A Great Quote

This comes from the Reebok/Crossfit page on Facebook.  In response to a photo of Neal Maddox eating a donut, Tom Inkel writes:

One of the rewards of a good diet, fitness level, and self-awareness is knowing what licenses like this that you can take without impacting your goals. I feel bad for people trying to live blindly by some set of rigid rules for life that they've conjured up off CrossFit/Paleo websites. As humans, we have a limited pool of free will/willpower. (Read Dan John's book sometime: Never Let Go.) If you use that willpower up on unnecessary rigidity, two things happen: (1) other parts of your life fall apart to compensate (and eventually, your rule system itself); (2) you alienate from CrossFit/Paleo everyone watching who can't make those same commitments (due to things like a crazy schedule, kids, sickness, etc.), because you've just told them that they aren't good enough for CrossFit/Paleo because they can't do it "right." That's tragic. Especially since, someday, it might be you with the new kid, and you're trapped by your own logic into not being a "good" CrossFitter. In summary: Rules are just tools. Don't let them blind you to goals. That's not CrossFit or health; that's religious fanaticism. Instead: Start with specific accomplishments in mind; measure your progress regularly; and only then, tailor rules as necessary.

I know there probably aren't too many CrossFitters reading this, but there are lots of dietary/lifestyle absolutists out there for whom we can switch out the CrossFit/Paleo label and this would speak to you.  I think these are words of wisdom -- paraphrase:  Don't use your energies up on complying with self-imposed rigid rules.  

There is too much emphasis, IMO, placed on what we should not do, why we shouldn't do it, and the necessary amount of contrition that must be expressed if we are impure in our ways ... or worse yet occasionally engage in the "don'ts" unapologetically.   Life is too short.