Expectations

Several years ago, I started working out with some friends at work. Specifically, we started doing CrossFit work outs at work. A buddy of mine opened up a gym, and he wanted some company as he tried out this whole newfangled CrossFit thing. It was a lot of fun, so we decided to keep doing it. Ultimately, that led to a different blog where we kept track of the work outs. Funnily enough, that blog itself has led to some hilarity.

Now, I didn't start that blog, but it more or less fell into my lap to keep it updated. I used to actually send out emails to people at work, since some people missed the work out. However, at one point, someone decided that they wanted to be able to search through them. Email isn't the best format to search, sort, and filter, so it magically turned into a blog. Either way, though, I happen to be the main contributor to that CrossFit blog.

And since I've been writing those blog posts, I have a routine down. I usually reserve Sunday mornings for writing blog posts (both these and the CrossFit ones), since that tends to be a fairly slow time of day. On rare instances, that bleeds into Sunday afternoon, but I prefer to have it all done before noon. That way, I can keep to my schedule but have my afternoons free.

The problem with this routine is that if I'm traveling, busy, or otherwise indisposed, something tends to slip. Unfortunately, that's usually the CrossFit blog. So, sometimes I get behind on updating the posts. It's not a huge deal, since most people understand that I'll catch up eventually. However, it's noticeable when you pull up the blog and the most recent work out is from a month ago.

That's all fine and dandy, until someone tries to point a new person to the blog. A friend of mine did just that the other day:

Friend: "Oh, you missed the work out? Check out the blog."

Coworker: "Oh? What blog?"

Friend: "Oh, Sam maintains it. It's usually up to date, just check out this link ..."

Coworker: "Cool, thanks. Oh, last work out is from a month ago ..."

Friend: "Um ... "

Great, thanks. Way to put me on the spot like that, friend. Better yet, she then recounted this story at a group gathering a couple of weeks later. The tone was one of, "man, Sam, you let me down." Sure, it was in jest, but still. I got called out. I hadn't just failed one or two people, my shame was on display for all to see. Awesome.

Me being me, I set aside some time to whittle down the backlog a few days later. I didn't quite eliminate it, but I got it to the point where I was only a couple of weeks behind. Unfortunately, I then had a couple of busy weekends right afterward. Expectations are hard. I may just have to start telling people I'm lazy to make things easier on myself.