2020 Shield Lock Challenge!

/in , , , /QIC:

Let’s start off 2020 right with a little #3rdF challenge.  1 month long, all you have to do to win is spend time with your Shield Lock.  Winners announced first week in Feb.

First things first,

What is a shield lock?

I think it’s easier to illustrate this with a conversation I had on a run the other day (no, not the one where Skidmark tried to kill me):  Paraphrase here —

Me: “I’ve not seen you in a while, you been posting a lot?”
Him: “Not really, trying to get back into it.”
Me: “Oh, what’s been going on?”
Him: “You know the normal stuff, work got busy, fell into some bad habits, gotta get back into it and get some accountability”
Me: You have a clown car or group of guys who can help out?
Him: “Kind of, but not really.  Work means I have to be punctual so I can’t ride with them, so I just try to show up on my own”

I’m sure we’ve all gone through something like that — life gets busy, things get in the way, good habits start to get replaced with bad ones, and suddenly it’s been a few weeks since you’ve posted in the gloom and a lot of that progress you’ve been making starts to slip away.  It starts with fitness, but quickly bleeds into losing ground on the intentionality and dedication you’d been working on elsewhere in life.

Here’s the thing: we all know that if we reached out and said “Hey man, I need some help, I’m struggling here”, every single guy in F3 would be there in a heartbeat to support.  A shield lock is more than that, though.  Your shield lock are the guys who call you first.   They are the ones who notice you’re slipping and reach out a hand before you’ve slid down to the bottom and realize you need help.

On a more personal note: back when my 2.0 was born, I struggled hard getting back to work.  If I would have picked up a phone and called any number of my golf buddies and said “Hey guys, I’m drowning here, I can’t focus at all and my work is slipping” I know a bunch of guys would have loved to help me out.  But there was no one Proximate to me to notice the issue, no one I met with Periodically to have opportunity to address the issue and certainly no one who felt they had the Purpose or role to step up and say something.  And let me tell you, when your head is barely above water and you don’t know how to handle it, it’s next to impossible to articulate the need for help.  There’s a small group explicitly tasked with that role this time around, and for that I’m extremely thankful.

That’s the shield lock: the small group of guys with whom you are Proximate, Periodic, and Purposeful.

For Dredd & Helmet’s Take on this (which is where I got the above info), See Q1.7 from QSource or listen here: Skip to 28 Minutes

So what’s the Challenge?

Pretty easy!

  1. Get 3-5 guys to commit to complete the challenge for the month of January & come up with a team name
  2. Work out together during the week.  Bonus points if you all EC or one/some/all of you Q the workout!
  3. Hang out!
    (note: “coffeeteria” after workouts doesn’t count.  Need to make an intentional #2ndF effort)
  4. Serve
    “Serve” can be a wide array of things.  A book study, a service project, serve together at church etc.  But, do it *together* (so, don’t count all of you happen to go to the same church on Sunday and nodded to each other in the atrium).
    I’m not going to go “Slack-Cop” on this, so if you mark down “We served”, it’s good enough for me.

That’s it.  Basically, spend the month of January intentionally being with a smaller group of guys.  You’re literally #winning every time you go grab a drink together.

Please note, all of these can be completed in larger groups.  If someone organizes a big service project in January, would love to see ALL the shield locks there.  LEAD something together!

How do we do it?

Let me (Slide Rule) know your team name and who’s in the Shield Lock.

I’ll make a tab for your team on the Shield Lock tracker, found here: Shield Lock Challenge

At least weekly, log your time together.

The Details

  • 1stF (max 18 pts / week)
    1 point / pax at a workout (max of 3 pts)
    +1 point if the entire shield lock posts (this balances scoring for 3, 4, 5 person groups)
    +1 point if all who posted from shield lock also ran EC
    +1 point if someone from shield lock Q’d (might want to start filling up that Q Sheet now!)
    Top 3 workouts / week count toward total (Max of 6*3 = 18 pts)
  • 2ndF (7 pts / week)
    7 Points if the entire shield lock does anything 2ndF during the week.
    Can not be associated with a workout (Panera after U-Turn doesn’t count, for instance)
  • 3rdF (15 pts total)
    15 points if the shield lock does something service related over the month.

Most points wins! Ties broken by 3rdF, then 2ndF, then most Q, then most EC points, then week 4/3/2/1.  Winners announced first week in February.

Important Note:

There was an F3 podcast recently about guys who are “cheating on their family” with F3.  They’re running away from problems at home and use F3 as a way to do it.  The shield lock better be the guys who are helping you address those problems, not run away from them.

Any questions?  Feel free to ask!