“When I got into Crossfit it really stemmed from my dad wanting to get into shape, ‘hey want to come try this Crossfit thing’, I had no clue what it was. I went and tried it anyways, after the warmup, I threw up. Most people after that would be like ‘nope, not for me right?’ I think it’s really important for people to keep an open mind to things and to just try new things. Having not try that, because I didn’t know what it was, I don’t think I would be at this point in my life because I wouldn’t have met all the people in it. I think it’s really important to go out of your comfort zone, try new things, but to also stick with them in the hard times. Because that’s the perseverance part right, I believe you have to stick to something for a while before you actually know it’s for you. That’s when you’re going to start seeing the results because everything you do at first is going to be hard, it might not be enjoyable at first, it’s like driving a car. When you first start driving a car it’s intimidating, you don’t know what you are doing necessarily, but over time you get better at it and then all of the sudden you are driving and not thinking of which way do I turn my turn signal on, those little things like that.
I think it’s really important to go out of your comfort zone, try new things, that’s my biggest piece of advice for people especially in terms of fitness or anything you do in life. I think that’s the great thing about fitness is that there’s always something new to learn, it really gets you out of your comfort zone. I’m really thankful I stuck with Crossfit even in those first couple of times that were super difficult. And granted it’s still difficult to this point. My favorite saying is, ‘it never gets easier, you just get stronger.’ Always persevere with things, try new things. Ultimately, Crossfit led me to a lot of different mindset shifts. When I was in Crossfit it showed me what an amazing community of people can do. So I was going to a school at the time that was very negative. I saw the 2 differences and I didn’t want to be in that environment. I saw if I wanted to be something different I had to associate myself with people who thought differently so after 1.5 years of debating whether to switch schools or not because of the negative people, I let 2 little things hold me back from not transferring because I wasn’t looking at the big picture. Once I transferred schools, it was a lot better. I had my first Crossfit coach that was my leadership teacher at my other school and I went there, trained every single day at lunch time with him and other students. I think it was really cool for other people to see teachers working out every single day at lunch. After school, I would go home and train at Crossfit for another 1-2 hours, go home and eat dinner then go to boxing for 2 hours. It really discipline me but I was always surrounding myself with people who were much more driven, something I’ve always really wanted. I always surrounded myself with people and better athletes than me so I can challenge myself. I think it’s really easy to say, ‘oh I can just go sign up at a regular gym’, but anyone can have a gym membership and have the machine but it doesn’t mean they will get the outcome that they want right. I think it really comes down to, you can have the equipment, you don’t really need the equipment it’s more who you are surrounding yourself with and are they going to help you achieve your goals.
I came from a softball background. Before I played softball for 10 years and after a point it just felt like I wasn’t doing it for me anymore and that’s when I found Crossfit. Now I’m putting myself into an environment where I’m doing it for me. If I let anyone down, it’s only myself and not other people. Whereas in softball I always had an immense pressure like if I let myself down, I’m letting the team down as well. I didn’t like that added pressure and I wasn’t really seeing the benefits. I felt like I was in it because I felt like I had to be a part of a team. That’s the great thing about Crossfit, and the boxing, it’s individual but you have the community of people, they are pushing you harder to be the best but ultimately it comes down to you versus you. I think that’s really important in terms of life, it teaches you a lot of valuable lessons. A lot of best friends I’ve met is through the fitness industry, and it’s a great journey.
I grew up in a family where Alcoholism was a big problem. I knew I didn’t want to live that life, I’ve seen what alcohol can do to families. So being in the health industry and surrounding myself with people who didn’t think like that was really important for me. Seeing people in your life go through things, alcohol abuse, and people who are very negative. You have 2 choices, you’re either going to be a carbon copy of them or you’re going to be your own version of you. All I knew is I didn’t want to go down that road. Every time I didn’t want to go to the gym, I always put that in my mindset because ultimately I still don’t want to do that. I don’t think I would appreciate fitness/health the way I do today, and I would’ve been down a very different path. That’s something I thank. Obviously, you only wish you didn’t have to go through that growing up but I think it makes you into a stronger person. I always felt like I had to grow up a little faster, be a better version of myself so that I wouldn’t go down that road.
A lot of people face adversity within their family, the biggest thing is you don’t see everyone’s struggles right. A lot of people, especially the strong people tend to hide those. I think it’s really important to realize that everyone around us is going through their own struggle. To really try and look at things from different perspectives and to be the best version of you and to try be as positive as possible especially around other people because you don’t know what they are going through. I realize about myself because not a lot of people know that I’ve gone through that, I’m not saying pity me or anything because I’m thankful I went through all that, I wouldn’t be the person I am. At the same time there were a lot of days where I put on a smile, and I really want to break down but I knew I was stronger than that and I didn’t want to project that onto the world. It just got to show me, I’ve gone through that so why is anyone else different right. So it doesn’t matter who is around you, they are going through something way more that you don’t even realize. I think that’s important to think about as well.” – Sydney Ste