The video above is a good one.  The speaker is animated and entertaining and there are good messages there for business leaders.  Maybe I’ll be able to assimilate some of them at a later date but for now my coach’s brain locked onto the concept of “Outputs vs Outcomes”.

CrossFit is unique among fitness programs in measuring fitness outputs.  And CrossFitters all around Vancouver and the world do a great job of tracking data.  We celebrate first muscle ups, first pull ups, first RX’d Frans and first rope climbs.  And measuring and tracking these outputs is a very important part of CrossFit’s success.

And it is easy to become so absorbed by outputs that we lose sight of outcomes.

When we opened up on Dunbar Street in March 2013 we chose the tagline “Recreating your body, transforming your soul.”

This was not just a clever slogan but a statement of our intended outcome as coaches and as athletes.  It is our acknowledgement as coaches that CrossFit is a tool applied to a higher purpose.  A means to an end.  Your health and fitness is a physical reflection of who you are being in your life and how you are operating in the world.

When you first RX Fran you leave with a new feeling of competency and accomplishment and you carry those feelings into the world outside the gym.  When you conquer your fear of box jumps you realize that you can conquer other fears in your life.  CrossFit is a physical expression of the challenges we each face daily in life and it is an opportunity to practice in a safe and supportive environment overcoming those challenges, obstacles and limitations.

Outputs are the personal bests that we celebrate every day.  Outcomes are finally working up the courage to leave the job I hate, finding myself in the loving relationship that I was missing in my life, finally getting off my anti-depressants, being able to take my shirt off in public for the first time without feeling self conscious, being free of chronic back pain for the first time in a decade.  All true stories.

As coaches, these are the stories we live for.  It is why we have dedicated our lives to coaching CrossFit.  Crushing the WOD is great but only because we know that after you do you will walk out our doors and crush the world!

We do a great job of celebrating outputs.  Let’s do a better job of celebrating outcomes.

Please share outcomes that have touched your life.