by Michael Plank
In a little more than a week, we’re going to take some time with our members to assess their fitness across 15 different categories. We’ll look at everything from how flexible they are to how much they can deadlift. It’s a really helpful way to both measure progress and to be sure that during the rest of the year, we’re using the right loads and movements to optimize our training. We do this twice each year.
It’s always super fun to celebrate all the new accomplishments people make, but especially as the length of time you’ve been training increases, you don’t always see that improvement every time. After you spend long enough training, the improvements still come, without a doubt, but they change. Every assessment will no longer be a nonstop PR parade. That can be discouraging.
I once heard a podcast with Simon Sinek where he talked about his book The Infinite Game. He talked about the concept of Finite Games and Infinite Games, and it was a lightbulb moment for me.
Finite Games are games where there are defined players, defined rules, and a defined desired outcome (think of any organized sport). Infinite Games, by contrast, are games where the players change, the rules change, and there’s no definite desired outcome because there’s no defined end; the goal isn’t to win, it’s to keep the game going as long as possible. “Who can deadlift the most weight today?” is a Finite Game. Tag is a great example of an Infinite Game. Anyone can join at any time, nobody wins, you just keep running and playing til the street lights come on and it’s time to go home for dinner.
Now, we set Finite Games within the sphere of exercise. And that’s what these assessments are. So we might say: “I want to be able to do 30 squats in a minute by January 25th.” There are defined players (you), defined rules (number of squats in a minute), and a defined desired outcome (30 squats in a minute by January 25th). If you achieve that goal, you get a big dopamine hit. You feel good about yourself, if you’re at our gym we put up a picture of you and cheer for you, and it’s great. Finite Game won.
But let’s say you don’t hit that number. Let’s say you barely squeak out 20, and end up exactly where you were at the last assessment. Or let’s say you set a goal to lose 10 pounds by the end of the month but you only lose 7. Or let’s say you intend to go without alcohol for 30 days, but you have a drink on day 22. If you don’t achieve that goal that set, do you know what happens?
Nothing.
Nothing! You don’t get kicked out of the gym. You don’t fail at exercise. You don’t get weaker. Your parents don’t stop loving you. Your friends don’t abandon you. Nothing happens! Because although we might set up Finite Games within the sphere of health and wellness, exercise is not a finite game. Exercise is an Infinite Game.
The goal isn’t to WIN Exercise, it’s to keep exercising as long as possible so you can keep doing stuff you love for as many years as you have on this earth.
Assessments, goals, tests… all of these are valuable. They can be inspiring and motivating and useful in making progress. But, like with everything, there’s a dichotomy. When you achieve your goal, celebrate it; tell your friends, post about it, soak up that great feeling. But when you miss your goal (and if you do this long enough, you will miss goals), don’t worry too much about it. Because the game goes on.