"Bread today is better than cake tomorrow." Chinese Proverb There is a common misconception about drive. That if we pause to celebrate today, that we will lose our fire for tomorrow. We'll lose our competitive edge. And we'll be satisfied with where we are. Something we want to recognize: Gratitude is not linked to a lack of drive. Or our lack of performance. It's actually quite the opposite. There's a hormone in our brain called dopamine. It's the feel good hormone. It's released whenever we hit that big lift, PR that workout, or just do something well. Call it the celebration hormone. When athletes go wrong here, it's because they fail to see something: That dopamine is incredibly addicting. Think back to when you were first starting CrossFit. In class you're thinking and working hard on your technique, and the coach walks by and catches you with marked improvement to your form. He/she says - "Hey freakin' nice job there. That's incredible improvement!" How would you feel? Think about it for a moment. I think we would have felt proud and accomplished. We would be eager for the next praise, because it felt that good. So we would bust our butt's even harder now to get our technique that much better. Now purely for thought - take the opposite position. Pretend you never got that praise. We only have heard. "that's not good enough" all the time. Fast forward 2 years - which athlete is thriving? Dopamine ia a weapon. An absolute weapon. We just need to use it properly. Celebrate today, if for no other reason, than because it will make us even hungrier tomorrow.