F3 Knoxville

Category: Asylum AM

Founding AO

It Isn’t Wasted Time

THE SCENE: Partly cloudy, temps in high 50’s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Plank Jacks, 10 Cherry Pickers, 10 Squat Jumps, 10 Rockettes, 10 Little Baby Arm Circles Forward and 10 Backward, Michael Phelps
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Northeast Corner of Admin Bldg.  Do 20 American Hammers.

We will next go along the road that semicircles around the admin bldg.  There will be cones along the way that will tell us what exercise to do and also tell us how to get to the next cone:

  • Cone 1:  Do 20 Iron Mikes (both feet equal 1).  Bernie Sanders to Cone 2.
  • Cone 2:  Do 20 Big Boy Sit-ups.  Bear Crawl to Cone 3.
  • Cone 3:  Do 20 Dive Bombers.  Sprint to Cone 4.
  • Cone 4:  Do 20 Star Jumps.  Then go down the stairs just past the bat cave.
  • Cone 5.  Do 20 Merkins.  Then run to pine cove area just below the top of Summit.
  • Cone 6.  Do 10 Burpees.  Run to roadway at top of Summit.
  • Cone 7.  Do 40 Baby Crunches.  Run to Cone 8.
  • Cone 8.  Do 20 Squats.  Hop to Cone 9.
  • Cone 9.  Do 20 Flutter Kicks (4 count).  Sprint to Cone 10 near the stop sign.
  • Cone 10. Do 20 Hello Dollies (4 ct).  20 Carolina Dry Docks.  20 Smurf Jacks.  10 Hand Release Merkins.  20 Bicycle Kicks (4 ct).  20 Squat Jumps.  20 Box Cutters.  20 Diamond Merkins.

Mosey to grassy decline on left side of road as one goes from stop sign to main park road.  We will do sevens starting with 1 Jump Squat at bottom of hill and 6 Burpees on top of hill.

Mosey to grassy area close to outdoor chapel.  We will do 20 tempo merkins.

Mosey to playground.  We will do elevens at benches starting with one bench dip and ten bench jumps.

Mosey to CMU pile.  Each man grabs a CMU.  We will do the following in cadence:  20 Overhead Presses, 20 Curls, 20 Rows.

Mosey to bottom of mini-cardiac.  We will Bernie to park sign then sprint the rest of the way to the AO.

MARY:
30 Merkins
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
17 Men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

F3 Message

Hebrews 11:8:  By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Matthew 3:12:  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

So you can get on with your search baby
And I can get on with mine
And maybe someday we will find
That it wasn’t really wasted time

            — The Eagles

When I was in college I, just like undergraduate and graduate students today, was required to do research projects for quite a few of my classes.  We didn’t have the internet back then.  By my years in graduate school we at least had made it past card catalogues and could search for books and journal articles that might be relevant for a topic by typing in a keyword on the computers provided at the library.  In so doing, the computer would list articles or books that might have that keyword in it.  We would then have to go find the book or journal article somewhere in the library to see if what was written in it did really apply to the topic we were researching.  Often times the information found did not apply.  This was particularly true when first starting the research on the project.  It was quite frustrating to spend hours of work on a project finding information that was not applicable.  By graduate school, I had come to accept the fact that for any research project I was going to have to spend hours of “wasted timed”, time I would spend roaming the floors and aisles of the library to come up with information that was not useful.  But, to quote the Eagles song, “it wasn’t really wasted time.”  It was necessary time.  To find what I needed, I had to separate the wheat from the chaff as alluded to in Matthew 3:12.  I had to find what was good for me (the information that applied) and put aside what was not (irrelevant information).

When one thinks about it, much of life is like this.  To receive our inheritance we must journey forward in faith, like Abraham, not quite knowing where we are going, heading down wrong turns and circling back to get on the right course. Some of you younger single guys may have the desire to find the “right” mate.  I certainly had that desire in my 20’s.  I dated a large variety of women, sometimes growing tired of the “dating scene”, breaking hearts and having my own heart broken in the process.  I wasn’t exactly separating the wheat from the chaff but I did have to find the right person for me.  And, in my 30’s, I finally found that person, one who has meant so much to me and made me a better man in the process.

