Today Nick Paul conquered the 15×15. He’s only the 3rd person ( the other happened to be at 5:30 am…props to you John!) to actually that finish that workout within the time limit. Nick is fast…really fast. But for him, that’s not what NP is about. We know that some days NP looks like a group of super fit, super intense people, which can be daunting to any newbie who maybe isn’t one of those things. But read Nick’s guest blog post and get some insight on what we believe NP SHOULD be about. You can’t finish first in positivity…
Nick Paul :
Why do you come to November Project? It occurred to me a while ago, not everyone wants to wake up early, bounce up and down, get hugged and shout profanity before sweating in any weather imaginable. After coming to NP for over two years, I never thought I’d be one of those people.
January 2017. It’s a new year. One of my resolutions is to be competitive in triathlon this year; not just finish the race, but finish well. I started ramping up from 10-12 hours a week training to 17-20 hours. It’s Saturday. I’m on my bike in my laundry room because it’s too wet and cold to be outside. I know I should be on my bike for 2+ hours and I need to kill time, so I took to Netflix. There’s a documentary I’ve passed multiple times called: The Fittest on Earth. Every single time I pass it I stop and have to read about it. It’s not until I read the description, learn it’s about crossfit, and skip it. Except for today. I started it. I’m already 30 minutes into pedaling at this point and this documentary will put me well over 2+ hours. I’ll spare the entire plot, but the overwhelming combination of new year’s resolutions, increasing my training load, being indoors pedaling in the same spot, and watching crossfit athletes crush workouts to “become Batman” led me to a dark place where I began to think about my future and question: “Why do I go to November Project?”
Why do I just show up every Wednesday for a bounce and hugs and an unknown workouts when I could be training myself during a longer, tougher, structured workout as part of a larger training plan? This is what competitive athletes do. I’ve watched them do it. This is how I learn. Why am I not doing the same?
You have control of 2 things in life: Effort and Attitude. I love control. I love to plan and organize. I love to make sure I’m doing the best I can no matter what I’m doing. Effort is something I can control. I can give 110%. No one can take that from me, and I’ll never stop. I want to be better, I want to be stronger and I want to be faster. I know it’s not easy, but I give my effort to make that happen.
Attitude is something I’ve always struggled with. It’s the outlook on a particular situation and whether you view it in a positive or negative light. It’s easy to see why anyone would have reason to be negative. Life is hard. Simply open Facebook and learn about any sort of current event. Negativity is everywhere and it is hard to deal with. It’s the dark place you go to when you’re hurting and want to give up. It’s the looming sense of not being good enough. It is the awful helpless feeling you get where you start to lose hope because you cannot control the uncontrollable; the world is just too big.
This is why I come to November Project. I know, no matter what, at 6:30 every Wednesday/Friday morning there will be a giant group of the most positive people bouncing up and down, shouting profanity, giving out free hugs. I don’t care who you are, where you come from, what you believe in, what you look like…a hug is a hug. You let your guard down to let someone in, for just a second, and are immediately rewarded with knowing everything will be ok.
November Project is not about killing workouts and getting sweaty and crushing burpees. It isn’t about who finishes first, who is the fastest, who can run the most amount of miles, who wakes up the earliest. It is about the positive force it gives to everyone at no cost at all. Days are instantly made better knowing this group exists; knowing these amazing awesome genuinely caring nice people are here, in my city, making a difference and putting it out there to make others (who don’t justshowup) feel the same way. November Project puts a smile on my face and happiness in my heart giving me the positive outlook I need to take on life. Thank you.
Yes!