Hi guys,
Thanks so much for following along on our first 5 years through the past few blogs. We’ve gotten some great feedback from those of you that were there, loving the reminders of “the good old days”, as well as a lot of newer folks appreciating the insight into where it all started. And if you were part of this great journey or you’ve been reading my recollections, you might have noticed some themes. Those themes have been very apparent to me looking back through the years, but the most fantastic part is that those are the themes that WE WANTED to be the core values of our business from the beginning. So it really is coming full circle, and our coaching staff got together to formalize our mission statement and those core values, and I’d like to share them with you now.
CFKI MISSION STATEMENT
Our mission is to help people get awesome. We aim to build a strong, kind, resilient, and confident community united by a common purpose of spreading health and wellness.
The phrase “get awesome” started as a joke, morphed into a motivational phrase often written on the old gym floor in chalk, and eventually solidified into a gym motto. What does awesome mean? The definition of awesome is “extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear.” Let’s throw “daunting,” “apprehension,” and “fear” out, because that’s not what we are about, but I love the part about being “extremely impressive” and “inspiring great admiration”. We are not trying to focus on external motivation here and look for admiration from everyone, but I do think we are striving to be DESERVING of admiration. So, yeah, we want all of you guys to GET AWESOME!!
The second part of the mission statement describes the kind of traits that we want to mold into our members as they become integral parts of our community.
First, we want you to be strong – physically of course, but also mentally and emotionally.
Second, we want to model kindness toward each other and our great community.
Third, we are training you to be resilient. Ever wonder why we program Hero WODs and other long-ass grinders that push you to your mental limit? It’s because we want you to feel like you’ve been tested, and you passed, and passed again the next time, so that when something really shitty comes into your life (and it will), you know you can handle it, you have the resilience to bounce back.
Lastly, we want you to be confident. PR’ing your overhead squat or shaving a minute off your mile time creates confidence that you can translate into your job, your relationships, your life.
What we are trying to do, our MISSION, is to help you GET AWESOME. And that starts in the gym but expands to all parts of your life.
CFKI VALUES
These are the main themes that intersect between what we wanted to do when we started, and what we have realized our our core strengths now. I hope you agree!
Diligence – Hard work and persistence breeds success
This is number 1 because it’s what’s going to bring you results. Want to lose weight? Want to gain strength? Want to get that first muscle-up? You have to consistently work hard. Look at all of our members that set goals and meet them, and that is their theme in the gym, as well as their lives.
Growth – Commit to constant improvement
This applies to our athletes, our coaches, and our business.
We ask our coaches to be relentless with our athletes on constantly improving their technique. We all know you know how to squat, but if you’re not doing it exactly right, we’re going to fix you, again and again.
We encourage our coaches to follow their passions and pursue “advanced degrees” in CrossFit or elsewhere. We have four coaches that have multiple certifications from CrossFit, including Weightlifting, Gymnastics, Kids training and the Level 2 Coaches Course.
In our business, hopefully you’ve noticed since you’ve been here that things are constantly changing for the better. We evaluate opportunities that come our way with a growth mentality, as well as “would this be a positive change for our current membership,” as you being happy is our biggest and most successful marketing strategy.
Service – Take your eyes off of yourself and help others
Fight For Brian
Blasting for the Brave
Rowing for #TeamCharlie and the Tour de Cure
Barbells for Boobs
Kent Island Tornado Relief
Lift Up Autism
You guys are incredibly talented and successful at raising money and awareness in the rest of the community for these important causes, and more. I knew getting into CrossFit training that there was a precedent for CrossFitters being generous, and I’m not sure I knew why, but now I do. It’s because of the other awesome thing about CrossFitters that you all could immediately point out. We take our eyes off of ourselves and focus on others during a workout. When we see someone that looks like they’re reaching a mental breaking point, we stop what we’re doing for a second so that we can shout out their name and make sure they know we’re watching and they can do it. When we see someone absolutely killing it, we cheer them on and push them further. Doesn’t it make sense that this trait that we are practicing in the gym would translate into our feelings toward our greater community? This is the Value that I am most proud of, and I think will pay the biggest dividends for all of our lives.
Fun – Create fun and a little weirdness!
This one is really a no-brainer for me in terms of looking at our athletes and our coaches. We attract people into our gym that like to have fun, like to throw some jokes out there, and generally don’t mind some weirdness in their lives! And honestly, with our heavy focus on growth and hard work, if fun wasn’t also a part of it, would you be in?
Well there you have it – our Mission and Values. I’m interested in your thoughts here, leave them in the Comments on this blog post or on Facebook if you dare. Anything we missed out on? Anything else you want us to highlight on an upcoming post? Let us know! And in the meantime, train hard and have fun!
Ryan
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