StoneCutter Community,
This is an open letter from Josh Wilson to the StoneCutter community about our goals this year for 2019 and the importance of the application of our core values.
Last year our theme was about building relationships.
This year is about living and cultivating the core values in our community. As our community grows and thrives, it will only continue to do so as we continually reflect and hold ourselves to a high standard.
In keeping with that, I am sharing my self-assessment against our core values and I am publicly committing to continued improvement and accountability. I have been as brutally honest as I can about my shortcomings and areas of strength. I will accept nothing less than continuing to relentlessly pursue improvement in my areas of weakness.
I am voluntarily joined in this by the coaches and athlete council members of the StoneCutter community, who conducted similar assessments. The content is below for your review. They were asked to identify areas of opportunity and strength across at least two of the core valuesof StoneCutter. Each individual has chosen two or more to share, and has written them in their own way and in their own words.
My sincere thanks to all of these amazing humans for taking the time to get way outside their comfort zone and be vulnerable to the process of change and personal accountability. It is a rare trait indeed.
As a part of this community, do not focus on the language used, number of traits reviewed, or length. Focus on what each person is saying about who they are, what they can do better, and take what you can from their struggle that they are sharing with you. Learn from seeing other hold themselves to a standard.
The assessments will be shared in two distributions to make for easier reading.
This first distribution will include myself, James Wilson, Melanie Wilson, Bruce Boyd, Jim Hanna, Travis Ensign and Randy Mott.
The second (to be posted on 2-26-19) will be Terri Sloyer, Camzin Martin, Colby Blomstrom, Leo Guglielmi and Cathy Walker and Lindsay Pace.
Being able to serve and help others inside the gym, outside the gym, and at home, begins with this reflection.
Coach Josh (@joshuadvik)
Josh Wilson
Courtesy
This is a double edged sword and an extreme area for improvement for me. It is an example of how doing something well, but not completely, can bring you down.
Being a coach and leader demands courtesy. I have to show each and every person I touch and member of this community courtesy and understanding, no matter what the situation is. I have done that well and made that a priority.
However, I have allowed that focus on courtesy and diplomacy to have an impact on delivering on commitments and communicating clearly. I spend too much time and effort managing the communication and situations in front of me, and not enough time actually taking the actions necessary to ensure that whatever I said, agreed to, or helped others agree to, gets done. This results in a severe lack of courtesy being demonstrated in the long run with tangible results, and is an area I have to aggressively improve.
Integrity
This is an area extremely close to my heart. I value this above all else, because I didn’t early in my life. “Integrity has no need of rules.” – Albert Camus. For all my failings, this is the one area I have held to more than anything. Having integrity and doing the right thing, however hard, is what I have tried to do and hold those around me accountable to. 2018 was filled with life, coaching, and business decisions where this was essential. I will continue with this as I always have, even when it hurts.
No moral value, regardless how much we want it to be, is on an island. My aforementioned struggles with courtesy and execution have an impact on how my integrity is viewed, rightly or wrongly, and is why I am focused so intently on that this year. I have to be better with courtesy to protect the reputation of my integrity.
Perseverance
I have struggled with this. Daily I look at my community and my life and questioned how or why I should continue doing what I do when difficulties set in, particularly with people and their views, gossip, and opinions. While I have always moved forward and continue to serve, if I am fully transparent I have not always done so without doubt and with a cheerful heart. I have often doubted and had anger or resentment. One who perseveres takes account of the good they have or what good can come of their effort and continues forward…WITH a cheerful heart and hope. These are choices, and choices I haven’t always made. I will choose to persevere with the mindset and heart that produces love and hope instead of just grit.
Self-Control
I thank God daily for the gift and strength He has given me in this area. As leaders and as members of a great community, having self-control so we don’t cast doubt about our other values is extremely important. While I have lived this out in front of my community and in my life, I need to do better about holding those around me to a higher standard here. I have let too much lack of self-control by those around me go unchecked in many areas, and as a leader who understands its value, part of having the trait is doing a better job of teaching it.
Indomitable Spirit
A fancy way to say courage, this means getting something done no matter the obstacle and no matter how afraid or unsure you are. It is not the absence of fear, doubt, or roadblocks, but acting in spite of them. This is something I love immensely and live out by choice, but I have done a poor job of teaching and setting the fire in others.
