Navigating Life and Fitness with Strategy

Here is yet another blog post about fitness inspired by a book written by a marketing guru. Because somehow, This Is Strategy by Seth Godin has just as much to do with navigating life, not only in business but also in our ability to stick with things like CrossFit or Jiu Jitsu for the long term.

If you’ve tried and failed at this whole health and fitness thing more times than you can count, you’re not alone. We’ve all been there. You’ve bought fancy equipment along the way, and you may have even tried intermittent fasting or a juice cleanse at some point. And yet, here we are.

That’s because you might have been trying various tactics instead of building a real strategy.

Godin makes this very important distinction in his book. Tactics are the little things we implement that should only be looked at as small parts of the overall strategy. Maybe early on in CrossFit, you use a tactic of making sure you attend the same class as a friend or with a specific coach you like. And then after a few months, you find that you need to try something else like setting a specific goal to shoot for. Some tactics won’t work and that’s okay. Now strategy? That’s the big picture. The thing that keeps you moving forward even when your latest tactic flames out spectacularly.

Think about parenting. Your kid hits the terrible twos and suddenly you’re trying everything. Bribes, distractions, stern lectures, desperate prayers. Some tactics work, some don’t. But you don’t just give up on raising a functioning human because one method didn’t pan out. You adapt. The goal is raising a decent person, not just surviving a grocery store meltdown.

If you took the same approach to Jiu Jitsu as you did parenting, even if you completely "ruined" your kid for a few years because you were in a helicopter parent phase or forced them to only eat bananas because you read something on the internet, in the grand scheme of things, you’re still going to have them for at least 18 years. And kids are resilient.

Similarly, if you have a few year stretch in Jiu Jitsu where you were riddled with injuries, your attendance dropped due to life happening, or maybe you took some extended time off for whatever reason, after 18 years, you’re still going to end up as a black belt and a leader in your discipline. Kids are resilient. And so are you.

If you’re in sales and one approach isn’t landing deals, you don’t throw in the towel. You tweak, you refine, you pivot. The overall strategy of building relationships and closing sales doesn’t change just because one tactic bombs or you have a bad week or month.

Your health works the same way. People fail because they bounce from one tactic to the next with no real plan. That’s why Gym Force exists - to connect people to real independently owned gyms where the coaches actually care about long term success, not just selling a six week body transformation. Because the goal isn’t just to get in shape for a wedding. It’s to be strong, capable, and healthy for the rest of your life.

So don’t chase tactics. Build a strategy and try different tactics along the way. Tactics aren’t hacks and strategy is how we navigate complex systems over time. Real strategies don’t provide benefits in the next 30 days, but they do set you up for success for the next 30 years.