Take The Chance

You can't go to something like the CrossFit Games and remain the same person.

It changes you, whether you want it to or not. Luckily, it changes you in a good way.

The spectacle of heart and effort and love and bumper plates is like no other.

And this year it was bigger AND better than ever. That's hard to do.

But I don't want to talk about the Games.

There will be a million words written and a million videos made and a million thoughts on what went right, wrong, and what we should do in the future. I don't need to add to those right now.

All I want to do today is thank my friend Greg.

A lot of you guys reading here ask how I came to be where I am in CrossFit. Well, over three years ago, the phone rang out of the blue and a man I barely knew took a big chance on me. And he kept taking chances. Victories, defeats, minor screw-ups, major screw-ups, agreement, argument, it didn't matter -- through it all, he kept telling me to keep pushing and trying and that failure was okay, but to learn from it -- and learn quick. And that no matter what happened, he would love me.

Sounds like a parent, huh? In some ways, he's been kind of like a parent to us all, really.

So, today, do this for me and our friend Greg: Think about who you should take a chance on.

Pick somebody out of the crowd. Maybe there's someone you've been considering, someone who you think might be ready for something bigger -- whether it's a job, a task, or some matter of the heart. Think about them and . . . take the chance.

They might fail, sure. They might let you down, yup. But so what?

They also might smash it out of the park. They might succeed gloriously, beyond your wildest dreams. And wouldn't that be amazing -- for them and for you?

Be a hero of a different sort today. Don't just be the person who does amazing things in life: be the person who helps others to do amazing things too.

Go take the chance. Now. Someone is waiting to succeed.