Progress Over Perfection
This morning I was sipping my coffee, reading through the EffectUs Newsletter for the month of May, when I came across the coaches corner featuring Coach Nicole. I knew I would take away something valuable from a seasoned coach and crossfitter, but when I read about her fitness goals, I thought her insight would be worth expanding on.
When asked about her fitness goals, she said they have shifted from “looking and feeling good” to “simply showing up and putting in the work.” That small, one-liner really hit home for me. Why? Because it’s a perfect example of what progress over perfection looks like. It’s not about chasing your ideal self or waiting for the perfect results to happen, it’s about consistency. It’s choosing to show up, even on the hardest days. It’s about choosing to continue the workout, even when you feel like you are failing. The real win comes from the effort you put in, not in the outcome.
It can be a tough mental battle to walk into the gym with high expectations for yourself only to get time capped, feel like you can’t finish the workout the way you hoped for, or lift the amount of weight you expected yourself to.
There’s freedom in letting go of the expectations you place on yourself (and the ones you think others have for you) and focusing instead on the progress you’re actually making. The question I want to explore today is this: how do you define progress for yourself? Because once you can answer that, your purpose for showing up and putting in the work becomes a whole lot clearer.
Progress over perfection could look like…
Showing up when it’s not pretty
Not every workout is going to be your best and you also are not going to feel your best. Sometimes even the best pre-workout cannot get us hyped up enough, and that’s ok! Anyone can rock a workout when they are feeling 100 percent, but it’s the moments when you don’t feel your best and you STILL show up, that make the best progress.
Scale with purpose
Being present for the whiteboard briefing before the workout can help you understand the purpose of the workout (are we going for strength or intensity?) and will give you insight on if you need to scale anything. Scaling isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of intentionality. When you scale, you’re not just lowering the weight or modifying the movement randomly, you’re doing it with intention. You’re making choices based on what your body needs, where you’re at in your fitness journey, and what your goals truly are.
Small wins stack up
Try to make a big deal out of every small win. So what if you can only do 2 double unders in a row, when the person next to you can do 50? It’s your fitness journey and last week maybe you could only do one double under! Celebrating every win allows you to look back on your fitness journey and be proud of your loyalty to your future. Shift your perspective… small wins add up and you will be hitting your goals before you know it. My husband always says, “it’s ok to be just ok… because the most okayest days lead to the best results.”
Get the technique down before moving up in weight
We all know how important this is, to get the technique down before moving in weight… but at the same time we have alllll heard of that one person who went too high in weight and hurt their back or their wrist etc. etc. Progress could look like staying at your current weight for let’s say, a front squat, but you are working on mobility in your wrists so that you can get your elbows up. Getting that technique down can really help you in the future as you build up weight.
Find your own pace
We’ve all heard the quote “Comparison is the thief of joy” but we’ve all also come out of the gate so hot in a WOD that halfway through we can’t keep up with our beginning pace. It’s okay to not keep up with the person next to you. Stop comparing yourself to those around you (easier said than done, right?) and just. keep. moving. Progress looks like finding and sticking to your own pace. As you chip away at your own pace in your workouts, you will slowly build stamina and move towards a faster pace… hence our retest workouts 😉
At the end of the day, progress over perfection means giving yourself credit for just showing up even when it’s messy, even when you’re tired, even when it’s not your best day. You don’t need to hit a PR every time or rock every workout to be making progress. Honestly, some days the win is just walking through the door. The more you let go of chasing perfection and start focusing on what you are doing right, the more you’ll see how far you’ve come. Keep showing up and your future self will thank you.