Singular Focus

If you hadn’t heard or noticed, CrossFit has deleted their Facebook and Instagram pages.  I’m not kidding – go check it out, I’ll wait.  It affected all official CrossFit pages, like the CrossFit Games, CrossFit Training, CrossFit Affiliates, etc.  They kept their Twitter account (great, the one app I don’t use…)
But, wait… why?  Why would a company that has been very active on social media since social media was a thing all of a sudden delete it?  The funny thing is, nobody seems to know, and CrossFit hasn’t announced anything publicly or emailed its affiliates.  So of course there are lots of rumors and conspiracy theories out there, ranging from this being a political statement or publicity stunt, to CrossFit selling ownership of the Games, to being the victim of a hack.  I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough — Greg Glassman isn’t afraid of speaking out or telling the truth — he’s just a classic dude who is not good at proactive communication.
My theory on this social media purge is that it is consistent with Coach Glassman’s (and thus CrossFit’s) now singular focus — to save the world from chronic disease and early death.  He’s doing everything he can to get our parents into CrossFit gyms so that they can learn proper movement and nutrition.  He’s fighting “Big Soda” and trying to dispel nutrition myths propagated by massive food corporations through faulty science.  Just take a look at CrossFit.com and the content they are putting out on a daily basis now.  It’s all very compelling nutritional information, coupled with pictures of older people working out in their living room.
To achieve this goal, CrossFit doesn’t need to post videos of Games athletes doing 15 unbroken muscle-ups, so they are “cutting the fat” and becoming more streamlined in order to keep a high level of focus on their mission.  It’s really a great business or even personal growth lesson for all of us.  If you’re clear on your mission and how you’re going to get there, you can discard the things in your life or your service offerings that don’t align, and that will not only save you time and money, but it will accelerate your progress toward your goal as you can shift resources.
So, we don’t know yet what the reason is for CrossFit’s sudden change in social media presence from “very active” to “pull the plug”, but in the end it doesn’t really matter.  There are lots of other pages posting about any slice of CrossFit culture that you like, from competition to gear to funny memes about using too much chalk.  CrossFit has decided they’re not going to be a part of that anymore, and I hope that it will advance their cause of advocating for greater health and fitness for people of all ages and conditions.  I’m ready to get behind it!  Now if I could only convince my parents…
To your health,
Ryan