The Thinking Tire

“Sometimes you can’t think about it. That will only hold you back. Sometimes you just have to do it.” –Charleston DeLa Cruz

This past summer I was lucky enough to have an internship at Todd Durkin’s Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, CA. Not only was it a great work experience, but also I was able to make friends with a great group of employees and fellow interns. Midway through the summer Todd gave the interns the freedom to design and run a Sunday morning fitness class for the general population. We were supposed to come up with a name for the Sunday classes, as well as a theme for each of them. At first it seemed like everyone was a little self-conscious about their ideas because not much was said. At that moment there was too much pressure to try to come up with the perfect name and idea that everyone was drawing a blank. With everyone filtering their “bad ideas”, we were not able to feed off each other's creativity and enthusiasm. Needless to say, there were no good ideas generated at that time.

Seth Godin says if you believe you can’t come up with good ideas it is because you are going about the process all wrong. Rather than just trying to think of good ideas, you should try to think of bad ideas. By thinking of as many bad ideas as possible, eventually you will end up with an idea or two that isn’t so bad. Then you can even take one of those ideas and make it into a good idea. The process of coming up with good ideas sometimes needs to start from the ground up. Sometimes bad ideas need to either get out of the way before a good idea will emerge, or will directly lead to a good idea.

Behind the Fitness Quest 10 facility there is an alley with different pieces of exercise equipment. One, for example, is a 400-pound tractor tire. Although the tire’s original purpose was for flipping and climbing on, on this day it was used for something new. I went back there with another intern, Charleston DeLa Cruz, sat on the tire, and we started coming up with ideas. No matter how bad they might have seemed, we said them. Not only did we have a lot of fun laughing at the ideas and using them to fuel even funnier ideas, we also ended up coming up with a few good ones at the end! What we discovered was so powerful that we had to share it with all the other interns. We called it “the thinking tire.” Whenever we needed to come up with an idea, relax from work, or get mentally ready to push ourselves in the weight room, we would go to the thinking tire. It was a place where negative thoughts could not get in the way of what we were trying to do.

Not everyone needs a tire to sit on, but having a place in your house, car, work, or gym where you can feel empowered and free just by sitting there can help you erase the negative thoughts that often can get in the way of accomplishment. When you are there, tell yourself that there are no bad ideas, negative thoughts are not allowed, and you are capable of doing things you never thought you could. Soon your brain will be programmed to feel empowered when you sit there, and you will be breaking through plateaus, both in the weight room and in life.

Tony Cates is a business management major at Edgewood College in Madison, WI.  He is a certified personal trainer, performance enhancement specialist, and the S&C Coach for Edgewood College Men’s Basketball.  He can be reached at catestony@gmail.com or (608) 852-7433.

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