“Somewhere inside you, I know you have a passion that is beyond the norm for life. Apply everything you know about training to your life right now. I can guarantee you will achieve everything you set out to do this year if you just keep moving. Get to work!”
I received an email not too long ago from a friend of mine who runs a very successful business down south. We were talking about moving forward in our careers and how to keep ourselves levelheaded as the pressure to grow, manage clients, and manage our personal lives becomes ever more difficult. Truth be told, that was always a struggling point with me. That balance thing in life. . .it can be tricky. You would think that as a Primal Move Instructor, I would be able to be more fluid with my movement. Alas, I am often humbled by my own limitations in mobility, balance, and well. . .movement in general, not just related to fitness.
A few months ago I hit a wall of frustration. I would ask myself things like “How do I find time to train my in between my sessions with my clients? How do I budget my time to keep things looking awesome at the studio? How do I switch up my nutrition for composition changes? How in the world am I ever going to nail that 24kg pull up? ”
And then. . . a thought. A thought happened. It was not a good thought.
“This is impossible!”
Many a good months had been wasted as I constantly repeated those negative thought patterns over and over again. All that doubt was making me less productive at work, not to mention really killing my overall atheltic performance. I didn’t feel good and therefore, my lifts were suffering. Seriously! Negativity can really hurt your performance at the gym. One day while writing on this here blog, I came across another blog post friend and health coach, Rachel Tracewski wrote when she first launched her business, Re-purposed Wellness. The title of the post caught my attention, and the first few sentences said it all.
“There is one thing you can do for your health today that has nothing to do with what you put in your mouth…Stop playing old tapes.”
Have you ever had one of those “light bulb moments”? You know. . .a moment when you realize that you actually CAN DO that thing that you have been stressing over and worrying about for hours/days/months/years? Have you noticed that, once that light bulb gets turned on, you are calm, relaxed, and able to make a plan of action for your goals? Your brain can relax and start to logically put together the pieces of the puzzle of what you need to complete the whole picture of your life. For me, it was a matter of setting aside time to deal with my workout routines and my business. Once I got organized and made a commitment to change the way I was living, I decided to do something I don’t normally do.
I asked for help.
Constantly repeating thoughts of negativity is form of self-sabotage. Those “this is too hard! ” sorts of thoughts will do nothing but increase a lot of fear and fear, by nature, will either make you stop dead in your tracks or cause you to run far away form that thing you are actually trying to accomplish. The moment you can believe that you CAN DO that thing, you only have one more step before reaching your goal. Ask for guidance from someone who has done the thing before, and apply those same steps to reach the goal. That whole biblical principle of “Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find” really does apply to life you know 😉
Sabotaging yourself is NOT the same as making sacrifices. Let me repeat this . A sacrifice is willingly giving something up in order to reach a positive outcome. For me, I set aside time for training harder for my level II kettlebell certification. For me, I had to ask for some guidance and then apply some training principles to work on my 24kg pull up. I have specific goals that I must sacrifice time for in order to reach my outcome. Our clients at the studio make similar sacrifices. They set aside the time, ask for my guidance in order to reach their training goals. Over the course of their training programs, something happens. Those sacrifices. . .they lead to positive changes, positive results. That thing that seemed so scary, so impossible, it really can become a reality the moment we stop mentally sabotaging ourselves from success.
Take Ryan, a private client of mine. Ryan completely shattered his wrists from a freak accident a few years ago but was determined to master his bar muscle up and levers for his upcoming Progressive Calisthenic Certification. The man, before seeing me, was completely unable to apply pressure on his hands for a push up, let alone sustain himself upright on a bar, or a box. After 2 months, Ryan aced his bar muscle up (withOUT a kip) and by the looks of things, his box lever has become just as solid!
Here’s something a bit more personal. Me and my tiny self had repeated over and over again that thought of never being able to get my entire throat to the bar with the 24kg after my first failed attempt of the Iron Maiden Challenge at RKC Vienna. Back then, I barely even got my chin to the bar. After letting those old tapes of negativity run on repeat over and over for far too long, I decided that. . well. . . I had had enough. I contacted a few instructor friends of mine, expressed my concerns, and decided to just put together the training for it in an effort to get closer towards the Iron Maiden Challenge. Here’s the progress thus far.
Once I get a wee bit stronger, that throat to bar from the dead hang will happen. Trust me! I WILL DO the thing!
Stop playing old tapes! Stop sabotaging your dreams! Understand that there are sacrifices you may need to make to achieve what seems impossible. The moment you reach out for help and ask for guidance, rest and know that you will be able to achieve every single goal you have set out to achieve. Sometimes all you need is for someone to turn on your light bulb so you can see where you need to go. 🙂
Master your instincts!