Family
If there is one value I have failed in more in than courtesy, it has been family. Family must be THE priority, be it your immediate, extended, or box family. No exceptions. I have failed miserably the past two years with this, specifically with my brother, James. I have failed to show him the respect, appreciation, and basic courtesy he deserves as one of my biggest supporters as well as contributors to our community. I have rewarded that will little to no acknowledgement of his effort and I have marginalized him. Make no mistake, StoneCutter wouldn’t exist without the help he has and continues to give me daily. I was wrong and I have and will continue to change this.
Thank you James for all you have and will do. You’re the best of us.
Faith
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen”. – Hebrews 11:1
Whatever you believe or your world view, faith is essential.
Faith in each other, the process, and faith in your code is the life blood of a community.
I lost my faith and my life until my kids were born, and this year I have been given even more with a tremendous community and a tremendous family. I have to share this and help more people find the family, friends, health, and peace that I have found.
In summary, there are three areas where I have to pursue true growth and improvement to represent the values. I must be precise and efficient with commitments and communication to ensure that courtesy is shown to all in the right way. I must strive to teach and enable those around me to adhere to and internalize these values, especially the ones I am strong in. Finally, I have to represent the faith and family I have with the respect and value they deserve.
Thank you all for choosing this community and for the privilege of coaching and leading you. I am looking forward to everything we will do this year.
James Wilson
COURTESY – I feel courtesy is both the outward expression centered on how you treat people and their valuables and an inward feeling towards people and their valuables. I use valuables because this encompasses everything including their physical items, loved ones, and time. I feel a strength of mine is the outward expression of courtesy towards people and their valuables, but I struggle with my inward feelings of courtesy towards people. My example of this would be giving people the benefit of the doubt when something doesn’t initially appear to be as it seems. Without getting into all the reasons why this has become a struggle for me, this is an area of continual improvement for myself – slowly getting back to having as much inward courtesy as I do outward.
INTEGRETY – Integrity is one of the most important values on this list to me, because it’s presence, or lack thereof, is felt in all other areas. Integrity to me is doing what is right regardless of who is watching or what consequences it might have for yourself. “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, Nothing else matters” – Alan K. Simpson. This has always been a strength of mine in most areas and I take it very seriously. However, I have struggled with having integrity when it means hurting others. At times, we all must have the difficult conversations and a part of integrity is not backing down from those conversations in order to be able to help others and yourself learn and grow. I made it a priority to improve in this area during 2018 and will continue to pursue this goal into the New Year.
PERSERVERANCE – Perseverance to me is the ability to keep moving towards a goal even when the path is partially or completely blocked. I do believe that there are instances when perseverance can be a negative characteristic when we use it to continue down the wrong path. However, I feel this has always been a strength of mine when applied to positive situations. I would not have been able to get through the last 10 years of my life without this gift.
SELF CONTROL – To me this value must be viewed against the areas in our lives that we struggle with most. If you have never struggled with an issue before, then it doesn’t take much self-control to abstain from it. Without getting into the issues that I struggle with, this is an area that I need to improve upon in the coming years.
INDOMITABLE SPIRIT – This is an area where I probably have the most room for improvement. I have let life events and circumstances bring down my spirit and lead me into poor frames of mind. My strength of perseverance has always been able to see me through and mitigate the damaging effects this can have, but I must continually work to improve in this area.
FAMILY – Family, which to me includes both relatives and friends, has always been my North Star and kept me moving in the right direction. I am blessed with parents and an extended family who have shown me what it means to always be there for one another no matter what in an encouraging and supportive way. I remember going to Block Buster as a kid to rent a movie with my Dad and, during the checkout process, the cashier asked my Dad if he had a quote to share for a school project she had. He picked “The light that shines the farthest, shines the brightest at home” – C.T. Studd. I can’t think of a better quote to exemplify who my father is and who I was taught to be concerning my family. If the light we shine on the world is authentic, it will shine the brightest on those placed closest to us and, through them, that light will be ignited further and wider than we could ever imagine.
FAITH – My faith in Christ is the most important aspect of who I am as an individual. It helps strengthen my perseverance when my indomitable spirt is weak, and it keeps me striving to be better when I fail to be the man that I should be. My faith is the reason for my strengths in the other core values, and it is also the reason why I continue to strive to be better in the areas where I fall short.
