Lifting, Bias, and a Hello Kitty Towel (5-10-23)

Happy Wednesday,

Last week was about lifting and different kinds of success. This week is about a Hello Kitty towel and recognizing the bias we all have.

I was a few minutes into my workout in my house when I realized I needed a towel. I was doing laundry, so my normal blue workout towel was being washed. I went upstairs reached into the cabinet without looking and pulled out a Hello Kitty towel. Instantly I thought to myself, “This is kind of girly for a workout towel, isn’t it? I can’t use this,” and I dropped the towel. A second later, I realized what thought had run through my brain and how stupid it was. I paused and asked myself, “Why can’t I use this towel? All I need is something to wipe the sweat off my face. If the towel would have been a different color and had Batman or Ninja Turtles on it, I wouldn’t have hesitated to use it. Why should I treat this towel differently?” I picked the towel back up and used it.

Are you seeing how this connects with bias? I was working out by myself in my house, where there was no threat of anyone judging me. Even in this environment, when I picked up the Hello Kitty towel, my first instinct was a biased one. My first instinct was to say, “This is towel is too girly, and I’m a tough masculine man doing tough manly things like weightlifting. Since that towel is so girly, it can’t be a part of doing tough masculine things.” (Seriously, reread those two sentences and look at how many wrong ignorant assumptions are built in there.) It wasn’t until I paused a moment to examine my thought process that I realized I was wrong and ridiculous.

I like to tell myself that I’m a good person. I like to hope that I’m above having bias, but this was another reminder that I’m human. If I can have a bias about an inanimate object when there isn’t anything at stake, then I know I have more biases lurking under the surface. We all have biases. It’s up to us to recognize these biases and then challenge them with each other and most importantly within ourselves.

The challenge: Will you recognize and challenge your biases?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Lifting and Different Kinds of Success (5-3-23)

Our last entry was about using proper form to help us be stronger and more efficient. This week is about lifting and different kinds of success.

A few of months ago, I wasn’t making any progress in my physical health and lifting journey. I wasn’t gaining strength. My body composition was staying the same. I didn’t feel any better. I was doing my best at the time, but not getting anywhere. I felt like an unsuccessful failure. Then, I took a step back and realized that life was throwing a lot at me right both personally and professionally. In the midst of all of that crazy, making the progress I wanted to make would have been impossible. I came to appreciate that while I may not have been moving forward at that exact moment, the fact that I wasn’t losing ground was a win. Despite all life was doing, it wasn’t pushing me back. It may not have been my ideal goal, but maintaining was success in those circumstances.

What does this have to do with anything? Often, we picture success as crossing the finish line in first place, and anything short of that is failure. After all, as the guru Ricky Bobby once said, “If you ain’t first, you’re last!” As a result of this thinking, we often feel like if we aren’t achieving our ideal of success then we are not worthy. That’s how I felt during that month. Have you ever felt that way? In these moments, it’s important to step back and realize that victory can take many forms. Success isn’t always about winning the race. Sometimes, success is just finishing the race. Sometimes, success is finding a way to keep moving forward. Sometimes, success is not getting knocked back. Sometimes, success is finding a way to get back up after being knocked flat on your butt. Depending on what you’re doing, and the hand life is dealing you at the moment, success can look very different. We need to accept that AND accept that we are always more than enough.

The challenge: Are you giving yourself the grace to understand what success looks like in the moment?

Bonus: I woke up this morning and I’m sore and exhausted, so my lifting success today is going to be taking a rest day 😉

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Lifting, Proper Form, and Work (4-26-23)

The last entry was about coaching nudges, deadlifting, and good form. Today, we will build on the idea of proper form as it relates to lifting and work.

As long as you have enough raw power, you can lift something even if you don’t have the right form. This goes for weights, couches, boxes, and more. However, lifting without good form does have a cost to it. You could tire yourself out more easily, get injured, or not be able to lift as much as you could with the right form. The fundamentals of good form increases your strength because it enables your body to capitalize on the synergy of your muscles moving together in the right way. Like I mentioned in the deadlift story, I improved my form and was instantly able to lift more weight without getting tired or irritating my back. In short, good form is the secret to taking your strength to the next level.

Let’s connect this to work. Have you ever seen someone who winged an entire presentation? Have you ever seen someone lead a meeting when they haven’t prepared for it? Have you ever been one of those people? I have. Sometimes this has worked out okay. Sometimes it has been a disaster. Rarely, has it ever been as smooth and efficient as if I would have been more intentional about preparing and doing things the right way. With all that in mind, these examples are great parallels to our metaphor this week. In each instance, the person relied on their brute strength/skill as opposed to leveraging “good form”. Whether it’s presenting, running meetings, scoping out projects, or anything else, there are usually a few key fundamental things/frameworks you can leverage to make it easier. These frameworks are what good form is all about. Sure, you might be able to do things on raw skill alone. However, I guarantee you that combining that skill with the right form will make everything more efficient and easier.

