Let me
begin this post by reminding you that you can truly do anything that you put
your mind to because it all starts and ends with your mind. Henry Ford once
said, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't -- you're
right." We create our reality. We often forget this when the going gets
tough. When it seems like life is against us we switch to the belief that some
"entity" is in control. Well, I think it's time we take full
responsibility. The most influential people in our society are the ones who
throw this nonsense belief out. They know that they are always in control. In
this post I will talk about something that has helped me and what I have
learned from taking control and doing difficult things.
First
off, let's begin with something almost everyone I know struggles with. Diet and
exercising. Are you finding it difficult to exercise? Or maybe you find
yourself indulging in delicious, yet empty calorie foods? Is weight control a
huge issue? All of these are problems but what do all problems have? Solutions.
I know, right? Seems crazy but it's true! You can fix whatever is broken in
your life right now! I don't mean that you can solve it in an instant. What I
mean is that you can start the process RIGHT NOW.
Let's
say you've put on a bit of extra weight and it won't seem to go away. You do
have the understanding that the gym was created for this. To lose weight! But
for some odd reason, you two can't seem to coexist. Here's the thing, most
people view the gym as a chore. You aren't alone. My best advice is to take
baby steps. Don't force yourself to the gym and try to lift eighty pound
weights and run ten miles because you'll only end up hating yourself and the
gym even more. Start by setting small goals for yourself. For example, this
week you will run twice a week for at least 15 minutes, the next, three times a
week, and so on and so forth. Once you begin to achieve the small goals, you
can then move on to bigger ones.
I'm
going to be honest, the gym and I have had a love/hate relationship for a very
long time. On days where I realize that I haven't been in a week, I have this
inner dialogue between my responsible self and my reckless self. My reckless
side yells, "screw the gym! Eat what you want sis, live your life!",
while my responsible side politely says, "the gym has helped to build your
confidence, go pump some iron girl!" A lot of the time my reckless self
has won over my responsible self. Until one day I didn't allow this. When I
began to shift my relationship with the gym into a healthy one, things started
to change. I no longer beat myself up about missing a few days of the gym. I
realized that I was persuaded by a side of me that couldn't even speak to me
nicely. I was in a toxic relationship with my reckless self. So I had to kill
that side off. Sorry, not sorry buddy.
Instead
of entertaining that ineffective dialogue, I now choose to write down why I
love the gym and why I should go on days that I lack energy. Try it out!
Writing things down on paper is powerful. It will motivate you because you will
depend on yourself since it has been documented. Now, what if your problem is
your fear of the gym and the crowd of people staring at you. I too struggled
with this. My drive to the gym consisted of me hyping myself up by playing some
trap music, dancing alone but once I stepped into the gym, my confidence
plummeted. I found myself feeling like people were watching me and I would also
compare myself to other women. WHY!?!??! Why on Earth would I allow myself to
even give these ridiculous thoughts the time of day? It wasn't until I began my
work outs that those thoughts dissipated. Want to know why? Because instead of
focusing on these thoughts, I was too busy focused on the physical
activity.
As
I've mentioned before, everything starts and ends in the mind. We fall victim
to those mean and futile thoughts. It is humanly impossible to exist without
any negative thoughts but it is completely possible to pick and choose which
ones we focus on. If we didn't have any negative thoughts life wouldn't be as
interesting and rewarding. Letting negative thoughts pass you by without letting them
have an effect on you is a HUGE challenge. Most people raise their white flag
at these unproductive thoughts which keeps them in a "comfortable" and
stagnant place. Do you want to look back on life and think to yourself, "Wow
I’ve allowed my fears to cripple me in times where I could've thrived"
Look,
I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The gym is EFFING hard. There are times during a
workout that I find myself thinking, "Why the heck do I choose to torture
myself?" The answer always comes the moment I walk out feeling a thousand
times better than I did upon walking in. Those endorphins are runnin' wild and
man does it feel good!
I once
listened to a Joe Rogan podcast where he talks about how difficult yoga is. He
said he does it pretty consistently but it's still ALWAYS effing hard. He also
mentions how important it is to constantly do things that are difficult. We
have to do the things that make us the most uncomfortable. For some of you
visual learners, let's think about muscles and how they grow. When doing a
strenuous workout, you are literally creating small tears in your muscle
fibers. The process of rebuilding these tears is what makes your muscles
stronger. So, when we challenge ourselves to do something challenging, we are
LITERALLY making ourselves stronger! Listen, I don't mean to ruin the ending
for you but you won't die on the treadmill, though it may feel like you will.
You'll actually survive and you'll be coherent enough to upload a photo on
Facebook of how many calories you burned. It's all a mind game and who likes to
lose? No one. So conquer it. Remind yourself of this simple truth.
Every.Single.Day.
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