My vocational career has not exactly been a road straight up a ladder.  It has been full of mishaps and struggle, and finally a decision to change my vocational course all-together, going to graduate school in psychology after I had already attained a law degree and practiced in that field for a period of time.  That period of time was not easy – it was full of anxiety and angst and I often felt like a failure.

Whether it is finding the right mate, job, friendships, place to live, or way to spend our time, we run into challenges and sometimes hit dead ends.  As a man in my sixties, I can see that the so-called floundering wasn’t wasted time.  It may have been had I given up and chose to ignore and not learn from my mistakes.  I can see that the dead ends were necessary and even helped me to grow.  How sweet it is to think that God has been there with me through it all.  Some of those moments when I was at my most depressed were times that I was speaking to God the loudest, yearning for him, reaching out to him for help.

In your journey, keep pushing forward, learn from your mistakes, and realize that God is there even when you don’t know where you are going.  If the road is confusing and seems impossible, it may just be that you are a complex man whose needs are not met easily.  My prayer for you is that some day you will look back on your younger years . . . although perhaps not without scars from your falls and lines on your face giving evidence to a history of some difficulties . . . and, be able to say that it wasn’t really wasted time.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Hooker’s sister, Molly, who is getting married to day, for Mr. Jinxy’s wife, Susan, whose surgery went well and who is recovering, for Helga and his wife as she has brain surgery this week, for Convoy and his family after the death of his father, for Doubtfire and his family after the death of his mother, for peace and love in the face of racism, and for those other brothers like Thunderstuck who have family members with cancer or who are ill.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Hardship Hill on October 3.

Double Ring of Fire and some hard work and sweat at the Asylum

THE SCENE: Slightly overcast, temps in the mid-80s and a bit muggy
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH 20 IC
Cherry Pickers 15 IC
Windmills 15 IC
Grady Corns 31 IC
Merkins 10 IC

THA-THANG:
I

Mosey to Hill west of stop sign
1. 15 Merkins – Bernie to next station
2.  15 BBS-   Run to next station
3.  20 Squats Bear Crawl to next station
 4.  20 American Hammers (4 ct) –Run

Rinse n repeat

Mosey to Tree at bottom of hill – divide across each cone
Cone 1 – 20 Hello Dollys (4ct) , Cone 2 – 20 Imperial Walkers (4ct), Cone 3 – 20 shoulder taps (4 ct)

Rinse and repeat
I minute Plank
Quick Ring of Fire – 1 merkin each
Mosey to Island
Partner up
Run Opposite direction.  When you meet within 6 feet, 5 Merkins , run again, 10 Merkins, run again – 15 merkins
Rinse and repeat – 5 Bobby Hurleys, 10 Bobby Hurleys, 15 Bobby Hurleys
Mosey to halfway up hill towards AO – One more Ring of Fire

MARY:

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Wayne Dyer- Power of Intention.
Need to separate from Ego.Move away from Ego dominance. Your free will can either move with universal spirit and its unfolding or away from it toward ego dominance. We do not create anything alone, we are all creatures with God. Our free will combines and redistributes whats already created
1. I am what I have. My possesions define me
1. I am what I do. My achievements define me
3. I am what others think of me. My reputation defines me
4. I am separate from everyone. My body defines me as alone
5. I am separate from all that is missing in my life. My life space is disconnected from my desires
6. I am separate from God. My life depends on God’s assessment of my worthiness

MOLESKIN:
Pray for @Jinxy’s wife who is having surgery
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill Obstacle build- supply pick up at Christmas Lumber on Kingston Pike ~ 3 pm friday and build at HHOR site in Kingston on Saturday starting at 9 am, need able bodies, skil saws, cordless drills and impact drivers. Let Sparkler know if you can come

CMU Shuffle

F3 Q – 9/14/2020

Asylum AO

0530-0615

[ The Scene ]

70s and dark – groggy but alive and well

[ Welcome/Disclaimer ]

  • Welcome to F3: Fitness – Fellowship – Faith
  • My name is Steam and I’m honored to be in your company and be your Q this morning
  • FNGs?
  • Couple of things before we begin:
    • (1) I am not a professional
    • (2) You’re here on your own volition
    • (3) If you need to modify anything we do this morning – feel free to do so as you need but push yourself and those around you.

