On Fridays I like to share experiences I’ve had during the week with patients and in my personal life that I’ve found significant. I like to share them in hopes that you might find value in them and have something resonate with you in your life.
Something important. “I just haven’t felt like it.” I hear this all the time when it comes to exercising, eating well, trying to grow a business, and more. The question that usually follows is “what should I do about it?”
My answer is to remind people that if we only did what we wanted to do, no one would ever go to school, work, the gym, you name it. Something is either important or it isn’t, the feelings you have toward it will not change that. If you need money, you need to go to work. If you want to be healthier you need to exercise and eat better. When it comes to leisure activities, do what you feel like. For everything else, ignore your feelings and do what needs to be done.
A good reminder. We had a mom sign up for our SAM Designer Health Program a couple of months ago. She is married with two children, and no one in the household had good exercise or nutritional habits. As she began to make positive changes and see impressive results, her family began to make these same changes as well. Within a couple of months, everyone is now making consistent progress in their health. This woman became a catalyst for her family.
This is a reminder to us all how we can affect those around us. When we do positive things and begin to progress in our goals, we show others that it can be achieved. We make it a little easier for someone to have the courage to begin an endeavor. Consider the people closest to you. Is there something you feel would benefit them if you were to begin doing it? If so, begin it yourself and you may find they soon start to follow.
A lesson I learned through my races. When I run my longest races (100 miles, 50 miles, etc.) things never go perfectly. Inevitably, there is a point when things become incredibly tough. This occurs when my body starts to wear down and my mind begins to talk loudly at me. “If I hurts like this now, how can I go another 60 miles?” “Maybe I just don’t have it today.” “No one would care if I stopped right now.”
When this happens, I am at the most critical junction. What I have learned through experience is that how I allow myself to think in the few minutes after things get tough will either make or break me. If I allow myself to begin having doubts, it will snowball, and I will fail.
Instead, what I do is begin to fuel myself with a combination of positive self-talk and short-term goals. I try to get my mind focusing on something positive while breaking up the larger goal into something smaller. I’ll tell myself something like no one in the race can be tougher than me and all I need to do is make it to the next aid station and I’ll be fine. It doesn’t even matter if it’s true. What matters is that when my mind begins having the most significant doubts, I steer it back toward something positive. This has kept me going for hundreds more hours in my races and more importantly, in life.
Something I love. I love figuring out the best process of doing anything. This can be something small like the most efficient way to do a household task to something larger like running a business or prepping for a major race. I enjoy eliminating methods that don’t work, finding what does, and refining everything possible.
Once these processes are implemented, things begin to get much easier for me. I know what to do, how and when to do it, and so on. This helps me minimize wasted time, reduce stress, and perform maximally in whatever I am doing. If you are working toward a goal, pay close attention to your processes because they can help you get there faster if you utilize them correctly.
Some quotes I love.
“One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is shut their eyes to facts.” – C.S. Lewis
“If you constantly feed fear by thinking about the could-haves, the should-haves, the would-haves, and the cant’s, then the fear wolf wins.” – Mark Devine
“Never let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.”
“Aim to be the person at your father’s funeral that everyone, in their grief and misery, can rely on.” – Jordan Peterson
Want more?
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