I make plenty of mistakes. 

I’ve owned CrossFit Hutt Valley for over two years now, and I can’t think of a week that has gone by during that period where I haven’t made at least one, if not more, mistake.

Some of them are small, so much so that people never see or feel the effect of them.

Others not so much. One big mistake I made was that I spent a whole year coaching each class, every day, all whilst holding down a 9-5 office job.

In the beginning, my naivety of the workload to come allowed me to think that it seemed easy.

This getting up at 0500 and going to bed at 2230-2300 would be a sinch.

History is littered with examples of leaders surviving on 4-6 hours sleep and being super successful.

I just needed to be stoic, get the old stiff upper lip working and staunch the process out.

How wrong I was!

As the cumulative effects of this reduced sleep pattern, combined with the mental stress of wanting to coach the pants off every member, became more apparent, it was increasingly difficult for me to see I needed to change how I was doing things.

A few months in and my mood had changed, my ability to deal with irritation and stress was waning and my interpersonal skills were nosediving. I began disliking and, even at times, resenting the decision I had made to change role from coach to owner (I’ll be the first to hold my hand up and say, during this period, that I undoubtedly hurt peoples feelings and damaged relationships. For this I apologise.).

So, how did I dig myself out of this hole?

I was fortunate enough to be pointed in the direction of a business mentor, and through some personal review, and a few self-administered uppercuts, I started to redress the imbalance I had caused myself. 

The result of this is that I’m very proud to say we now have four very enthusiastic and well-trained coaches.

This means I get to have a little more sleep, and our members gain the benefit of having not one, but 5 experienced coaches to help them achieve their health and fitness goals.  

That’s the beauty of mistakes.

If you use the experience to get better, to improve and to grow, they weren’t really mistakes at all, rather they were lessons learned on how to get to where you are going.