[ Warm-o-Rama ]

(1) SSH – 10 x 4 IC

(2) Baby Arm Circles – 10 x 4 each side IC

(3) Imperial Walker – 10 x 4 IC

(4) Merkin – 10 x 4 IC

(5) Windmill – 10 x 4 IC

[ The Thang ]

(1) CMU 4 Corners

—HIM get CMUs—

—Move through corners clockwise—

  • Corner 1: 25 curls (1 count)

(Run up the hill — 10 V-Ups — run back to CMU — carry to next corner)

  • Corner 2: 25 chest presses

(Run up the hill — 10 V-Ups — run back to CMU — carry to next corner)

  • Corner 3: 25X4 Rocky Balboas on CMU 

(Run up the hill — 10 V-Ups — run back to CMU — carry to next corner)

  • Corner 4: 25 CMU swings

(Run up the hill — 10 V-Ups — run back to CMU — carry to next corner)

(10 count)

(2) CMU Lunges/Pull-ups

  • Men circle up with CMUs in the middle of the parking lot
  • 5 lunges with CMU on one shoulder or above head
    • Switch shoulders every 5 lunges
  • Run to Pav — execute 10 pull-ups
  • R & R until you reach the other curb
  • Recover with 25 Big Boy Sit-ups with your CMU when you’re done
  • Men take CMUs back and Charming leads PAX in 30×4 flutter kicks

(3) Nickel/Dime/Quarter x2

  • PAX mosey to playground
  • All PAX find a bench (all my benches)
  • Round 1
    • 5 Dips
      • 10 Box Jumps/Step-Ups
        •  25 1-leg squats on bench
  • Round 2
    • 5 1-leg squats on bench
      • 10 Dips
        • 25 box jumps/step-ups

 

  • BTTW back to the AO

[ Mary ]

  • Slow 25
    • 5×4 Flutter Kicks
    • 5×4 American Hammers
    • 5×4 LBCs
    • 5×4 Cockroaches
    • 5×4 Little LBCs

PAX stretch down to the ground – raise 1 vertebrae up at a time – execute some shoulder shrugs – done. Boom.

[ COT ]

  • # off – 16 + 4 Ruckers = 20
  • Name o Rama
  • FNGs – none 
  • BOM
  • I wanted to start the week off for us with a slap on the back and vote of confidence.

[ From the QSource  – by DREDD ]

  • Foundation4 (F4) — Leadership Development Process (LDP)

Here’s the chapter – worth the read.

1. Great Leaders Develop New Leaders

While leadership is critical to all groups, leaders are always in short supply in most groups because only a few groups employ a systematic Leadership Development Process (LDP = the process employed by a group to develop new leaders). What separates those few groups from the rest is simple: they are led by great leaders.

Great leaders are intent on leaving a legacy that will resound to their groups’ advantage long after they have gone. Knowing their leadership tenure is limited by human mortality, they get prepared for the expected event of their departure by developing new leaders. Because they cannot predict the precise time of their departure, they stay ready for the unexpected by ensuring that the leaders they develop are ready right now instead of sometime tomorrow. Great Leaders are constantly working themselves out of a job. 

Great Leaders develop new Leaders systematically, through an LDP that is tailored to the needs of the group they lead. They see this as a primary part of their responsibility as a leader, not something they also do if they can find the time.

For great Leaders, developing new leaders is leadership, of the highest caliber. 

2. The LDP has four steps: schooling, apprenticeship, opportunity and failure

Healthy communities, effective organizations, and dynamic teams each employ some form of an LDP that is periodically adjusted to suit their unique need for leaders and the manner by which they develop them. While every LDP reflects the purpose and character of the particular group in which it is housed, every useful process has a form of the same four components:

  • First, there is some kind of Schooling, the didactic instruction that the potential leader receives on the timeless fundamentals of leadership.
  • The second component is Apprenticeship, where the new leader is given the chance to develop the skills he learned from his Schooling  under the watchful eye of a more experienced Leader.
  • Third comes Opportunity, the chance for the growing leader to put what he has learned into practice under conditions where he is directly responsible for the outcome. While Schooling + Apprenticeship creates a Leader with the potential to be effective, Opportunity is the required element for the man’s skill to become kinetic and have actual impact on his group. 
  • The fourth component is Failure. A lizard uses its LDP to intentionally court minor disaster in order to fully develop its Leaders, because it is from Failure that Leaders learn the most. Success teaches far less because it does not isolate what works from what does not the way Failure does.

3. The LDP depends upon decentralized execution to a central purpose.

F3 is an organization whose purpose is to invigorate male community leadership. Not surprisingly, since our mission is leadership development itself, F3 needs a very deliberate LDP to be effective. However, because the organization is comprised of thousands of small teams that are not in proximity, that deliberate process cannot restrict the individual initiative and genius of its Leaders. We are absolutely dependent upon our great Leaders to be about the business of developing our new Leaders.The execution of the LDP is in their hands because it is their hands that are physically upon the new leaders. 

As  a result, we do not dictate the precise manner in which our Leaders are to execute F3’s LDP but rather encourage and focus them upon our central purpose. They must know the “why” of the LDP before they can perform it’s “what.” Also, they must be affirmed in their efforts to be incentivized to continue them. 

This model, decentralized execution toward central purpose, is not something unique to F3 or a theory that we invented. It is the LDP methodology employed by the great Leaders of healthy communities, effective organizations and dynamic teams and always have been.

4. Takeaways

  • Great Leaders develop new Leaders
  • The LDP has 4 steps: Schooling, Apprenticeship, Opportunity, and Failure
  • The LDP depends upon decentralized execution to central purpose

____________________________________________________________________________________________

  • “For great leaders, developing new leaders is leadership, of the highest caliber.”
    • And I see all of you as high caliber, high impact men that have done that for me for the past 4 years or so. You all have a power inside you to do that. Something that drives you to be the high caliber, high impact men you are.

 

  • I came to F3 as a lost college kid trying to figure it out 4 years ago. When I say F3 has been, and continues to be, a Gamechanger in my life, I mean it. I’ve experienced F3 Knoxville’s LDP in the past 4 years and am a better, more equipped and confident man thanks to YOU MEN – men of the highest caliber and quality – Great Leaders as the QSource chapter talks about. And I just want to say thank you. You all have done more for me and my journey towards being a HIM than most of you will ever know.

 

  • From a young leader to a Great Leader – thank you.

Fellowship at the asylum

THE SCENE: 70 degrees and moist.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
4 cherry pickers

6 count man makers

some of these some of those
THA-THANG:
mosey over to he playground

  • 21 box jumps
  • 21 BBS
  • Wait of the 6 then mosey to the pavalon
  • 21 table rows
  • 21 squats to sit
  • mosey to AO
  • lung from on parking line to next do 1 merkin
  • lung to next line add one
  • Rinse and repeat until called for time
  • Grabed some coupons
  • mosey to tail of dragon.
  • 1 curl per light and add one as you walk up the tail of the dragon
  • walk down to the AO
  • start on one side of the parking lot lay the coupon on the ground and drag it across the lot while you bear crawl.

MARY:
stretching out after work is done

 

God Is God

THE SCENE: Insert info about the weather, etc.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
20 Side-Straddle-Hops, 10 Pinto Twists, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Windmills, 7 Baby Arm Circles Forward and Backward, 7 Wide Arm Circles Forward and Backward.
THA-THANG:
Mosey to Northeast Corner of Admin Bldg.  We will do 20 Hello Dollies.  Mosey to CMU Pile.  Each man grabs CMU and places it on east side of Parking Lot.  Cone 1 is at that side of parking lot.  Cone 2 is on opposite west side.  We will do one of the listed exercises at Cone 1 with CMU.  We then
Bernie Sanders (without CMU) to Cone 2 and do one of the listed exercises.  We then run up mini cardiac to crosswalk and run back to Cone 1.  We will repeat this sequence with the next set of exercises.  We will have run up and down mini cardiac three times by the time we are finished. Here are the exercises at each cone:

  • Cone 1:  1. 25 Overhead Presses.  2. 25 Curls.  3. 25 Rows.
  • Cone 2:  1. 20 Flutter Kicks (4 ct).  2. 20 Bicycle Kicks (4 cts).  3. 20 Hello Dollies (4 ct.)

