After almost 9 years as a trainer, my mission has changed.
When I opened Gifford Fitness in 2016, my mission was simple: help others be the best that they can be.
As the gym evolved and the business matured (and I with it), my mission was adopted by a team and became more complex. It took time, but I realized that I had no say in what the “best” version of someone else looked like. Therefore, the mission, values, and direction of the business had to change. With a growing staff of coaches and many more clients, what we put out into the world was amplified. Mistakes felt small when it was just me training a small group of people every day of the week for hours on end. But now with a larger operation, our actions and decisions affected more people and with more weight.
So we built a caring, supportive community from the top down. We planted seeds, expanded our programs, and elevated what we offered to our clients. It’s been amazing growth over the past year. But if you ask any member of Gifford Fitness, “What’s Gifford Fitness?” you’ll get a different answer. So here it is, the Gifford Fitness mission, 2020 edition:
The mission of Gifford Fitness is to provide people the love, care and respect that they need to be the healthiest, happiest version of themselves.
I care about people. I’ve been helping people ever since my coaches helped me. Every day, I wake up and ask myself “How can I help?” and then I go in that direction. I’ve realized that while helping others can be an honorable mission, how you go about it is truly what matters. I’ve repurposed our wonderful gym to give people the tools, not to tell them how or why to use them. We coach kids, we coach adults, and we coach coaches. We give them as much love, care, and respect to be them, and to be happy, because they deserve it. And, by showing them what’s possible, they’ll show others what’s possible, too.
My best friend and girlfriend, Kate, said it best:
“We believed that building health and longevity, building incredible athletes, and building kinder and stronger human beings didn’t have to be mutually exclusive ideas”.
Here’s how it works…If you cut out processed foods and sugar and start doing squats, deadlifts and presses, you’ll live longer. But you’ll also live better. You’ll stay physically independent to an older age. You’ll have strength and mobility and the will to live right up until the end—you’ll practically be your own pallbearer!
You’ll be younger for longer. And while you’re young, you’ll do more things.
You’ll take on physical challenges. You’ll engage in physical play until your later years. You’ll run a marathon or a 10k to raise money for people who won’t. You’ll get down on the floor with the kids, up on your feet to dance and charge through the walls of diabetes and depression. You will go, you will see, and you will conquer. You will live a larger life. Isn’t that just great? Who doesn’t want to be around that person?
You helping you and investing in you can and will help others help themselves. Does this mean that you are selfish for taking time to workout? Sure. But you’re also helping others. You’re setting an example for others to get up, and to keep going. Eventually you will do it for you. But if you have to start by doing it for them, that’s ok.
“They” are your kids, your parents, your brothers and sisters, your aunts, uncles and cousins that only catch glimpses of you on social media, your friends, your coworkers, that person that is afraid to go to a gym for the first time, that person that is afraid to make a change, and that person that sees you going on your morning run or headed to the gym every day and right now wonders “why do they do that so much?”. Those people all need help. They all benefit from seeing you invest in you.
The Gifford Fitness mission is to provide people with the love, care and respect that they need to be the healthiest, happiest versions of themselves. What’s yours?
