Accomplish Anything: What CrossFit Taught Me About Chasing a Lifelong Dream

CrossFit founder Greg Glassman is not shy about making extraordinary claims.

He once suggested that at the beginning of a client's CrossFit journey, you could ask them to write down all their goals, seal them in an envelope, and leave it unopened for a year. After twelve months of CrossFit training, you could open that envelope and discover that every goal had been achieved.

And he wasn't just talking about fitness goals.

Improve your marriage. Get a promotion. Change careers. Get off antidepressants or diabetes medication. Reverse osteoporosis. Buy your dream home. Become a better violinist.

Anything.

It's a pretty outrageous claim. But after two decades of CrossFit, I've witnessed just about all of those things happen.

Well, maybe not the violin thing.

I did attend a graduation ceremony at UBC's School of Music for an Empower member who played bass guitar. Boy, was she good. But violin? Haven't witnessed that one yet.

The point Glassman was making is that what you develop through CrossFit doesn't stay in the gym. The discipline, resilience, confidence, and willingness to tackle difficult things carry over into every other part of your life.

I've experienced that firsthand, and this year CrossFit helped me achieve something I've dreamed about since childhood.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

More Than Physical Fitness

When I started CrossFit, it was in support of my judo dreams.

Not only did CrossFit training enable my participation in the 2008 World Masters Judo Championships in Brussels, it extended my competitive judo career by about eight years. Today, a decade since my retirement, I can still get out and roll with the guys once per week and mostly hold my own.

And yes, CrossFit has made me fitter, stronger, healthier, and more resilient along the way. Better posture, better body composition, and all those other wonderful side effects that are nice to have but were never really my primary goal.

But this isn't another article about the physical benefits of CrossFit. I'm sure you've heard all that before, and if you do CrossFit, you've experienced them yourself.

I'm talking about something else.

Because the longer I've trained, the more I've come to appreciate that some of CrossFit's greatest benefits have nothing to do with how much weight you can lift or how fast you can run.

CrossFit teaches you to show up when you don't feel like it. To attempt things you aren't particularly good at. To fail, recover, and try again. To do hard things even when you're afraid.

And once you've developed those habits in the gym, there's no reason to leave them there.

A Dream That Had Nothing to Do With Fitness

A few years ago, I sat down and asked myself to come clean with it.

If I could wave a magic wand and make every one of my dreams come true—and I'm talking about the frills here, the fun personal stuff, not the essential priorities like parenthood, marriage, and health—what crazy accomplishments would I want to achieve?

Third on my list was CrossFit Games Masters champion.

Second was world masters judo champion.

But first?

Become a published author.

That's a dream I've had for as long as I can remember.

So how'd life steer me off that path? Well, that's a story in and of itself. Life is a tangled web.

But the question we're answering today is how CrossFit helped me become a better writer.

What a Writer Taught a CrossFit Coach

It started with Empower's resident writer, Soprano.

His dedication to fitness is inspiring. I've watched his journey working with Coach Motor consistently every week for years, and I've witnessed his performance improving, most recently evidenced on September's Personal Bests Board.

And watching him, I had a realization.

If commitment and consistency were all it took for a writer to succeed in the gym, then maybe with similar commitment and consistency, a CrossFit coach could succeed at writing.

Would I ever be as good as Soprano, who has dedicated many years to his craft? No. But just like he's not competing with me in the gym, I'm not competing with him on the page.

We're each just trying to be the best we can, given the time we have to dedicate to our pursuits.

With that mindset, I started writing 1,000 words per day.

Every day.

And here's where the grit I developed through CrossFit paid off.

For eleven years, I completed every CrossFit workout programmed. Sick, injured, busy, vacationing—it didn't matter. No excuses. I got it done.

All I had to do was apply that same consistency to writing.

Sounds simple, right?

Give Yourself Permission to Suck

Of course, consistency is only part of the equation. You also have to be comfortable not being very good. Because the truth about any new endeavour is that you're going to suck until you don't.

CrossFit is excellent preparation for this uncomfortable reality.

It draws from so many disciplines: weightlifting, rowing, running, swimming, gymnastics, to name a few. Olympians spend their careers mastering a single discipline. CrossFit requires us to spend years developing basic competency across many.

And just when you think you're getting somewhere, they throw in something like pistols, legless rope climbs, or triple-unders to expose a whole new set of incompetencies.

After twenty years, I'm still discovering things I'm not good at.

