Game of Inches

As I was working on the WOD I was thinking about the game of football and how it is often referred to as a game of inches.  Then I started to think of how success in CrossFit is also about inches.  When you take a WOD with 200 reps and you begin to think about not coming to full lock out on an overhead movement or opening you hips all the way on box jumps, kettlebell swings or squats we have lost several inches or even feet.  In a game of inches we must make a conscious decision to perform every rep with correct movement and not cheat ourselves out of several feet at the end of a WOD for the sake of the a lower time.  With that in mind how much less is the athlete getting out of a WOD that is using incorrect movement?  Did they even really work harder?  How can we apply these concepts to our lives, family, jobs?