Finding your quiet in the din
I mentioned previously that Miss 5 went to crossfit kids during the school holiday period. If you saw Miss 5 during one of these sessions I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me that she hated it, because Miss 5 does have a tendency to hang at the back of the pack, arms folded across her chest looking forlorn.
However as soon as she gets outside of the box she breaks out into a huge smile while she animatedly explains all the new exercises she did that day, complete with a demonstration if you look even remotely confused over her explanation.
You see, Miss 5 is an introvert and crossfit by its very nature is set up for the extroverts in the world.
Extroverts thrive in the company of others; they love the noise, the competition and the screams of encouragement as they go for a PB. I’ve had people ask “is it really like on the TV? do people crowd around and cheer the slow ones on?” and the answer is yeah they do. I personally hate it when people circle around me and cheer. I much prefer to hear “Go Julz” from across the other side of the room and that’s because I too am an introvert.
It surprises most people to hear that I’m naturally shy. My husband even argues with me over this fact, he is adamant that I am not. However it doesn’t change the fact that when I enter a new environment I tend to stay on the periphery of things until I feel like I have been accepted into the fold, then I seem to take on the Mother Hen role. 😉
I recall having a conversation with Kat who coached Miss 5 where she exclaimed “Nothing distracts that kid, she listens intently and she won’t do a movement unless she knows how to do it correctly”
That didn’t surprise me in the slightest because according to Olsen Laney the dominant brain pathways introverts use is one that allows you to focus and think about things for a while, so introverts are geared toward intense study and developing expertise. To put it simply introverts would rather be an expert in one thing than try and do everything.
Which is why I was so overwhelmed when I started crossfit. There was just so much to learn and my efforts were constantly scattered. The outcome was I got depressed, lost my confidence, made very little if any progress and wanted to quit this stupid crossfit palava.
So I finally decided to work with my personality traits. Firstly introverts have somewhat of a laser beam focus so I picked 2 things to work on and I figured when I sorted those out I would move down the list. The outcome?
I finally started making real progress!
Although crossfit may be an extroverts dream environment it doesn’t mean to say that us quieter types can’t get in there and leave our mark.
Till next time
