Using Your Mental Muscle

I think that both you and I can agree, that achieving your goals, especially with your physique and fitness, is more mental than it is physical. I’ll tell you from experience, that it wasn’t my nutrition or calories that were giving me energy during my HIIT sprints during the final two weeks of competition prep… I was running on complete drive, heart, and sheer determination. If you are weak in the mind, you will never be strong in the body. Our body is one with our mind, and if you don’t know how to use your mind as your most powerful muscle, you will never attain to anything great in life.

 

I’ll also point out that motivation is a complete myth. Motivation doesn’t get anything done and it doesn’t help you achieve anything. Motivation is what gets you going in the beginning, but both of us know that, motivation will dwindle over time. You will have days where you are highly motivated and days where you have no motivation at all. So what do you do on those days where you don’t have the motivation? How do you keep going? If all you do is rely on motivation, you will also never achieve anything great. Here are some of the traits that will be responsible for your success in life:

– Heart

– Strong habits

– Work ethic

– Character

– Passion

– Perseverance

– Faith

– Determination

– Focus

 

There are many other traits that can contribute to a positive outcome in your life, but most of these traits, begin in the mind. No one is telling you to get up at 4 am to go get your workout in, when that is the only time you have in the day to get it done. No one is telling you to follow your nutrition program 100% and to not cheat or eat something that will push you further away from your goals. No one can accomplish your dream other than YOU. It is YOUR dream, no one elses. Others may help you along your journey, but it is up to you if you are going to follow through and make it happen.

 

Here are three ways to ensure that you will remain focused with your goals:

 

Write your goals down! Too many people talk about their goals, but never follow through. The first question I usually ask is, “Do you write your goals down?” The answer usually commences, “No.” There’s your first problem right there. You can’t just talk about your goals; everyone talks about what they are going to do… and that is because talking is easy! Following through on your goals is the hardest thing to do. Write down your goals to make them REAL. It’s been said that dreams are just goals written down. Once you write down your goals, post them up EVERYWHERE within your house or apartment. On your bathroom mirror, on your refrigerator, near your door as you wake up… places that you will always see them. As you see your goals written down, you remained more focused and they become more concrete in your mind. As they become more concrete, they take a higher priority on your list.

 

Be precise about what you want! If you don’t know where you are going, you will never arrive there. The same is true about your goals. If your goal is to lose weight, I’m telling you right now, YOU WILL NEVER LOSE ANY WEIGHT. You need to be PRECISE with your goals. How much weight do you want to lose? When do you want to lose the weight by? How will you feel once you have lost that weight? You have to be very detailed about where it is that you want to go and what you want to achieve. Then, and only then, can you be certain that you will arrive there, if you are willing to put in the work.

 

Never give up! People give up on their goals because their goals do not mean that much to them. If you were really passionate about your dreams and goals, you would never give up.  Giving up accomplishes nothing. Giving up will destroy you. You will never achieve anything in life if all you do is give up when things get tough. Guess what? It is supposed to be tough! It is supposed to be hard! If accomplishing goals was easy, everyone would be living the life of their dreams! Remember, the secret is in not giving up. Every successful person or anyone who became great at what they did had to overcome something. They all had obstacles and challenges in their path, however, they had perseverance. They couldn’t accept failure as an option. They simply did not give up. They kept pushing and pushing and pushing… until they finally got to where they wanted to be.

 

Exercise your mind even more than you exercise your body. Then you will become truly unstoppable.

 

Train hard and train smart.