I recently came across a great article that really struck me and made me think of our Forge Community. Each point the writer made literally had me saying, “yes, this is what our Forge community gives me!” I want to share those words with you.

The Power of Community (stolen from tinybudda.com …. please don’t rat me out 😊)

  1. Collective wisdom. No one person ever has all of the answers, and regardless of the amount of Google-fu you may have, consulting with experts is always going to give you better information.
  2. Pushing our limits. When working alone, it’s oftentimes too easy to give up when things get hard. By surrounding yourself with others working toward a similar goal or objective, you’ll get motivation, support, and friendly competition to push yourself just a bit further than you would have done on your own.
  3. Support and belief. Some days those big goals just seem impossible. On those days when you most want to give up, you need to lean on your community the most. They believe in you—probably more than your belief in yourself.
  4. New ideas. I truly believe that when you are working within a community of like-minded people that the wisdom of crowds is considerably greater than any one person working alone. Our divergent world views and lenses mean that we all approach the exact same problem slightly differently.
  5. Borrowed motivation. Even on those days when your belief in yourself isn’t waning, doing what needs to get done can seem overwhelming. Look around your community and be inspired!
  6. Accountability. If you’re an uber-responsible person, you may not want to admit to people you care about who are pulling for you that something didn’t get done. There’s nothing like having to be accountable to others to up your game.

Amazing right? Anyone else read those points and go “wow”??

The important part that I took away from this article was the reminder of how important the Forge community is to me. I love seeing everyone’s smiling faces (okay, maybe we don’t smile all the time #assaultbike). I love to chat to everyone, to hear your stories, to witness your triumphs and work together while we try to figure out just what Travis was thinking when he planned the WOD that day.

As the new year approaches, I look forward to more chats, more lifts, more burpees (wait, what? Who said THAT?), more smiles and more sweat. I look forward to my community.

Building a community is fairly simple. It’s all the small, simple things…… a smile when you walk in, a “hey, how’s it going?” when you’re putting your shoes on, learning names, its conversation about the workout, it’s the high fives at the end…. All are the bricks and mortar that go into building our community.

Thanks for being my community. Truly.