CrossFit has taught me to tolerate that feeling. More importantly, it's taught me not to let it stop me.

To thrive in CrossFit, I had to cultivate a mindset of just getting in and getting it done. I had to give myself permission to suck. It doesn't matter what my score on the board is. The victory is in showing up and putting in the work.

I've applied exactly the same mindset to writing.

Some days, a thousand words come easily. Other days, they're a struggle. I don't judge myself on the quality of those words. The win is getting them on the page.

Many days I'm not brilliant. Most days, in fact. Much of what I write will not, and should not, ever see the light of day.

But there are a lot of days in a year, and every now and then, something spills out that's better than average.

Just like lifting weights, the more you write, the better you get. Creativity is a muscle you develop. So is word craft.

Oh, I haven't arrived yet. But looking back, I can already see how much my writing has improved in just a couple of short years.

And looking back at my twenty-year CrossFit journey, where I am today is so far removed from where I started that it's difficult to believe I'm the same person.

Well, I suppose in a sense, I'm really not. And that's the power of consistent effort.

The Courage to Do Hard Things

These days I belong to a writing community on Substack, where I often hear about how poor health interferes with writers' work.

And I bless CrossFit for giving me the physical fitness required to support a daily writing practice.

At the end of the day, all work, even the stuff you do seated in front of a laptop, is physical work. If you don't take care of your body, eventually it will limit your ability to perform.

But writing is one thing. Submitting your writing for publication is quite another.

The fear of judgement and rejection is real. Putting something you've created out into the world and inviting strangers to decide whether it's any good? That's uncomfortable.

Fortunately, CrossFit has given me plenty of practice being uncomfortable.

I've finished dead last in a CrossFit event on the stadium floor in front of hundreds of spectators at the CanWest Games.

I've been crushed by workouts, physically and mentally.

I've shown up to compete knowing full well that I wasn't going to win, and sometimes wondering whether I'd even finish.

But I showed up anyway.

In CrossFit, I go out and compete. I give it my best and enjoy the process. Some days I perform better than others. To date, I've never stood on the podium.

That hasn't discouraged me from participating. And that's the lesson I needed to bring to my writing.

You don't have to be the best to participate. You don't have to be guaranteed success to make the attempt.

You just have to be willing to put yourself out there.

Fifty Attempts. Three Victories.

So this year, in 2026, I made submitting stories my CrossFit competition.

Instead of worrying about the podium, I set my sights on showing up.

And boy, did I.

I've lost track of my submission count, but so far this year I'd estimate it at over fifty. Most stories were rejected. A couple made the shortlist and received kind words of encouragement.

But three stories received acceptance letters.

That's three published stories. Published and paid! A childhood dream fulfilled.

How cool is that?

For as long as I can remember, becoming a published author has been my greatest personal ambition. And this year I've succeeded three times.

So far. I have more submissions pending.

And the most remarkable part is that the very qualities that helped me get there were developed doing something that, on the surface, had absolutely nothing to do with writing.

Showing up consistently. Accepting that I wouldn't always be good. Learning from failure. Facing the fear of judgment. Putting in the work without any guarantee of a reward.

All lessons I learned through CrossFit.

What Are You Training For?

People come to CrossFit for all sorts of reasons.

Some want to lose weight or build muscle. Some want to stay healthy and independent as they age. Others want to be better at a sport, keep up with their kids, or simply feel more capable in their everyday lives.

Those are all excellent reasons to train.

But I think there's something even more powerful happening when you commit yourself to doing difficult physical things.

Every time you tackle a challenging workout, learn a new skill, or achieve something you once thought was beyond your abilities, you're developing more than physical fitness.

You're building confidence in your ability to overcome obstacles.

You're learning that progress doesn't require perfection, only persistence.

And you're discovering that the limits you once accepted might not be limits at all.

What you choose to do with those lessons outside the gym is up to you. For me, it meant finally pursuing a dream I'd carried since childhood.

No, I'm not saying you need CrossFit to become a writer. But I did.

The courage, discipline, and mental fortitude I was lacking were forged in the gym. And once again, CrossFit has made my life better in ways I never could have anticipated.

So I'll leave you with a question.

What's something you've always wanted to accomplish but haven't yet found the courage, confidence, or consistency to pursue?

Maybe it's time to find out what you're capable of.

As thrilled as I am by my progress so far this year, I have so much more planned.

Wait until you see what I do next!