After 10 years as a gym owner, my mission has changed so many times over those years. Where CFF began is so very different from where it is today.
When I opened CrossFit FUNCTION in 2011, my mission was simple: put food on the table for myself.
As we evolved, my mission was adopted by a team and became more complex. We wanted to introduce real fitness, long-lasting fitness to Yorkton. We wanted to be counterculture. We wanted to stomp out the myths around fat loss, performance and health. Our mission, for a while, was hard to iterate. I stopped writing it down and talking about it, because it wasn’t clear enough that even I could understand.
Our Mission
Someone once told me:
“If you care about somebody, you have to care about their health. And if you care about their health, you have to care about the community around them.”
So we built a caring, supportive community. We planted seeds and cut back the brambles and grew in a hundred different directions. It’s been amazing. But if you ask any member of the CFF family, “What’s CrossFit FUNCTION?” you’ll get a hundred different answers. So here it is, the CrossFit FUNCTION mission, 2021 edition:
The CrossFit FUNCTION Mission is to enlarge the lives of 1,000 people in Yorkton.
Small Changes Lead To Bigger Changes
I care about this city. I came back here by choice after leaving for University. This city gave a lot to me as I was growing up, and I wanted to do the same. I had this new-found passion for fitness because of the changes it had created in my life, and I needed to share that with others.
Over the years, our slogan became “One Percent Better” because that’s what CFF does. I know that I don’t have to impact every single person in Yorkton to make the type of change we are hoping to create. Because Yorkton is a great big small town, with one degree of separation, we can change the city by enlarging the lives of 1,000 citizens. We start small, and focus on making some small changes to create momentum. After all these small events of focusing on the 1%, eventually the life-changing moments come. Our clients, in turn, can ask their friends to go for a walk, or share their salad and meat for lunch. We can be the city’s catalyst for health. Small changes creating bigger changes. The power of momentum.
Why “enlarge” the lives of 1000 citizens? Because our brand of fitness is more than life-extending; it’s life-broadening.
Live Better
If you cut out processed carbs and sugar and start doing squats, deadlifts and presses, you’ll live longer. But you’ll also live better. You’ll stay independent to an older age. You’ll have strength and mobility and the will to live right up until the end. If we can enhance the quality of life for our clients, and make their day-to-day easier and better, they will get more out of their days. We are trying to help people become happier, healthier, and all-around better human beings.
You’ll be younger for longer. And while you’re young, you’ll do more things.
You’ll Spartan Up. You will play more sports. One day you will find yourself riding your bike 100km or running 5k with your friends to raise money for people who can’t. You’ll get down on the floor with the kids, up on your feet to dance, and over the walls of diabetes and depression. You will go, you will see, and you will conquer. You will live a larger life.
The CrossFit FUNCTION Mission is to enlarge the lives of 1,000 people in Yorkton. What’s yours?
Inspiration provided by Chris Cooper at Catalystgym.com.
