I Know You Are Tired...
The other day, Jeff and I went to our Saturday morning boxing class. There are different instructors, and each have their own ways of running the class, instructing, and motivating us. That day, we entered not knowing what to expect because we had a new instructor. Najeeb, like all the instructors we have had so far, was awesome. However, you could not come to class and slack; he made that very clear. In between rounds he would occasionally yell, “How are we doing class?” and he had set an expectation for how we would respond. We were to shout out a high energy “Yeah!” when he asked. If we chose to be weak and lifeless with our response, there was a punishment that he had been clearly laid out… burpees. Apparently, we all hated the thought of burpees enough to muster up a great shout each time so we could avoid that consequence.
We had just entered our twelfth and final round. The sound of people hitting their heavy bags was getting a little softer as we were collectively starting to reach that point of exhaustion. And then we heard him shout out, “Guys, I know you are tired. From the bottom of my heart, I have to tell you, I DON’T care. You need to finish strong, so push!” Man…really? But the intensity in the room picked up and you could hear the thuds on the heavy bags getting louder as we burned out for the last part of the class. To me his statement made me laugh because his purpose was to push us to be better. He was advocating for us. But what happens when we are tired, and we face the devil?