Ah, wouldn’t everything be better if we were all just a little more aware?
The classic 5 color codes of mental awareness is a great place to start.
The basic idea is that, on a spectrum of white to black (stopping by yellow, orange, and red) you can calibrate your level of mental engagement to the needs of the situation to get optimum performance.
Spoiler alert: it turns out that yellow is the best mental place to be for the majority of your waking hours. Being in yellow means: that you are observant and aware of your surroundings, not particularly keyed up or tee’d off about anything, and capable of taking in information.
Now let’s talk about my gym.
Near the entrance there is a simple white dry-erase board.
On that board is a lot of GOOD information!
There is an outline of 1 or more workout plans with personalized modifications. It usually even specifies lift-specific warm-ups. There are key dates and events and reminders.
There is even a section devoted to Speech of the Week!
You know what happens WAY too often?
Someone will say something like: “are we have a workout on Memorial Day?” or
"Is there a group session the day after thanksgiving?” or
“How many reps did so and so get at the kettlebell competition?”
Well. You guessed it.
The answers are almost always up on the board. “Teach a man to fish……”
So get out there (in here?) and practice some board awareness today! You just might find out something useful.
P.S. For some things, like May Madness or post-match reports, we have to create special scoreboards or spreadsheets. They can be found on the wall. Same concept.
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