I had a great conversation with Coach Fritz Nugent a few weeks ago and was excited he agreed to be a guest on the show. The only issue when you have a high achieving guest on your show is time, or lack thereof.
His background and overall experience is incredible, and would have taken at least a few podcast episodes to cover all of his accomplishments. He was an elite level athlete and an elite level coach having over 10,000 hours of coaching experience. He has had the opportunity to train people in the special forces community, D1 athletes, firefighters, smokejumpers, CEO’s and is currently a coach at the tip of the spear CrossFit Gym in the world, CrossFit Invictus.
Not only does he have a high level of experience, he is also highly educated. He has three different degrees including two Masters, along with an entire list of different strength & conditioning certifications. Impressive to say the least.
The main thing that struck me with Coach Nugent was when he was telling me the story of when he got hired by CrossFit Invictus. He went on to explain how he went into his new position with the mentality “I don’t know everything and I am here to learn.” That is a powerful statement coming from someone with that amount of education and experience. It was safe to say he was more experienced than many of the coaches that were already working there.
Throughout our near 1 hour conversation, my main takeaway was humility. No matter how “elite” you are, how experienced you are, or how educated you are, you can always grow and improve in your craft. If you do not have a sense of humility, how would it be possible to keep improving over the long haul? It would be a rough ride.
Humility also liberates us from having to act like we know everything. That false sense of confidence can be a large road block and hinder us from making actual progress. What I have started to learn over the years in regards to humility.. the more I improve with my craft, the more I realize that I don’t know. This was true in EMT School, Paramedic School, the Fire Academy, and participating in CrossFit. Those are just a few of my personal examples but the same principle can be applied across the board.
If we want to grow and master our craft one day, stay humble. Or as we chanted it for 4 months in my Fire Academy years ago, “WORK HARD STAY HUMBLE!”
Stay mission driven everyone.