I don’t even know where to begin.

This has become one of those blog posts where I have wrote and deleted the first paragraph over 5 times. 5 Timers are special posts. You all don’t know them as 5 Timers but they are usually the ones that turn into me going off the rails in one way or another, like having conversations in Swedish with myself. 5 Timers are ones I just can’t get right at the beginning because I have the body of the writing done but the usual 8th grade English tricks of the trade aren’t working to get that first paragraph off the ground. So here we are, into the 6th rendition of this post, and all I have are these 6 stupid sentences and a picture of Clark Griswold.

I am Clark Griswold in every sense of the man, both real and imagined. Perhaps I am missing some aspects of the real man, like putting a down payment on the pool I have to buy for my ungrateful family which leads me to having a soul sucking job that inches me closer to suicide at 55 years old every single day. I wish I had a Cousin Eddie, and bowls of eggnog just sitting out all day. Where me and Clark mirror each other is what Christmas does to our psyche, our emotions, and how much we love decorating outside of houses. He has me in skills though.

It usually starts the day after Thanksgiving. The stress. Black Friday burns in my real and imagined calendar once the weather starts cooling down. It is the day that states I can no longer ignore the most important time of year for me, the time of year I love so much it gives me tear inducing anxiety. This year the tears happened on Thanksgiving night. It was a bad start.

See, Christmas to me becomes a season of expectations that ultimately cannot be met. I will not spend enough time with people, I will not watch enough movies, I will not eat enough dinners in enough decorated restaurants that allow me to escape reality for an hour or two. It is all impossible. Like my favorite character in my favorite Christmas movie, I cling to every moment from Friday after Thanksgiving like it is going to have profound changes on all parts of my life, like the Christmas season itself is going to right all wrongs.

It is the falsity of this last part that made this season the best one I have had since adulthood. With the tears that came down through an anxiety ridden hour of loneliness on Thanksgiving night went all the anxiety of living up to a Christmas that is unattainable. It was never a conscious decision, it was just an understanding that life isn’t about moments that are fabricated in our consciousness but rather moments that happen. Instead of pegging days on my calendar that had to be filled with Christmas I just made it a point to get a little cheer in every day, whether it be drink a Christmas drink or drive a different way home to soak up the lights. Little things to help make the unavoidable day less about fulfilling all the needs that were yet to be met and more about what it is : just another 24 hours to spend with people special to me and a chance to show them.

We all have a bit of Clark Griswold in us every day of the year. Whether it be Christmas, a friend/family wedding, a yearly event, 4th of July, birthdays, we all have moments and events that we hold onto and build up that the older we get are more difficult to recreate in the picture of years past. We get older, we have more responsibility, more people/things to please, yet the day still only has 24 hours in it. This year survival was about accepting and adapting, taking control of this particular set of standards surrounding this particular holiday season.

Maybe this post is just me venting or sharing, or maybe it has something to do with fitness. I still am not sure and I could delete this whole thing before I finish. What I do know is that life keeps chugging along and takes no prisoners. It’s either keep up or be left in the dust. Regardless of what 2015 has in store your health and happiness is paramount to your enjoyment. Being fit and healthy makes any and all situations better. There is no excuse that can trump your setting of a schedule and sticking to it, your setting of a nutrition plan and making it happen, both of which will give you anything and everything you want in the upcoming year.

This leads me to one of my classic points where I ask the question about where you will be in the future. What will 2015 hold for you? Christmas is 364 days away. Where will you be at that moment? How will you perceive yourself? How will you perceive your year?

If ever there is a time to take something I say seriously it is now : you have the power to shape all parts of your existence. Every single moment, every single second, from the time you open your eyes to the time you close them, and each day has the power to shape you. Use it. Use each moment, use each day, starting immediately, and shape what you want your New Year to be. Set the clock. Get up early. Hit the morning class and come back at night. Do extra squatting. Avoid the cream in the coffee at Starbucks, shit avoid the Starbucks all together and see what happens to your bank account. BRING A FRIEND TO LANDO, ask a friend out on a date. Set the clock. Get up early.

2015 is a new year. It will be different than 2014 in every moment. Be ready. Accept and adapt. Do not cling to the moments of the past but rather create the moments on your own terms. If you have that thing, that party or that date or that family time, make it a point that it is the greatest one of all time. 2015 should be the best one yet because YOU are ready for it and YOU dictate what goes down. Set the clock. Get up early.

Be prepared for greatness.

CROSSFIT LANDO is CLOSED Friday, December 26. Get this home WOD in to start setting the stage for YOUR 2015 already. We will be open for all classes on Saturday, December 27.

WOD: 6 Rounds
35 Air Squats
Run 400m
25 Pushups

THE PROGRAM HERE