Melanie Wilson
Perseverance
I believe this is an area I excel in. If I set my mind to
something, nothing stops me. As most everyone knows, I had a baby 7 months ago.
I had decided I wanted to breastfeed, or at least attempt to do so. I knew very
little about breast feeding, so when I interviewed pediatricians I asked them
of their knowledge & how they offer support to new moms with it. I was very
wary about breastfeeding. When I had Emmett, at first latch I knew I would do
everything in my power to be successful at exclusively breast feeding for a
year. However, I struggled with EXTREME pain for thirteen weeks until his
tongue & lip tie was diagnosed & fixed. His ties caused me not only
excruciating pain every time he would latch, but also caused clogged ducts
which caused mastitis twice, & supply issues. Around 8 weeks I noticed when
I was away from him I was not pumping enough to offset what he was drinking. I
went back to work at 5 weeks & knew absolutely nothing about pumping. I am
in marketing & work out of my car. I have had to pump on the road, while
driving, between client visits. This is especially fun, let me tell you. No,
it’s not! It’s humiliating. Pumping in the car, trying to be modest, while
doing something so revealing. I have dealt with pain, supply issues, scheduling
demands with a promotion…everything under the sun has been thrown my way to
make breastfeeding a struggle. But we are going on 7 months strong with no
supplementation with formula. I also have over 1500oz frozen! My efforts were
rewarded when Emmett got his first cold over Christmas. Within 4 days his
respiratory issues were mostly cleared up, & I believe this is a direct
result of the antibodies found in breast milk. I have been able to juggle
breastfeeding with a full time job, my efforts in the gym, keeping my household
running with two other kids. It has not been easy, but worth it seeing my son
grow & flourish with what I have provided him.
I also persevere in the gym. I have discovered after having
my son how much self-worth I place in my physical performance. I have
questioned my worth because of what I can no longer do when I work out. It has
brought me to tears & caused me to doubt myself on a very primitive level.
Sometimes I feel worthless. I feel like my body has betrayed me (especially the
first few months after having my son). There are days where I feel so
discouraged I don’t even want to go to the gym. I struggle constantly to not
think about what I can’t do. To not be able to do half of what I could do is
sometimes demoralizing. BUT I just keep plugging forward, one foot in front of
the other, figuratively speaking. I’ll never forget one workout I did when I
was about 5 weeks post-partum. It was a burpee EMOM. I felt SO SLOW doing the
burpee’s. I could barely do 10 in a minute. But I just kept telling myself, 6
months from now, you’ll be glad you kept moving. Just. Don’t. Stop. I kept
thinking. And I didn’t. I keep showing up. I keep trying. Even when it feels
like I’ll never get back to where I was, much less to where I wanted to be
before then. To show up when it feels pointless or makes you want to cry is the
epitome of perseverance in my opinion.
An area I seriously lack in is self-control. I wear my
emotions on my sleeve. This is a complete lack of control. I let my emotions
get the best of me daily, sometimes hourly. My poor husband is often the brunt
of this. Those of you that know us closely think I do so much for him to
support him & care for him & our family, but what you don’t see is how
much he lifts me up & helps me with my emotions. He takes my outburst in
stride & helps me sort through my BIG emotions to an appropriate response.
Without him, they would cause me to falter much more frequently. If I had
better self-control, I would catch these emotions before they alter my mood,
& before I show them to the world. My family would be better off if I had
better self-control because I would not be so stressful to be around. I would
lead by example of what to do instead of what not to do. This affects my
stepdaughter most, when she really just needs loving understanding. I react on
emotion when I need to take a step back & think about what I want to
accomplish before reacting in a situation. I think my lack of self-control
makes me not very much fun to coach, either. Who wants to coach a grown adult
who throws a temper tantrum during a workout (double unders-need I say more?)?
It’s embarrassing at times.
Bruce Boyd
Needless to say, 2018 was truly a transformational year for the Boyd’s. We never envisioned that our lives would be profoundly affected that first day when we walked through Stonecutter’s doors. While thankful that most of our previous CrossFit family remained intact and joined us at Stonecutter, we were also blessed to forge numerous new and impactful relationships with existing Stonecutter coaches and its members.
