear and maybe not excel at something.

In the end, I finished in the upper half of my age bracket in the world. Not bad for an old fart with a dad bod who drank beer as a sport on the weekend.

Over the coming weeks, I noticed that Mr. Fitness only showed up for certain workouts, like running, rowing or anything that favored stamina. And then he stopped showing up altogether.

I have never quite gotten over getting my ass handed to me in that first workout. But I’m still showing up to the workouts, trying to burn enough calories to let me eat and drink as much as I want.

Just the other day, I even tried the rowing/wall balls workout again. And it got me thinking about some important lessons in business and life.

Be Consistent

Showing up consistently has to be one of the all-time most underrated skills on the planet.

In today’s world of instant gratification, we are always looking for the shortcut, the cheat code, or the secret sauce. But you know what the answer is almost 100% of the time? Show up and be consistent.

Want to build wealth?

You need to consistently save more money than you make.

Want to lose weight?

You need to eat well consistently and exercise.

The overnight success stories are bullshit.

The problem is that people don’t like to hear that slow and steady is the answer. Why? Because it’s boring. It’s hard. And it takes time and actual effort. And consistency isn’t just the answer to achieving fitness goals; it’s an important life skill that in part, determines whether you make it in your chosen profession.

Want to run a successful business that thrives for decades?

You need to consistently build your practice, organically.

You know how many investigators I have met who’ve turned out to be flaky fly-by-nights? Dozens.

Being consistent is a grind, which is why most people don’t do it. 

Whether you’ve got a million things on your plate, your life is in shambles, or you just can’t get results for your client, the answer is still the same: Show up, do the work, and be consistent.

I’ve been showing up at CrossFit for more than seven years now. I’m certainly in no shape to win any competitions, but I’m in the best shape of my life because I don’t skip the circuits that make me uncomfortable.

Similarly, I’ve built a business organically for 13 years, with a list of clients who’ve been with me since day one. I’ve got a nice little business going, all in the name of consistency. I’ve been through some tough times but stuck it out. I’m still here.

I’ve had people ask me how I built such a large audience on my blog. It wasn’t some voodoo magic. It was consistently posting something once a week for years, even when nobody read it.

Being consistent is a grind, which is why most people don’t do it. 

Get Uncomfortable

I have a hunch that the guy who beat me only showed up for things he was already good at. I’ll bet he’s a great runner, or whatever. I’m sure he likes what he sees in the mirror. And I’m certain he hasn’t given me a second thought since he left CrossFit, even though I’ve thought about him a LOT. (I know where you live! That’s a joke … sort of.)

But showing up only for the things you’re good at does two things for you: It makes you feel good about yourself in the moment.

It also makes you better at the thing you’re already good at.

You might wonder, what’s wrong with that?

Nothing. But it’s not going to help you grow. Because at the gym or in professional life, the guy who shows up for the easy stuff AND the near-impossible stuff wins in the long haul. Pushing through pain and failure not only shores up atrophied muscles; it builds stamina and resilience, and it prepares you to adapt to ever-greater challenges.

Because trying hard and failing — and then peeling yourself off the floor to try again — is what the game is all about.

If I could talk to my younger self, I’d remind that guy not to rest his laurels on only showing up for things he already does well. The same goes for my teenage kids. If I told my daughter to only enter races she’s likely to win, she’d never find herself outside her comfort zone, fighting hard to figure shit out. She’d never be bad at anything. She’d be the hero every single time.

What would happen when she got into the real world? She’d fail, as we all do. But she would have no idea how to get up off the floor and start rowing again.

Get uncomfortable. Show up for things that leave you splayed out in the dirt, gasping for breath. Repeat.

Failure isn’t the final word; it’s just an obstacle along the way. Failure pinpoints our weaknesses and makes us better, more resilient human beings. It builds our stamina.

I show up to CrossFit 180 days a year. Sometimes I feel like a hero. Other days I don’t. I do the prescribed workouts I suck at with just as much vigor as the ones I’m good at. 

Get uncomfortable. Show up for things that leave you splayed out in the dirt, gasping for breath. Repeat.

In my work, that means taking on cases that challenge me, digging into the weeds of things that are foreign to me. It means tapping into new sources, reaching out to people who know more than me, and challenging what I think I know.

It’s incredible what happens in those pain zones. They make you feel alive, strong, and … well, kind of heroic. 

Last week at the gym, the trainer had us do the rowing and wall ball workout again. It all flooded back to me: the gasping for air. The defeat I felt, lying on the floor in my own sweat. It sucked. But I did it.

I’m four years older, and I did that workout better than my younger self had. All because I kept showing up.

And damn, it felt good.


Brian Willingham is a New York private investigator, Certified Fraud Examiner, and founder of Diligentia Group. To read more Willingham wisdom, check out his blog and his previous stories for PursuitMag.