The Link Between Self-Belief and Receiving Support

This is part of a series exploring the inner work of my workouts in the 2024 CrossFit Open.

With any endeavor, there’s a reason you initiate it, and also another journey that it ends up being about.

Sometimes these might be the same thing. Often, they’re not. If you’re only focused on your initial expectations, you’ll be disappointed. But if you’re open to what you might learn, or what the journey might show you, you can have a transformative experience.

Such was the case for me with the three workouts of the 2024 CrossFit Open. I initially did each workout on the Friday of the weekend they were released, and repeated each one on the following Monday, just 2 days later.

Each time, I went into the re-test with a specific idea in mind of what this was about for me, beyond just getting a better score. And each time, I was surprised by what this really became about.

Here’s the inside look at Open 24.1: a brutal slog of 90 dumbbell snatches and 90 burpees over the dumbbell.

Open 24.1 Take 1

I almost didn’t even do the workout the first time because I didn’t believe I’d complete even the rounds of 21 in the time cap.

With the support of the community carrying me at the end, I came only 2 burpees short of completing in time. I finished the workout in 15:15.

Open 24.1 Take 2: What I Thought I Was Testing

My decision to redo the workout was initially about the power of belief.

Coming so close gave me a new perspective. Now, I believed I could finish the workout.

I wondered what might have been possible the first time if I had only believed in myself from the start.

I also wanted to cement the new belief that I could do this in the time cap.

Based on my finish time, and a review of my videos, I believed I could finish the workout in under 14 minutes. But belief based on empirical evidence is very different from belief based on embodied experience.

One of the consequences of living with ADHD has been a persistent trail of self-doubts, fueled by never quite measuring up to expectations or ideals.

This was an opportunity to rewire a deeply held belief about my identity: who I am and what I am capable of doing at my current skill level.

The Hardest Part of Redoing Open 24.1:

This was a hard workout the first time, and it was even harder the second time.

But the hardest part was not the snatches or even the burpees.

The real heavy lift was asking people to support me.

One of the challenges of living with ADHD is needing support to do “simple” things that neurotypical people find easy.

In the past, people have shamed me for needing this support. This has caused me to believe that I “should” be able to do these things on my own.

A consequence of that belief is that I don’t ask for the support that I know I need to be successful.

Nothing felt more silly than asking people to hang around to cheer me on while I did a workout.

As my inner critic pointed out, if I’m motivated to do it, and if I believe I can do it, why isn’t that enough?

The idea that I believe in my ability seems to be at odds with the idea that I need the support of a crowd to do my best.

And yet, my experiences have proven to me that the community support helps me push through the tough parts.

Nobody can force me to move faster or lift heavier than my capacity.

But I’ve learned that having a crowd of people cheer me on helps me find a next gear that I can’t always access on my own.

So I did the heavy lift and I asked people for support. To my surprise, not only were people willing to hang around and cheer me on — they were happy to do so.

And their support helped carry me through the very tough midsection of the workout.

Here are 3 Lessons I Learned About Self-Belief and Receiving Support

Here are 3 lessons I learned from this experience.

(1) Self-Belief Means You Acknowledge and Request What You Need to Succeed

I couldn’t — and wouldn’t — have asked people to support me and cheer me on unless I believed in myself.

If I didn’t believe I could do this workout in under 15 minutes, the last thing I would want is to have a crowd of people watch me fail.

My self-belief wasn’t at odds with needing support; it was a pre-requisite for requesting support.

Part of self-belief means recognizing the conditions that fuel your best performance, standing up for what you need, and requesting the support you need.

(2) Self-Belief Doesn’t Mean You Must Do It On Your Own

Self-belief does not mean that you must believe that you can, should, or must do it alone.

Rather, self-belief means that you acknowledge the conditions that will help you perform at your best, and you do whatever you can to put those conditions in place so that you can execute to your fullest potential.

If that means asking people to cheer you on, hiring a coach, or having a body double to work with you, then that’s what you need.

This experience helped me release the shame around asking for the support I need, no matter how silly it may seem to me.

(3) Self-Belief Doesn’t Mean You Never Have Doubts

As much as I believed in myself going into the redo of this workout, there were moments during the workout, when the burpees got hard and the people around me became a blur, where my inner critic chimed in with it’s doubts.

I can’t do this. It’s too hard. Why am I even doing this?

But then something amazing happened. Every time I heard the voice say “I can’t do this,” I heard a voice from the crowd say

“You’re doing it. You’re doing it.”

Other people were encouraging me. Everyone was yelling. And that yelling and cheering and encouragement drowned out the inner critic. The team I had surrounded myself with came through when I needed them most.

Self-belief doesn’t mean that doubts never creep in. Instead, it means that I do whatever I can to prevent those doubts from being the loudest voices in the room.

Sometimes, that means recruiting supporters to cheer me on.