Not only has our physical fitness improved considerably, but more importantly, we have
gained a wonderful collection of friends we now count as our family.
Sheryl and I each crossed the Stonecutter threshold over 240 times during 2018. Each
time we left as better athletes and human beings thanks to the amazing and dedicated coaching staff and its supporting members.
It has been both a privilege and honor to serve as a member of the Athlete Council. This group serves a valuable role as a conduit between its membership and management for purposes of gym planning, growth, grievances and improvement all within our core
values. As an active member of the council, we felt it important to reflect on our strengths and shortcomings during this past year in an attempt to improve during 2019.
With that said, I felt that I effectively demonstrated our core value of Courtesy … to show kindness, humility, good sportsmanship, politeness and respect to all people. As an elder member, I will continue to lead by example by constantly encouraging and supporting our members, welcome and assist new members, help others put up equipment post WOO, assist in keeping our box dean and orderly, and make sure we have clean sweat towels!
With regard to my shortcomings, in 2019 twill strive to improve on our core
value of Faith. In whatever goals or challenges we may have, achieving them requires faith. Whether the goals are physical, personal or spiritual, my faith needs to be
committed and unwavering at all times.
I look forward to an exciting and memorable year with my Stonecutter family.
Jim Hanna
As a leader in our family business, I am constantly persevering ways and strategies to allow our company to excel and separate ourselves from our competitors. Our business involves requiring skilled training, and like many other skilled trades, there just aren’t many people applying and entering into our unique skilled workforce. So, our industry, is having to adapt to the lack of workforce, while still providing quality end product and meeting today’s industry standards. Thankfully, I am fascinated by logistics and innovative technology. Through my perseverance, I am able to develop and implement new solutions allowing our company to continue to excel and grow in our developing industry. Through my determination, I am hopeful that when the industry applies new standards adapting, we’ll have the right tools and procedures in place to lead the industry, rather than react to it.
A man’s greatest strength, is also his greatest weakness. While I appreciate the experience and knowledge gained through time and research to develop ideas and strategies, during these times I often lose self-control. I become so consumed in the details involved with the process of how things will work, I find myself trying to polish the tiniest details and worrying about how we will control and respond to all the “what if’s”. These small, often still unknown, details become the biggest problems, and I allow myself to lose focus of the goal. Rather than controlling my thoughts and emotions, I suddenly become so frustrated and discouraged, I begin to think “why am I even doing this”, and, slowly, the value of what I am pursuing begins to diminish. While stepping away to detach, I get called on to resolve more urgent critical situations, other developments occur, while the time, energy, and effort spent, all sit in a file until I “come back to it”. What an irony, my failure to complete something resulting from the lack of self-control, while trying to control too much.
Travis Ensign
Self-Control
Throughout my entire life, I have always been pretty even-killed on just about whatever life throws at me, trying to just be logical and do what makes the most sense. I have never had an issue with overdoing much of anything [i.e. alcohol, food, partying, spending, etc.]. I don’t brawl, I find my workout however I can to stay fit, and try and not to let emotion overrule what logic tells me. If I need to get something done, I get it done. If I need to leave something alone, for the most part… i can let things go. It has been a good quality to rely on.
Family
A lot of times, I suck. You name it, I want to be much better at it, and whether it is something that currently needs improving or not. I am too selfish, and am learning that I am not always [more like rarely] right. My goal is to become the absolute BEST father and husband, every day that I can be. To make conscious efforts toward that every day, so that the unconscious/automatic behavior is unquestionably there and positive.
Randy Mott
I know what we see in ourselves is sometimes different from what others see in us. I hope that my assessment matches what others see in me.
I find that courtesy is one of my greater assets. I believe that I am very easy going and get along with most people. For me, it is easy to be nice, even to folks that I don’t know. I was never a top athlete in school. I never hit cleanup or the game winning shot. But, I was hit with most people. I seemed to get along with everyone. Still today, I find that I focus on people’s strengths. I find that being kind and helpful comes easy.
As far as weaknesses, perseverance is one that I battle with. I like to participate in a lot of activities. I find that being committed to only one is very difficult. In the past, I have set weightlifting goals, but quit to chase a last minute trail run. This lack of commitment or perseverance does allow me to do whatever I want whenever I want, but it does leave me with a growing list of unmet/unfinished goals.