The numbers 40, 31, 14, and 6 were all meaningful to me in 2022. These represented the years I have been doing public presentations, the years I have been a part of the credit union movement, how long I have been a member of the CrossFit community, and the age of my daughter.
Doing public presentations was something that I always enjoyed. The ability to share information with other people is a powerful avenue to make connections with someone. This is especially true when they find value in what is being delivered. For 31 years I have found great value in having a career in the credit union movement. Working for, and with, not-for-profit organizations is gratifying because they want to make their members’ lives better in numerous ways from a financial perspective. The CrossFit community is similar to the credit union movement because it seeks to make its members’ lives better through having better movement as a human being.
Even though I had been going through these things for a long time they all started to take on different meanings when my daughter Eva Grace came into my life. Having a little human being who is completely dependent on someone else for everything was a life-altering experience for me. As she has gotten older some of the greatest joys, I find in life are when she learns new things, which at this age is almost daily. Over this same time, there was a deep appreciation that was developed when people would share how a presentation/training that I had done made a difference for them. Some people would recount a presentation from 20 years ago that they attended when they were just hired into a credit union and how they still recalled the messages that were shared. Doing presentations went from something I did because I was paid to do it, to something that took on a deeper meaning and pushed me to focus on how I could help people better understand numbers.
“I wanted to spend as much time as possible making a positive difference in people’s lives.” – Tim Gardner
In 2017, I obtained the CrossFit Level 1 certification so I could coach CrossFit classes. The original reason was to have a free membership at the box. Over time people would share how something I had coached helped them get a personal record (PR) in a class I wasn’t even involved in. When these instances were shared, I was always super excited for the person, and then upon reflection, it created a deep sense of accomplishment because I had helped that person move better in some way, and they wanted to recognize me for the effort to help them.
Whether it was people sharing how a presentation had made a difference for them, how my coaching had helped them move better, or watching my daughter grow up over the last few years my outlook on what was important had a huge shift in my life. In 2022 it became clear that I wanted to spend as much time as possible making a positive difference in people’s lives. Whether that is through creating CrossFit Kids classes, doing presentations in the credit union movement, or coaching regular CrossFit classes I want to help human beings be their best.