There’s a question I think every athlete should ask themselves at some point: Am I surviving this, or am I thriving in it?
Over the years, I’ve come to think about the athletic journey — really, any journey — as moving through five stages: struggling, surviving, stable, growing, and thriving. Here’s what that’s actually looked like for me, drawn from my own years in CrossFit and from owning a gym.
I remember my first few years training at CrossFit Lincoln clearly, because they were rough. I was overwhelmed, unsure if I was even doing the movements correctly, and — looking back, this is the part that really stands out — I usually didn’t leave a workout feeling better than when I walked in, which is supposed to be the whole point. That’s struggling. And it’s worth separating it into two kinds: there’s productive struggle, like not yet knowing how to clean a barbell, and there’s unproductive struggle, like being on the floor completely wrecked after every session. The first kind builds you. The second kind burns you out, gets you hurt, or pushes you to quit.
From there I moved into surviving, which felt different but not necessarily better. I understood what I was doing, but not how to do it well — pacing, strategy, body mechanics were all still a mystery. My squat had problems I couldn’t see. There was an imbalance in my shoulder I didn’t even know existed. I was getting through workouts, having some fun, but not much more than that. This stage is necessary — nothing new comes pre-installed in your body, you have to earn it — but surviving is, in a real sense, the opposite of thriving. You’re doing just enough to get by.
Eventually things settled into something more dependable, which is what I think of as stable. I knew I’d train five or six times a week. I knew what the program would feel like, and I could adjust based on whatever season of life I was in. No more scrambling — just steady footing. Honestly, I think this is the level everyone should aim to reach as quickly as possible, in any area of life. Once you’re stable, things stop feeling so heavy.
Stable is where growing becomes possible. Early on, I genuinely couldn’t hear coaching — I was too deep in survival mode to stop and apply anything anyone told me. But once I had a solid foundation, I started actively chasing what was next: better lifts, better pacing, better understanding. If you had to live in one stage long-term, I’d argue this might be the best one. Always curious, always improving.
And then there’s thriving — which, interestingly, isn’t really about you anymore. It’s full presence, and it tends to show up as community. The athletes I think of as thriving are the ones who’ve built real confidence in their own ability and then turn around to help the people coming up behind them. Watching someone do that is one of the clearest signs they’ve arrived here.
Here’s the part that matters most, though: this isn’t a ladder you climb once and stay on top of forever. It’s a cycle. It ebbs and flows, often across different parts of your life at the same time. When I bought my gym, a huge part of my life was pure survival mode — I was learning how a business even works. My own fitness, meanwhile, just sat at stable. I was showing up and training, not struggling, but not exactly growing either, because all my energy was going elsewhere.
You might be at level one in running and level three in lifting, simultaneously. That’s not a contradiction — that’s just life. The skill isn’t avoiding the lower levels. It’s recognizing where you actually are in each area, and knowing what it takes to move forward from there.
I’ve been doing a lot of financial planning lately, and funnily enough, this framework maps onto money almost perfectly. Struggling is not being able to pay your bills. Surviving is living paycheck to paycheck. Stable is bills covered, no stress. Growing is more coming in than going out. Thriving is investing it and watching it compound. Fitness works the same way — and wherever you are right now, in any part of your life, the goal is simple: get to stable as fast as you can. That’s the level where things stop feeling like a fight.
That’s our goal at CrossFit Lincoln, too — to meet you exactly where you are, whether that’s level one or level two, and get you to stable as efficiently as possible. From there, real growth becomes possible: dependable workouts, tracked weights, known percentages, a clear sense of progress.
So take a minute and think about where you currently fall on this scale — and remember it might be different depending on which part of your fitness you’re looking at. It might be worth a conversation with a coach today.