As Many Reps as Possible

by Jason Khalipa

You Can’t “Hack” Your Way Around Hard Work

Show up on a consistent basis every day for weeks, months, and years on end. When you show up, you show up on time, ready to work, and you work…hard. These are non-negotiable. You show up. You’re on time. You work. And you work hard. Honestly hard.

Bottom line: there’s no hacking your way to the top of anything. It’s certainly not possible in professional sports. The same can be said for building a robust, successful business, and for building a long-term, happy relationship. The price of entry is a long grind packed with challenges, and the sooner you recognize that, the sooner you will be able to use the AMRAP Mentality to its greatest potential. It has to be something you love doing, want very badly, and want for the right reasons.

My definition of hard work is probably best characterized by the level of intensity you give to the work at hand. This ties back to the topic of the previous chapter: focus. When you need to accomplish a task, block out all distractions and get to work. Your ability to work hard scales with your ability to focus. To elevate your performance in pursuing your best work, make an AMRAP-style workout of it. Compete against yourself on a clock and try to do a better job today than you did yesterday. Or (and only if you’re ready…) if you really want to punch the throttle, compete against others.

Hard Work + Consistency = Results

Working hard doesn’t mean that you’re pushing yourself into a reckless, potentially dangerous downward spiral. It doesn’t mean you go shooting off in some random direction. Rather, it means pushing past your comfort zone and systematically testing your limits.

The workout necessary to produce the desired result necessarily will involve a relative level of discomfort. The key word is relative. The level of input is going to be much different for an inactive person on their first day at the gym than for a seasoned, well-trained athlete. However, they both need to work hard relative to their physical, psychological, and emotional capacities.

In this context, I like to use the term “best effort” (or even “smartest effort”) and often avoid the term “max effort.” There’s a subtle difference. Make your best effort clearly denotes that I am asking for hard work, but not hard work at the expense of safety. You might ask, “But Jason, how would you know I am truly giving my best effort?” Honestly…I won’t. Only you can. I could certainly make a guess, based on previous observations and experience. However, you are the only one who knows whether you make your best effort or whether you fake your way through it. The onus is on you. I can give you the tools, but I can’t do the work for you. So, if you’re okay with mediocrity and just getting by…go ahead, fake it.

But here’s the promise: if you truly work hard, if you truly show up every damn day and make your best effort…you’ll achieve results. This is going to happen in the gym, at work, and in life. Forget the hacks and shortcuts. Practicing, and eventually mastering, hard work is the only sure path towards reaching your true potential.

“If you want to be an owner, Jason, then act like an owner.”

Minh’s work ethic was guided by the singular maxim—if you can sell, you can eat.

One thing Chris taught me was to “break the rubber band.” I use this analogy in business to this day. Let’s say runners are in a pack, and two of them break away from the group and are neck and neck. All of a sudden, the second group realizes there's no way to catch those two and they start fighting for third place. The leaders of the race have slipped their minds. The goal is to break the rubber band between the runner leading in first and the person coming in second. If two runners are within a few feet of each other, it can help the second runner to imagine a band drawn between the two. That band is what will keep the second runner mentally and physically in the game. Once the gap between the two runners becomes twenty feet or so, the runner in second place is no longer looking to compete with the runner in first. In other words, the band has broken and the second place competitor has shifted his or her mindset. Now, he or she is trying to maintain second, and is running to avoid being overtaken by those competing for third.

In a way, this is the essence of the AMRAP Mentality. The goal is not to work as long as possible before dropping of exhaustion, the goal is to work as smartly as possible in order to make the most of the time you have. Think of it as a results-driven system rather than a time-driven one.

Anything worth achieving is going to take some real effort.

That year, I was awarded the Spirit of the Games honors, an annual award given to the athlete that best exemplifies the work, camaraderie, and perseverance to which CrossFit aspires.

I use Dave’s words often in my self-talk: Jason, do you want to continue?

If you’re not powered by wanting something with all your heart and soul, it will be easy to give in when things get uncomfortable.

You can’t just stop when it gets hard.

The only thing that can turn your motivation into meaningful progress is hard work. You may be committed to overcoming adverse conditions, and you may desire reaching a goal more than anything else in the world. In short, you might have a fierce and powerful and meaningful why. But desire is not enough. Motivation is not enough. Knowledge is not enough, and mentors are not enough.

Let me take you through a typical morning. I start each day at 5 a.m.—first gear. At this hour, my wife and kids are still sleeping. This is my time to focus on fitness. A few years back, I converted my garage into a home gym. You might think a guy who runs an international fitness business might go all out for his personal gym, but that’s not the case. My space is very simple. Some iron, a few barbells, a pullup bar…that’s all I need for go time.

This is really the essence of shifting gears. When you’re in the moment…be in the moment. Being present is not only one of the greatest tools we have to ensure productivity and focus, but also one of life’s greatest rewards. You will find fulfillment and meaning in even the smallest tasks. You will learn to appreciate life in the moment and slowly stop living in the future or past.

A common characteristic of people who find themselves unhappy, unfulfilled, or unsuccessful is an inability to live in the moment.

Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

By giving us the worst-case scenario, they were just trying to get across to us the reality of what we were up against.

When it comes to the AMRAP Mentality, it can be beneficial to expect the worst, and anticipate the ways things might go wrong.

Much of my success in fitness can be attributed to two simple things—first, I trained as hard as I wanted to win; second, I hustled through parts of workouts or transitions where other people might take as a rest.

In fact, the best way I’ve found to practice the AMRAP Mentality outside of the gym is by perfecting the AMRAP Mentality inside the gym.

Look at the clock, understand the time elapsed / remaining, and try to hold a similar pace for the time remaining.

My biggest fear is that I will wake up ten years from now only to regret the decisions I made, or long for the time I wasted. Staying present, evaluating my performance in real time, and shifting gears is my hedge against this potential outcome.

At the heart of re-evaluation is the idea that none of us are the people we were five years ago. In five more years, you be even more different still.

One workout will not make or break you; however, the sum of your workouts over time will determine your overall fitness, and the path you take.

There is a lot of value in working your weaknesses, but in business and team activities, the goal should be to identify strengths. Enhancing the strengths of each participant offers the most benefit to the overall group.

Regardless of what you are going through, your current challenge will often feel like the worst thing you’ve ever faced. Whatever is most immediate often feels the most difficult. Who’s to say that having a child with cancer is worse than losing your job? For the person who just lost their job, it might be the worst thing that has happened to them, just like Ava’s cancer is the worst thing to happen to Ashley and me. These experiences might be very different, but the AMRAP Mentality can scale to any situation. It is our duty to support and be there for those who need it, when they need it. Looking at the day with a different perspective changes the entire landscape; it’s like looking at the world through a pair of dark sunglasses and then switching to a pair of clear glasses. As we get older, our perspective changes; so much of what we thought was important really isn’t. You have a choice each day to look at the world in a positive light or a negative one. I don’t know about you, but I choose optimism.