The Open is a great time of year where everyone comes together to push each other forward, taking on challenges and often surprising themselves by accomplishing things they didn’t know they could! Once the Open ends if you’ve qualified for Regionals your training gets a bit more focused, for the rest of us it can be easy to lose focus without another week’s test to drive us forward.

Here’s what you should do now.

• Review your open performances and look at the lessons you learned. Did you surprise yourself with a new bar muscle up or PR snatch? Did one of the workouts catch you off guard or underprepared?

• Be proud of your efforts! It’s not about placing against competition, it’s about improving yourself over time. You gave it your all and you should be proud!

• Talk to you coaches and ask for advice. Even if you aren’t going to be a competitive athlete, the open gives everyone focus to work on our weaknesses and strive to improve over the next year. Better mobility, movement practice, strengthening weaknesses are all part of the process to improve.

• Make a plan. Devote 3 minutes per day practicing one of your weaknesses, or set aside time to follow an individualized accessory program your coach has written for you. Stick to the class programming and really focus your effort on doing your best each day.

• Stick with it! It takes consistent efforts to reach goals. Now that you’re motivated to work hard to fix a few weaknesses don’t let yourself falter or skip a day. Start building your habits for success the rest of the year.

• Encourage others and help build a stronger community. Everyone had the support of the community during the open, now’s your chance to give back and help others stay motivated, stay focused, get better, and have fun preparing for next year.

Each day matters. It’s small consistent efforts that complete big projects. Don’t focus on tomorrow, focus on today and do what you can right now to take another small step forward. You only have today, make the most of it. Start now!