Effort is Everything.

Effort. 

If you do CrossFit or if you do any training where you actually track results, it is easy to become obsessed by numbers. Even for us as a company, we often look at daily analytics and monthly numbers and base “how we are doing” off of those numbers. The truth behind it all is that sometimes the numbers can lie. In life, fitness, business and any other quantitate measure, the numbers can at times be misleading. I type this motivation Monday based off of a conversation I recently had with my wife and also our friend Jess. We were discussing the expectations that athletes and specifically women at times place on themselves that often lead to more stress and a more difficult time to reach ones goals. It is great for us to have goals, and we need numbers to track our progress and also know and see how close or far we are from our goals, however they aren’t everything.

So what is everything? Your effort. What if you turned off the clock for a while? What if you stopped tracking the weights for a while? You simply went as fast as you could with no data, you simply went as heavy as you could with no numbers. Would you still improve? Some wouldn’t, because they are only driven by the data, it helps them prove themselves to themselves and to others. I would argue that there are very high level successful people in and outside of fitness who would perform even better or just as well without the data. These people are the ones who excel and are obsessed with their own effort, they want one thing and that thing is to get the most out of their own potential in what field they choose to chase. I know not everyone can operate this way, but understand there is a significant advantage to this. These people aren’t easily discouraged when performance numbers don’t meet their expectations, they aren’t easily tempted to give up on their goals. Why? Because they look to their effort as their measure. I write this to challenge you to ask yourself what question matters more in the long run of any pursuit: What are the numbers? Or did you do your best?( each day, each rep, etc.) Focus on effort and let the rest take care of itself, the numbers will align with your effort as you go. Each day get up, regardless of the numbers of yesterday or your performance today and be determined to give your all, right now, with where you are at. Improvement will be the result.

Effort is everything.