Diablo Coach Jordan, 2011-2019, and his wife, Katie stopped by on Saturday to say hello and introduce us to the newest member of the family! Jordan was a bellwether coach for many years at Diablo – opening at 5AM and coaching till late morning. He taught many of us our first Double Under, Pull-up, Bar or Ring Muscle up and more. Jordan & Katie are true “Diablo Family” – they met at Diablo, married and now have a beautiful daughter together. They’re also now the 3rd generation owners of their family steel supply business in Sacramento!
“If I quit now, I will soon be back to where I started. And when I started I was desperately wishing to be where I am now.”
AN INCREDIBLE STORY OF INTENTION & SERENDIPITY One of my favorite “self-help” books is Dr. Wayne Dyer’s “The Power of Intention”. In his book, Dr. Dyer (1940-2015) describes intention as a force in the universe that allows the act of creation to take place – as long as you remain committed, work hard, take care of yourself, help others, keep an open mind, and remain aware. Some skeptics chaffed at the mystical elements of intention, but I’ve had some pretty cool opportunistic experiences in my life that make me a believer, like this one:
On Thursday morning I was sitting in the lobby while Kim was working at the front desk. Our regular Fed Ex driver, Myra, pulled up and unloaded two cases of FitAid and walked them into the lobby. Our team is impressed with Myra because she usually shoulder carries the heavy, awkward cases into the storage room for us. On Thursday, I offered her a coffee and she said “sure”, which took me by surprise because our delivery drivers are very busy and never accept. When I told her that FedEx must love her because of her strength and hard work, she replied, “its a hard job, but the pay is not great and there are no benefits – and I have two young children.” She added: “I’d really like to work as a police officer.”
I responded: “well, Kim’s husband is a SF Police Officer, so she knows what you need to do.” I also ran to my office and retrieved a flyer from the Berkeley Police and told her to reach out because they are hiring right now – and the pay and benefits are amazing. As she was looking at the flyer, Kim’s husband, Mel, walked into the lobby. He asked Myra about her interests and what she has done so far to prepare. She lives in Vacaville and wants to work there, but Mel encouraged her to start in SF where it might be easier to get started and trained (and get paid while training).
While Kim and I were enjoying the fortuitous coincidence of Mel’s arrival, member John Liu, a retired Lieutenant with the Fremont PD walked into the lobby and joined the conversation. He told Myra that he counsels young candidates on the hiring process for local Police Departments and would gladly provide her FREE consultation to help. It was amazing. She was awestruck. And that’s when Jerad Kissack, retired Police Officer, walked into the lobby and joined in! Jerad shared his insight, experiences and encouragement as a career Officer.
After 10 minutes of discussion, Myra revealed that she was leaning toward the County Sheriff’s Department so that she could get started in the jail system. At this point, you might not believe this story, but Kim (and the others) will back me up. As Myra talked about becoming a Sheriff, Diablo’s Sean Reifel walked into the lobby. I laughed out loud and said excitedly: “Here’s your Sheriff!”. Even better, Sean got just as excited and asked Myra for her contact information so he could help her make a connection with the Department because they are looking for candidates.
One hard-working, friendly, delivery driver with a dream of being a police officer stopped for a quick cup of coffee and walked out with 4 amazing connections, multiple job leads and new-found conviction that her dream is going to be reality. Why? Because her visible display of strength & character and her friendly demeanor provoked an invitation for a cup of coffee and conversation. Equally important, she verbalized her dream (her intention) which invited us to help.
Finally, “helping” Myra required no effort on our part. All of us: Kim, Mel, Jared, John, Sean and I were really happy to help and felt very good about it after she left. As for Myra, she paid us all back with her text message to me later that day: “4 great cops and 2 more amazing people that believe in me.” Diablo’s community is amazing.
Work hard. Be nice. Help others. Share your dreams. Good things happen.
** DIABLO TRACK DAY: SATURDAY, SEP 30!! ** On Saturday, Sep 30, our facility is closed in order to host a certification event: Coaching Large Body Athletes. Instead, ALL CLASSES will be held at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill on the Athletic Track. Best way to get there is Viking Drive and park in DVC Lot 1. The workout of the day is: 5k Run. Diablo Coaches will be on hand to warm up, instruct and time your 5k – a CrossFit classic benchmark.
OCT 14 – FALL CLASSIC – WEIGHTLIFTING EVENT – ALL MEMBERS INVITED! Coach Carrie and Amy have put together Diablo CrossFit’s FIRST EVER, USA WEIGHTLIFTING SANCTIONED EVENT to be held at Diablo on Sat, Oct 14th from 11A – 5PM.
VETERANS DAY HERO WORKOUT: “CHAD” – On November 11th, Diablo CrossFit will join the CrossFit & GoRuck communities to do the Hero Workout: “Chad”.
PODCAST SCHEDULE
- TUE, SEP 26 at 9:30A PT: #54: NUTRITION TIME! With Jason Dehler & Gwen Holtan
- LAST WEEK: #53 – We Called It: The Games are Going to Texas. Tim’s Top Secret for Success
THE WEEK AHEAD:
Sep: Calendar & Newsletter. This Week:
- Mon: Amrap 3-6-9m Intervals (1m rest) – 12/18c Bike, 9 Pullups, 30 DUs, 6 DB Press Left, 6 DB Press Right #35/50
- Tue: Snatch 5×1. Metcon: Tabata Row
- Wed: Amrap 15m – 8 BMUs, 4 WW, 200m Run
- Thu: Back Squat. Metcon: 3RFT – 12 DB FS, 9 DB Devil Press, 100m FC
- Fri: 4RFT – 24/28c Bike, 18 Abmat Situps, 12 Box Jumpovers
- Sat: 5k RUN! (At Diablo Valley College Track! Gym is CLOSED)
- Sun: “Ingrid” – 10RFT: 3 Snatches, 3 Burpees over Bar #95/135
CRAIG’S LIST:
- Podcast: Mining Our Way To Net Zero – Dr. Simon Michaux, Associate Professor at Geometallurgy at Geological Survey of Finland. We simply do not have efficient access to enough minerals on earth in order to achieve a clean energy future. This is simply a fact of nature. This podcast was incredibly enlightening – and kinda scary at the same time. Mining minerals needed for solar & battery energy is a massive effort that in and of itself consumes massive amounts of energy. We shouldn’t throw in the towel, we just have to innovate and diversify energy sources better.
- IG/Research: Rhonda Patrick @foundmyfitness – Exercise Outperformed Metformin in combating Type2 Diabetes!! I’ve heard Doctors tell me the same. This is remarkable and another validation for exercise and healthy nutrition!
- FUN: “Llama Llama” Rap. This was the funniest & heartwarming thing I saw on the internet this week. I voted for LL Cool J.
Make it an awesome week!
Craig