The challenge: Are you seeking to understand what good form looks like before tackling a challenge? How are you leveraging the correct “form” at work?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Working Out and Difficult Conversations (7-29-20)

Last week was about machines and systemic racism. This week is about working out and having difficult conversations.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you currently can squat 200 pounds as your max and that 1 year from now you will need to squat 300 pounds. How would you prepare for this? Would you do nothing and hope you would be able to rise to the challenge or would you train so you would be ready? Putting in the time and effort to make yourself stronger would not be easy, but it would be essential to you gaining the strength so you could meet the challenge. Even after training, squatting 300 pounds wouldn’t be easy, but it would be possible.

How does this have anything to do with diversity and inclusion? One of the things that I often hear people say is that having discussions about things like race, gender, sexual orientation, other elements of diversity, privilege (especially white privilege), discrimination, and potential reform are difficult conversations to have. This is true. The conversations are messy, complicated, tricky to navigate, and deeply personal. As a result of this difficulty, I feel that many individuals, myself included, avoid having these conversations. While these conversations are difficult on many fronts,, much like the analogy where you HAD to squat 300 pounds, I’d argue you HAVE to have these conversations if you want to move forward and enact change.

In the squat example, we discussed how important it is to put the work in, so you can be ready to rise to the challenge of squatting 300 pounds. In the same way, if you want to be able to have these difficult conversations, you have to put the work in leading up to those conversations so you’re ready to rise to the challenge. So what is the work? It could be educating yourself. It could be working on listening, so you can truly step into someone else’s shoes and see the world from their perspective. Maybe it’s being vulnerable and sharing your evolution. The work could be creating spaces for these conversations to happen. It could be you making sure you are laying a strong foundation of inclusivity, care, and compassion so people feel comfortable having these conversations with you. There is a lot of different kinds of work we can all put in. Even if we do these things, it won’t make these conversations easy. What it will do is make it possible for us to have them, and to find a way to move forward.

The challenge: Are you putting the work in?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Lifting Weights, Failure, and Growth (9-7-16)

Last week we talked about how doubt can be a dowsing rod that leads us to growth. This week I want us to think about lifting weights, failure, and development.

If you read any fitness magazine it will tell you that if you want to gain strength you need to lift weights. More specifically, it will tell you to lift weight heavy enough to the point where you are only able to do 8-10 reps per set. The idea is that by the 10^th rep you’ve lifted so much weight that your muscles are unable to lift more. Your muscles essentially FAIL at lifting the weight.

If you do this often enough your muscles basically say, “I’m tired of failing. I need to get stronger,” and your body goes through the process of enhancing your muscles and your strength. Over time you’ll gain strength and you will be able to lift more weight than you did before, and then the cycle begins again. (Obviously anatomy wasn’t my strong suit based on that technical explanation of developing muscles). The bottom line is that you have to push yourself to the point of failure in order to make your muscles grow and gain strength.

What does lifting weights have to do with development and failure? I feel that when we think of failure we think of these humongous disasters that lead to us getting down on ourselves. We don’t have to look at failure that way. Failure isn’t something that has to get us down. Failure is just a sign that we are pushing ourselves. If you aren’t failing you aren’t pushing. If you aren’t pushing then you can’t grow. When I work out I don’t say, “I could only do 8 reps at that weight, so I’m the worst person ever!” Instead I’m filled with pride at the fact that I pushed myself hard and I’m filled with a desire to keep doing better. Instead of feeling down I say, “I pushed myself as far as I could on this day. I’m not as strong as I want to be, but I know I can be stronger next time.” Then as I continue to work out I push myself until before I know it, I’m stronger and faster than I have been.

My current role. I’ve now been in my role for about a month. I’m not as clever or as smart as I’d like to be. I can’t move as quickly as I did when I’ve been competent in other roles. I’m not quite able to lift the weight I want to lift…YET. Every day is another small failure. Every day is another day to push to fall just short of the high bar I set for myself. I don’t feel discouraged though. I feel proud and excited, because every day I can see where I’m getting better and stronger. I can’t wait until I feel like I’m full on beast mode.

The challenge: Are you pushing yourself hard enough to fail? Are your failures helping you become stronger?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry