F3 Knoxville

Tag: Stitch

SMART Goals – Make GOD the main goal in 2023

THE SCENE: 45 and nice…nearly too nice for the gloom!
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

  • Side Straddle Hops (IC) X 10
  • Cherry Pickers (IC) 4 CT X 10
  • Baby Arm Circles Forward X 10 (IC)
  • Baby Arm Circles Backwards X 10 (IC)
  • Tempo Squats (IC) 4 CT
  • Hand Release Merkins X 10
  • Mosey

THA-THANG:

4 Corners –

  • 5 squats, 5 diamond merkins, 5 big boys per corner & run to the next
  • Rinse & repeat and go to 4 per corner, 3 per corner, etc.
  • When finished, go to center of parking lot & plank
  • Mosey to CMU Pile

 Coupon Work –

  •  20 CMU Curls
  • 20 CMU Tricep Extension
  • 20 CMU Bentover Rows
  • 20 CMU Overhead Press
  • Run the stairs
  • Rinse, Repeat

MARY:

Flutterkicks, LBCs, Big Boys

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

8 men including FNG Messy
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

A S.M.A.R.T. goal is one that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

Specific (simple, sensible, significant) Be simple, clear and specific in what it is you want to accomplish. This should answer the ‘W’ questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why and Which. What specifically do you want to accomplish? When do you want to accomplish this by? Why does this need to happen?

Measurable (meaningful, motivating) How will you measure the progress of your goals? Set some short and long-term goals. This helps to identify tangible progress and allows you the space to adjust along the way.

Achievable (agreed, attainable) The goal should be challenging, but it should not be something that is unattainable. You should feel motivated and inspired, not depleted and discouraged by your goal. So be realistic and plan accordingly.

Relevant (reasonable, realistic, resourced, results-based) The goal should be relevant to you and those that are involved. And it should be able to move things forward in a positive way. Answer these questions about the goal:

  • Is it worthwhile? Is it applicable? Am I the right person?
  • Is now the right time? Does this line up with the Word of God?

Time-bound “A goal is a dream with a deadline” ~Napoleon Hill

Timelines will help you to stay on task. And deadlines will help to create a sense of urgency. A little tension produces a reachable outcome. But be realistic when setting the goal. Make sure the goal can actually be achieved in the timeframe that has been set, and consider all of the other components of S.MA.R.T.

What about something like prayer?  Often, this is an area where we set ourselves up for failure by creating unattainable goals like, “Pray for an hour every day.”

Now, is this goal specific? Yes. Is it measurable? Yes. What about attainable? This is where we’re running into problems. Depending on your lifestyle, it might be hard to work in an hour of prayer into your schedule. If you don’t have a regular habit established of praying every day, going from 0-60 minutes might not allow you to develop a consistent habit, especially if your days already feel full!

For someone who was not praying regularly, transforming this goal to be SMART would look like creating a goal similar to, “For the next 2 weeks, pray for 10 minutes every morning.”

If you write down your goal, you are 42% more likely to achieve it!

MOLESKIN:

Make God the focus of every New Year’s Resolution!

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence this Saturday in Blount County

New Year, New Opportunity

THE SCENE: Insert info about the weather, etc.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Side straddle hop in cadence 20
Cherry Pickers
5 Burpees OYO
Arm rotations thumbs up in cadence
Reverse thumbs down in cadence
Tempo squats
Merkins to “Sally Up” song
Side straddle hop in cadence 20

THA-THANG:
Snake run to coupon pile.

  • 20 curls, run steps, 5 pull ups, 20 curls, 10 thrusters
  • Mosey through campus with the person in the back sprinting to the front.
  • Stopping for 20 BBS, 20 Merkins, 20 guard rail dips
  • Mosey to JUCOManjaro
  • Run to hash mark, 20 2-count flutter kicks
  • Run to next hash mark, 20 squats
  • Rinse and Repeat until we run out of hill or time… Today we ran out of time.
  • Mosey back to the flag.

MARY:
Side cruches (I think… Erector was leading while I grabbed my notes for the BOM).
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Use the TAGS on right-side to record PAX (BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOURSELF) in attendance. Be sure to select the AO in CATEGORY above TAGS and then delete these notes!
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
We typically use this time between Christmas and New Year’s as a time of reflection.
As we wrap up 2022, did you accomplish what you set out to do?
Why or why not? Does it even matter, now that you’re looking back at it, or have priorities shifted?

21 Tips for a Positive New Year
Updated for 2023
1. Stay Positive. You can listen to the cynics and doubters and believe that success is impossible or you can trust that with faith and an optimistic attitude all things are possible.
2. Take a daily “Thank You Walk.” You can’t be stressed and thankful at the same time. Feel blessed and you won’t be stressed.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and less foods manufactured in plants.
4. Talk to yourself instead of listen to yourself. Instead of listening to your complaints, fears and doubts, talk to yourself with words of truth and encouragement.
5. Post a sign that says “No Energy Vampires Allowed.” Gandhi said, “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet,” and neither should you! Watch This.
6. Be a Positive Team Member. Being positive doesn’t just make you better, it makes everyone around you better.
7. Don’t chase success. Decide to make a difference and success will find you. [ Tweet This ]
8. Get more sleep. You can’t replace sleep with a double latte.
9. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control.
10. Look for opportunities to Love, Serve and Care. You don’t have to be great to serve but you have to serve to be great.
11. Live your purpose. Remember why you do what you do. We don’t get burned out because of what we do. We get burned out because we forget why we do it.
12. Remember, there’s no such thing as an overnight success. Love the process and you’ll love what the process produces.
13. Trust that everything happens for a reason and expect good things to come out of challenging experiences.
14. Implement the No Complaining Rule. If you are complaining, you’re not leading. Download a free No Complaining Kit here.
15. Read more books than you did in 2022. I happen to know of a few good ones. : )
16. Don’t seek happiness. Instead live with love, passion and purpose and happiness will find you.
21 Tips for 2023
17. Focus on “Get to” vs “Have to.” Each day focus on what you get to do, not what you have to do. Life is a gift not an obligation.
18. The next time you “fail” remember that it’s not meant to define you. It’s meant to refine you.
19. Smile and laugh more. They are natural anti-depressants.
20. Make time for relationships. We are better together and the more we connect with great friends the more enjoyable life becomes.
21. Enjoy the ride. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy it.

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 8:3 NIV

MOLESKIN:
Insert any personal comments, notes, devotion content, etc.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence 7a 1/7 at Bomb Shelter

Will Power has limits

THE SCENE: 23° wonderful dry and windless
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Grasshoppers (thanks Dartgun for the introduction to those), SSH, Butt kicks, Reverse Planks, grady corns and tempo merkins
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the guardrail for 10 colds dips, then at each stopsign or crosswalk burpee till the 6 arrives and do 1 more.  We were going to go around campus but the east side was too icy so just a big arch to the lake and back where we did 4 corners.

  • 1st Corner: 20 SSH, 15 High Knees, 10 Butt kicks and back up the ladder. Bonus: mtn climbers
  • 2nd Corner: 20 Flutter, 15 Freddy, 10 Reverse Planks.  Bonus:Superman
  • 3rd Corner: 20 Merkins, 15 Dry docks, 10 Wide merkins. bonus: Welsh dragon
  • 4th Corner: 20 Jump Squats, 15 Squats, 10 Pistol squats.  Bonus:  Toy soldiers

A little CMU time to make sure they were  not too cold or frozen to the ground.
MARY:
American Hammer and Hello Dolly
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“so shall my word be that goes out
from my mouth; it shall not return
to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which
I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11 ESV
Being out here we’ve found our limits
We also have limits when it comes to will power.
I read about a guy who had a resolution for a Cold shower every day.  He grew to like it, then hate it.  But he put on 15-20lbs because he used up his will power and didn’t eat right or do other things.
In my case, step goal streak.  I let my steps and hitting my goal every day this year take up too much of my thought, family time and will power.  Didn’t blow off the important things, but could have done them better.
It’s less about streaks and goals and more about habits, character and who we really are.

Prayer life or Cold showers?
Step goal or time face to face with your wife and kids?
Sticking to some strict diet or getting deeper relationships with some men at f3?
Becoming more accomplished in your career or becoming more like Christ to those you work with?

None of these are mutually exclusive, but at some level they are.  God is infinite. We are not.
Choose how you will spend your 2023 wisely.
Choose habits and trends that produce more fruit where you really want to see it.
2 Tim 4:5 As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelsit, fullfill your ministry.
“1 Tim 4:8 For physical training is of some value,
but godliness has value for all things,
holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Convergence January 7th.

31 Degrees of Exercise

THE SCENE:

Clear, 31 Degrees, Nice crescent moon

F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER

WARM-O-RAMA:
1. Cherry Pickers (x5) 2. SSH (x20), 3. BACF (x10) 4. BACB (x10), 5. Merkins (10 OYO), 6. Tempo Squats – (x10),

THA-THANG:

Mosey to the guardrail. Do 31 Dips. Football Mosey (Run and Pass duos with drops to do 2 Burpees) around Career Path Way to CMU pile. Grab CMU and do 31 Curls.

Circle back around to the far east lot (next to the big duck pond). Regroup at the curb. Bear crawl to the first line and back to start as 1st exercise, mosey to 2nd line for 2nd exercise, back to start, etc. (see below)

  1. Bear Crawl to 1st line and back

2. SSH (x31)

3. Squats (x31)

4. Merkins (x31)

5. Heels to Heaven (x31)

6. Iron Mikes (x31)

7. Carolina Dry Docks (x31)

8. Freddie Mercury’s (x31)

9. Monkey Humpers (x31)

Mosey back to COT. Sty called out American Hammers.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

7 HIMS including 3 RUSH

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Contending for the Faith

A few years ago I attended a worldview conference at my church. During that weekend, I listened to a Christian apologist and radio show host named Greg Koukl. An apologist is defined as a person who offers an argument in defense of something controversial. In this case the controversy would be Christianity.

The weekend was centered around gaining an understanding of the Gospel and helping Christians think more clearly about why they believe what they believe. There were sessions about the types of challenges Christians face, how we can respond gracefully, and how we can challenge others to think more critically about their own worldviews. I loved it! I am a truth seeker. Always a believer, but at that time I was still really struggling with my own faith and what it meant for my life. I needed purpose and understanding.

Recently, I found an article by Mr. Koukl that reminded me of this Timothy theme, which is central to a men’s group I’m in (The Good Fight), but also sounded a warning and a challenge (which we also do here). Jude v3 says “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”

First of all, Jude points to a specific message and content, the “faith once for all handed down”— which is the foundation of “our common salvation.” Second is the recommendation to “contend earnestly” for that faith—to proclaim it, guard it, and defend it. And then, Jude reminds us that it has been “handed down” to the saints—passed on from the disciples to the next generation in the church.

Here is why those three elements of Jude’s council are critical for you and me right now. We are engaged in a cultural and theological fight. The attack is coming from many directions. Atheists are tearing down God’s Truth and the integrity of our authority base, The Bible. Our children our under attack. The moral rulebook is being rewritten; Right has become wrong, and wrong is right. It’s clearly seen! These challenges are coming from not only our culture but even in some Christian denominations, the Gospel is seen as a message of hate.

2 Timothy was Paul’s spiritual last will and testament. It was the last thing he ever wrote. He was very clear and to the point in addressing the challenges for that day and practically to the ones we face today. Second Timothy gives the answer to our question about guarding the gospel, because that is the book’s theme, found explicitly in chapter 1, verse 14: “Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.” That message is absolutely vital to each one of us today because he tells us exactly what it looks like in any century to “contend earnestly for the faith”.

The early church was under a great attack in that culture. Christians were falsely accused and tortured (and still today in some places). Paul’s response and message was simple…

“You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:14–17)

Simply put, Paul tells Timothy to guard the gospel by continuing in the truth already revealed. When all else fails, read—and follow—the directions. But, there’s more…

In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, American runners suffered a humiliating defeat in the 4 X 100 relay. In the anchor leg, Darvis Patton handed the baton to Tyson Gay, but Gay never got it. In the middle of the handoff, they dropped the baton.

Tyson Gay was our best sprinter. We had the fastest team. It didn’t matter. They dropped the baton, so we lost the race. In fact, we never even finished that race.

Paul told Timothy, “If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules” (2:5). In other words, Paul said, “Timothy, you cannot drop the baton.” And we cannot drop the baton, either. If we do, we lose.

As Husbands, Fathers, Sons, Brothers, Co-workers…we do 2 things; We continue in the things handed down and second, we pass the baton.

If we disregard Paul’s solution, we should not be surprised when we remain children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming (Eph. 4:14).

If we don’t pass the baton, we should not be surprised when we will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have our ears tickled, we accumulate for ourselves teachers in accordance with our own desires, and turn away our ears from the truth, and turn aside to myths (2 Tim. 4:3–4).

If we are to survive the current spiritual onslaught, we 1) Guard the gospel by continuing in the truth already revealed then 2) we pass the baton. Proclaim the truth faithfully, guard it diligently, and pass it on carefully.

MOLESKIN:
Praying for Cosmo’s mother as she enters hospice care.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Low low temps for Friday! Be smart and safe out there and Happy Christmas to All!!

Some Pain, Some Reflection

THE SCENE: Dark (obviously), dry, calm and mid-30s.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
SSH IC x 15

Grasshopper IC x 10

Sun gods (all arms) IC

Harry Rockets IC x 10
THA-THANG:
Welcome to my third anniversary…when I joined I had the pleasure of joining Trolley’s deck-of-pain.  Since then, I inherited the deck and we will keep that going.

We will take turns drawing from the deck and touring campus to perform the workouts.  The kicker is to push yourself in the mosey to each location (not quite a jail-break).

  • Upright merkins – maintenance center
  • Reverse bear crawl up the stairs at the library
  • Burpee-broad jumps at the performing arts center
  • Pull ups at the rec-center
  • CMU carries up the stairs at the rec-center
  • squatted side-shuffles in the 05 parking lot
  • 30 lunges at the pond

Various exercises while we wait for the six after each interval.

30 dips on the guardrail

Jailbreak back

MARY:
Dealers choice – hello dolly’s, BBS, LBCs
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
What does this holiday season and specifically Christmas look like for you.

It may be a time of hardship and sadness because of a loss in the family, which breaks some tradition…

It may be easy to think about the self enjoyment of a break from work…

It may be all focused on the presents and what we want out of it…

We need to remember that it’s an opportunity to give or help others that may be in need.  We need to remember why we celebrate this time of the year and what Jesus has done for us.

Also, it’s the perfect time to start a new tradition, relax, reset your mental state.  I’ve been reading the Bartholomew’s Passage book with the kids to get them in the habit of reflecting this season and while it may be hard to corral the kids at times, I’ve seen improvement in their desire to read it and remove some of the consistent materialistic attitudes.

Spend time with your families and take care this holiday season!
MOLESKIN:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Coffeteria…Who’s got Monday..??