Wednesday, August 4, 2010

On Accountability

Who are you accountable to? Are you accountable to those around you or to yourself, or both? What about when no one is looking, or when no one would know. Are you accountable? Do you need to be?

During a WOD, who are you accountable to? Are you only accountable to yourself, or are you accountable to others as well. Obviously, if someone is counting for you, you are being held accountable. But, if you were not accountable to anyone, if no one is counting, watching, or paying attention, who would be cheated? Think about it.

Ultimately, you are only accountable yourself. You are only cheating yourself if you keep an inaccurate tally of your reps or rounds, if you write you time incorrectly, or don’t write your time at all, if you perform incomplete movements, or movements less than what you’re capable of. You are only cheating yourself.

As I previously posted, 99% of the time you are competing with yourself, not others. This makes you accountable only to yourself. When you cheat a movement, don’t complete it as you are capable of doing, miscount your reps, or weight, you are only cheating yourself. We are all accountable to ourselves.

I was recently impressed by personal accountability. Miranda Oldroyd of CrossFit 801 was recently in a video of Isabel (30 power snatches at 95#) on the CrossFit main site. Mary Lampas, Chris Stowe and Miranda did the WOD. Upon completing it, they were asked if they ever lose track of their reps. Miranda said that she does her best, but it could be 29 or 31. 18 hours later, she reviewed the unedited video, only to discover that she only did 29 reps, not the required 30. This video was to be posted on the main CrossFit site. Everyone would have seen it, but no one would have known that she only did 29 reps. It is an edited video. No one would be counting, and no one would know. But Miranda knew. She wanted to set a good example -- take advantage of demonstrating accountability.

She went back in to the gym 18 hours later – the next day, and did the missing rep, calling “time”. 18 hours later. She then redid the entire WOD, this time completing 30 reps in 2:13, a faster time than she did the day before.

All of this was on video. The second WOD didn’t need to be. Miranda could have left everything as it was, and no one would have known except her. But she knew. And because she knew, she had to do the right thing, and be accountable. To herself. And in being accountable to herself, she showed the CrossFit community what it means to be accountable.

Miranda demonstrates her accountability in Isabel

A similar subject of Cheaters: Life AsRX posted to their blog

Who are you accountable to?

Post thoughts to Comments.

Special thanks to Miranda Oldroyd for her help with this post.