Why measuring matters… and how avoiding it is keeping you from becoming who you’re capable of being – PART 1
When it comes to fitness, I genuinely believe CrossFit got something profoundly right.
And it profoundly changed the Fitness Industry…
Now, before anyone starts rolling their eyes, no, I don’t mean the kipping pull-ups, handstand push-ups, or doing Murph in a weighted vest, even though they made that a thing that everyone uses now…
No, what changed the fitness industry was that CrossFit gave ordinary people a reason to care about becoming more capable.
For the first time, mums, dads, tradies, teachers, accountants and retirees weren’t just exercising to burn calories or lose weight.
People have started chasing their first pull-ups.
Trying to squat their bodyweight.
Learning to handstand hold, and some even walk on their hands.
Running faster than they did six months ago.
Getting stronger than they thought possible…. CrossFit made fitness measurable.
It gave people a way to see progress.
And one of the simplest tools it ever introduced was… the whiteboard.
The good old-fashioned, analog, no need for technology… whiteboard.
Covered in names.
Weights.
Times.
Scores.
Two little letters.
Simple. Visible. Honest.
Personally, I loved it, still do! Yet somehow, over the last decade (or since I started back in 2015), that whiteboard has become one of the most misunderstood guidance tools in the modern fitness era.
Today it seems almost fashionable to criticise it.
Some people call it toxic.
They say it promotes comparison.
That it intimidates people.
That it creates unhealthy competition.
To be honest, I’ve heard every argument imaginable.
And I think those who say this have got it completely backwards!
And I disagree!!!
Ill say it right now.
The whiteboard isn’t the problem.
Your relationship with it is!
In fact, I’d argue that the way someone reacts to a whiteboard has very little to do with fitness at all.
It has everything to do with identity.
Because here’s what I’ve noticed after two decades of coaching.
Two people can finish exactly the same workout.
Write exactly the same score.
Stand in front of exactly the same whiteboard.
One walks away inspired.
The other walks away defeated.
Nothing changed.
Not the workout.
Not the score.
Not the board.
The only thing that changed was the story they told themselves about what the score meant.
That’s where this article begins.
Not with fitness. Not with who’s the best, but with psychology.
Truth is, the whiteboard doesn’t reveal your fitness. It reveals your relationship with yourself.
And I’m about to spend the next couple of hundred words explaining why!
So let’s begin…
# 1 – We have confused measurement with judgement.
Somewhere along the way, someone decided measuring ourselves is unhealthy.
We don’t say it outright, but we act like it.
People like to say things like,
“I don’t weigh myself.”
“I don’t look at my bank account.”
“I don’t want to know.”
“I don’t want my score on the board.”
May I be bold and ask a simple question?
How has pretending the number doesn’t exist ever improved the outcome?
If you don’t know how much money you have… How do you make better financial decisions?
If you don’t know your blood pressure… How do you improve your health?
If you don’t know how many books you’ve read this year… How do you know whether you’re becoming the person you said you wanted to become?
Measurement has never been the enemy.
Measurement is simply information.
Information gives feedback.
Feedback gives direction.
Direction creates progress.
The greatest businesses in the world measure everything!
Professional sporting organisations measure everything.
Pilots measure everything.
Farmers measure everything.
Yet somewhere along the way the fitness industry started telling people they shouldn’t measure themselves because it might hurt their feelings.
And sorry, but I don’t buy it!
Not because feelings don’t matter. (Well yeah, kind of that, but that’s for another post, which I may have already written about; emotions don’t change measurements. I’ll have to go and see. Or I’ve just inspired another Blog Post?)
But because avoiding reality has never made anyone stronger.
Physically.
Emotionally.
Spiritually.
Or mentally.
Here’s what I think has happened.
We’ve confused measurement with judgement.
Those are two completely different things.
The whiteboard never judges you!
It’s an inanimate object!
It simply tells the truth about today.
Not tomorrow.
Not next year.
Today.
That’s all.
And if you’re willing to tell yourself the truth about today…
Tomorrow becomes something you can actually change.
#2 – The whiteboard doesn’t tell you who you are.
It tells you what you did.
There’s an enormous difference.
One of my favourite books is Transcend by Scott Barry-Kauffman and has such a valuable insight into this exact phenomenon.
For years, psychology taught that self-esteem came from achievement.
Win more.
Earn more.
Be more successful.
Become more impressive.
Then you’ll finally feel good enough.
The problem though? That’s not how it works.
Because the moment your identity depends on achievement... Achievement owns you.
Every failure becomes an identity crisis.
Every setback becomes personal.
Every person who’s better than you becomes a threat.
Kaufman argues something far healthier.
Healthy self-esteem isn’t built by proving your worth.
It’s built by recognising that your worth exists before you’ve proven anything.
Read that again.
‘Healthy self-esteem isn’t built by proving your worth.
It’s built by recognising that your worth exists before you’ve proven anything.‘
Because if that’s true…
Then the whiteboard loses its power.
Your score can’t determine your value because your value was never attached to the score in the first place.
Now the board becomes what it was always meant to be.
Feedback.
Nothing more.
The questions change…
Did I improve?
Did I hold back?
Could I have given more?
Could I have done more in the days leading up? Weeks? Months?
What am I leaving on the table?
Those are productive questions.
Questions that create growth.
Not shame!
And yet, so many people never ask them.
Why?
Because they’re terrified the answer might expose them.
But expose what? Their fitness?
No.
Their self-esteem.
And that’s why I think the modern conversation around the whiteboard has missed the point entirely.
People think the board creates insecurity.
I think it simply reveals insecurity that was already there.
That’s uncomfortable.
But discomfort has always been the starting point of growth.
Not the end of it.
So why do I think this is such an important topic to discuss???
Because I get a front-row seat to watching people change the story they tell themselves.
Almost every week, someone has this moment.
They’re nervous about writing their name on the whiteboard.
They’re worried about the score they finished the workout with.
They’re worried someone will judge them.
They’re worried the score somehow says something about who they are.
But the thing is… It’s just a whiteboard.
It’s a piece of white-coated metal with some black marker scribbled across it.
It has no opinion.
No emotion.
No ability to judge you.
Yet some like to give an inanimate object the authority to determine whether we float or sink on our own sea of self-worth.
Which is crazy!
But also, then why do I keep it?
Well, It’s simple…
If a whiteboard can determine whether you feel successful, confident or worthy, then the problem isn’t the whiteboard.
The problem is that you’ve handed your identity over to something that was never designed to carry it.
And I don’t say that to criticise you.
I say it because I’ve been there myself.
The beautiful thing about the whiteboard is that it exposes that insecurity.
The whiteboard is a tool not a threat.
Feedback instead of failure.
A coach instead of a critic.
And that’s exactly why I love it.
Fitness becomes about far more than fitness.
When the stories we tell ourselves change…
You dont stop sleeping in your bed because you think there are monsters under it.
The bed stays, and you be an adult and realise there are no monsters!
So here is the Conclusion and a lead into PART 2…
I’d like to leave you with a question.
If the whiteboard isn’t the problem…
What is?
In Part Two, I want to explore why two people can look at the exact same score and walk away feeling completely different.
Because I don’t think the whiteboard reveals your fitness.
I think it reveals your relationship with yourself.
And understanding that might just change the way you approach not only the gym…
…but every measurement in your life.