“Do As I Say AND As I DO!”
Newsletter from Thu, Aug 31, 2023 9:46 am - School's back in session and the annual F3 IronPax Challenge has taken over the gloom.
For those that aren't familiar, the IronPax Challenge (IPC) is an annual challenge that happens every September. Every Sunday a new workout is posted. It'll be either for your best time or for the most reps in a certain amount of time. Guys from all over the country -maybe even the world- post their times and it's a fun little competition.
This is my 3rd year(?) in F3 and my 2nd IPC that I'm participating in. Today was my first workout for week 0. It sucked. But we'll get back to that.
A couple months ago, my mom gave me and my cousin (Mushu) a book called The Daily Dad. A book of 365 meditations on parenting, love, and raising great kids. I'm not big into reading just a couple of paragraphs a day so I've been reading a handful of these daily meditations every night before going to sleep.
"Do as I do. Not as I say."
I hate the saying that parents will say to their kids about "Do as I say not as I do". I searched for about an hour because my memory is terrible for a quote about leading by example from The Daily Dad book, but I gotta get back to my day job. lol. So here's my quote.
The sections I've read up until now in this book have been very focused on leading by example. We all want our kids to be this or to be that and we think that sitting them down and telling them how to act, how to work hard, and how to think is going to make them do those things...With a 15 year old who doesn't seem to listen to anything I say these days, it's becoming more and more apparent that my actions will speak louder than any talk we've had or will ever have.
What does this have to do with IPC kicking my ass this morning? This idea of "Do as I do and not as I say" has been ringing through my head, especially during the morning workout.
While proctoring at the New Albany location that we call The Eagle, I was working with my dude Ginger; a father of 4 and a fucking stand-up guy that I look up to in a lot of ways. His son recently graduated high school and just left for boot camp as he embarks on his next chapter of being a Marine.
During Ginger's IPC workout, I was with him every step of the way. Running, burpees, more hand-release merkins than we like to do in a day, and he was killing it. As we got to the end and he started slowing down, I remembered this quote and I yelled something like, "We're doing this for Kaydan! Show him how it's done."
During that moment, it hit me that we can't talk the talk, we gotta walk the walk we tell our kids to walk. EVERY STEP. Not just when your kid is around, but through every moment.
So there it is...Who's getting in on the IPC action in September Sign-up. Haven't been out to a workout in a while? Come modify and set some benchmarks. I promise you. This month is the best month to get back into it. There's no better way to make a new best friend than when they're yelling at you to stop stopping (Bootleg's motto) and you just want to spit water at them (thanks for that last year, Penguin).
- Beatbox, F3 Columbus