An amazing outpouring of physical skill and mental toughness moved Camille Leblanc-Bazinet into the title of 2014’s fittest woman on earth, but it was her words that moved me.

When asked what was behind such a spectacular performance, Camille said for the past year every day at the box was her CrossFit Games day. Every workout was do or die; total, complete engagement.

I heard the seriousness and focus in her voice and like any athlete or team that rises to the top, she exuded a magical familiarity through her performance; as if she had been there before.

Because, she had.

Camille won the 2014 Games long before her coronation this past July, her victory rooted in hours of training at her box in Quebec where every lift counted, and every mistake analyzed. Camille cut through the morass of tips and advice and nailed it – to succeed, first be present in training.

How often do we read an advice article (Five things you’re doing wrong…) and fail at implementation? Perhaps our nosedive is less about the advice and more about distraction. At work or play, autopilot limits us every time.

Last night at the box I took Camille’s advice. I hardly consider myself a slacker, but every so often I’m prone like most to lose some focus during my workout.

Not last night.

From my warmup to the last ring dip in my WOD (Workout Of the Day,) I lasered in on form and focus, trying to smooth out the rough edges, slow to explosive, being present in each of my lifts. If I became distracted, I walked away to regain my center.

The result was fantastic. Complete engagement enabled me to feel my form failing, and in turn when it was spot on. It was clearer to me what was wrong and right about my lifts.

But, even more importantly, after the WOD I was spent. The intensity of the workout was off the charts; a welcome feeling because workout time is precious to me. It hurt like I had been in a competition, and I liked it.

This was such a successful experiment I thought I’d duplicate it at work. There’s this pile of paper on my desk representing unfinished business. I vowed to start at the top and focus uninterrupted time on the issue represented by each document. In an hour’s time, the top five documents were gone; five items off my stagnant, vertical to-do list.

We have to deal with distractions every minute of every day. Take away external disturbances and we’ll create our own, from the voice telling us we’re messing up to the one telling us we’re the next big thing. At work or play, distractions dilute our focus, slow us down, drain our energy.

The real work before the work is giving something (or, frankly, someone) we care about our absolute and complete attention. Only when we’re fully present can we put all our knowledge, tips, experience, and advice to work for us. Set your sites on an hour a day and work from there.

Thanks, Camille!