Replace CMUs.

Mosey to parking lot that has islands on the other side of ball fields.  We will run around the parking lot stopping at each island to do 10 Merkins.  At island that semi-circle that we semi-circle around we will bear crawl instead of run.  Once around the parking lot, we will do the same thing but do 10 Big Boys at each island.

Mosey to beginning of Pickett’s Charge.  We will Pickett’s Charge to Northeastern Corner of Parking Lot.  We will stop at each hill of Pickett’s Charge to do 5 Hand Release Merkins.  We will also bear crawl up each hill.  After finishing Pickett’s charge we will do 20 American Hammers.

Mosey to Bat House.  We will sprint from Bat House to Parking Lot.

Mosey to AO.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
23 men, no FNGs.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

The Kingdom grows, because the kingdom is already planted.  It grows of itself and in its own good time.  Above all, it grows we know not how.

–Robert Farrar Capon

Difficult times, like those we are facing with the coronavirus, racial protests, and our very heated political situation, test our beliefs and faith.  Our faith in our government, in other people, in ourselves, and even in God is being put to the test.  At a time like this we may be asking questions such as:

  • God, how can you let this happen?
  • God, where are you in all of this?
  • God, do you have any power to stop this?
  • God, what is your purpose?

We look to solutions to this world problem as if we know the answer, as if we know how the world should be run.  We do that individually and corporately, blaming the whole state affairs on others or claiming that surely us Democrats or us Republicans are in “the right.”

At such times of angst, of confusion, of bewilderment, it is reassuring to know that, as Robert Farrar Capon proclaims, the kingdom is already planted and it grows of itself in its own good time.  It is good to know that God is in control and that is the truth whether we like it or not.  Look at history, at humankind’s treatment of one another, at the devastation of war, of slavery, of corruption, of pollution, and we can see how we botch things when we play God.

One of my favorite songs is “God is God” by Steve Earle.   In discussing fate, uncertainty, miracles, and life he proclaims both that “God ain’t me” and “God ain’t us.”  But through the mystery and uncertainty he believes in God:

Every day that passes I’m sure about a little bit less.
(But) even my money keeps telling me it’s God I need to trust.
And I believe in God, but God ain’t us.

If we believe in God then we must accept that he has a plan that goes beyond our understanding.  His plan is a mystery but one that we must trust.  God is God.  And that is certainly reassuring in difficult times like these.  Personally, it gives me hope.  And, it gives me comfort to know that neither I nor the rulers of this world have the final say.

I will close with the last stanza of Steve Earle’s song which puts in better words than what I can say this mystery, this miracle, and our need to accept it.

God, of my little understanding, don’t care what name I call.
Whether or not I believe doesn’t matter at all.
I receive the blessin’s.
And every day on Earth’s another chance to get it right.
Let this little light of mine shine and rage against the night.
Just another lesson
Maybe someone’s watching and wondering what I got.
Maybe this is why I’m here on Earth, and maybe not.
But I believe in God, and God is God.

MOLESKIN:
Prayers for Sparkler’s son and daughter-in-law, whose son, who died last Christmas Holidays, would have been two today.  Prayers for Jinxy’s wife who has surgery on September 17, for Lilydipper’s wife, and for Thunderstruck’s mother.  Prayer’s for Lulu and Doubtfire whose mothers died this summer.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Fake Gloomers will be building two obstacles for Hardship Hill.  We will get started the weekend of September 19-20.  Talk to Sparkler for details.  Be at Asylum PM this Thursday because Pusher will be on Q and is bringing Filipino noodles (made by his mother-in-law) for our board meeting!