Narrow Your Scope

Achieve More by Doing Less

Wait, you’re saying do…LESS?

That’s right. One of my main personal tenets as of late is to do less. I’m sure you can already guess there’s more to it than that, so let me break it down…

Life is Full of Overwhelm

Everywhere you look these days, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Social media is the low-hanging fruit here - it’s designed from its core to keep you logged on for hours, wasting your time. Every retailer has “the last (fill in the blank) you’ll ever need to buy!” Our attention gets pulled in so many directions. Even when it comes to fitness, there are so many options and things you should be doing to stay in shape and eat healthy.

Last week I talked about “checking the box” with your fitness - this is kind of the same idea. Simplify, and get better results!

“Simplify Then Add Lightness”

If you know me at all, you know I’m a car guy. And there’s a well-known quote in the automotive world by Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus. When he became  successful at racing cars of various types, people wanted to know his car-building secrets. So, he gifted the world with this quote:

“Simplify, then add lightness.”

In car terms, it means that more power doesn’t always win races. More power usually means a larger engine, which means more weight. More complex braking and steering systems also add weight. And weight is the enemy of acceleration, braking and cornering.

But We’re Not Cars

Damn straight. But I bet you’re smart enough to already see where I’m going with this…If you simplify - or narrow your scope - you’ll be more effective at whatever you’re doing.

Narrowing Your Scope

In fitness, it’s so easy to get caught up in working on everything all the time. And that’s great if you want to be a CrossFit Games athlete or a fitness influencer. If you want results, focus on what you want to improve, and trim the fat (figuratively and literally).

You can slowly increase all your skills, tiny increments at a time, or you can hone in on one or two skills to see a big increase. Those skills will be a lot easier to maintain once you’ve gained them and want to move on to other things. This is why you’ll see some of the same movements repeated in gym programming for 8-12 weeks. So you see results!

And don’t stress about the things outside your scope for now. They may falter a bit, but that will be far outweighed by the progress you make.