The Day I Quit Boxing and What It Taught Me About Baselines

Published On:

May 7, 2026

The Day I Quit Boxing and What It Taught Me About Baselines

I signed up for boxing lessons because I liked the sport and wanted to challenge myself.

On my first visit, I was told I should train three times a week.

The first session was brutal.

That night, I soaked in Epsom salt, barely able to move. Everything hurt. I felt weak, undisciplined, and deeply out of place. What stayed with me even more than the physical pain was the embarrassment. I didn’t just stop going, I quietly disappeared.

For a long time after that, I never considered taking up lessons again. I told myself I simply wasn’t built for it.

Years later, I learned something important:

The gym I had joined was where boxing elites trained professionally.

It finally made sense. Wrong ring, wrong crowd and a completely wrong baseline. The expectation wasn’t unreasonable; it just wasn’t meant for me.

When the Baseline Is Wrong, People Absorb the Blame

That experience changed how I think about performance, especially in business. I’ve sat in countless meetings where results are presented confidently:

“We delivered a 10% increase.”
“Margins improved.”
“Productivity is up.”

And yet the most important question often goes unasked:

Compared to what?

Because without a baseline, numbers don’t inform decisions. They distort them.

A 10% increase is exceptional if the industry average is 5%. It’s concerning if the industry average is 20%.

The metric stays the same but the meaning does not.

Baselines Shape the Narrative

In organizations, unclear or misaligned baselines lead to:

Teams being labeled underperforming despite real progress. Leaders overcorrecting based on incomplete context. Confidence quietly eroding when expectations are invisible.

In personal life, the impact is just as real. People feel undisciplined when standards were unrealistic and growth feels like failure when comparisons are borrowed.

Shame replaces motivation

The damage isn’t caused by ambition. It’s caused by comparison without context.

Strong leaders don’t just set targets; they define the reference point.

They ask:

“What are we measuring against?”
“Is this the right benchmark for this stage?”
“Have we aligned on what “good” actually means?”

Baselines evolve. What works for elite performers, mature organizations, or late-stage teams may be harmful elsewhere. Raising the bar without recalibrating the baseline doesn’t drive excellence instead it distorts reality.

The Real Lesson

Performance without context is noise and progress without a baseline is guesswork.

Whether in business or in life, the baseline determines whether growth feels achievable or defeating.

Before judging results or ourselves, it’s worth asking: “Is this the right baseline for where we are today?”

PML would like to extend a huge thank you to Shiamala Paramasivam for sharing her knowledge and wisdom with the PML community!
Learn more about her below and reach out to connect!

About the Author

Shiamala Paramasivam, PMP®, is an Innovation & Commercialization Program and Project Manager with extensive experience leading complex product launches, renovation initiatives, and cost-savings programs within the CPG industry. She brings a strategic, human-centered approach to project delivery, with a particular interest in prioritization, trust-based leadership, and navigating ambiguity with clarity. Beyond her professional work, Shiamala continues to refine her communication craft through formal writing and speaking training, and enjoys macro photography as a creative counterbalance that sharpens observation and perspective. She is an active contributor to the project management community through writing, mentoring, and volunteer leadership.

Connect with Shiamala directly on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shiamalap/

Who is Project Management Life (PML)?

Project Management Life (PML) is a growing community focused on helping project leaders build sustainable performance through community, content, virtual retreats, courses, and transformational learning experiences.

We share exclusive content around project management, career and personal branding, health and well-being, self-care, and so much more. PML offers a space to connect, recharge, and discover new ways to live your best life.

We founded PML on the idea that we can inspire each other with stories of success and valuable lessons learned, empower each other with career advice and resources to thrive both personally and professionally, and support each other to achieve a fulfilling work-life balance and focus on our health and well-being.

By living our best life, we bring our best selves to our projects, our teams, our loved ones, and the world.

Join the PML Community

The PML Community is a community of project managers and like-minded professionals supporting each other. Whether you’re a new or experienced project manager, this is a place where we can connect, learn, celebrate, and support one another.

The PML Community Newsletter is free, and jam-packed with exclusive content about project management, career growth and personal branding, health and well-being, personal self-improvement, professional development, work-life balance, and more. If you’re ready to go deeper with PML, we also have our PML Membership if you’re looking for more great content to live your best life. Check out our PML Membership page to learn more.

Join us today, and don’t miss out!

Share this Blog Post:

Standard PML Contributor Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this PML Contributor guest post are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect the views of Project Management Life. We appreciate the many diverse perspectives shared by our contributors as part of our commitment to fostering insightful discussions within the PML Tribe Community.