Mindset

First thing’s first: if you think you can, you’re right. If you think you can’t, you’re right.

Your own mind is the only thing you can control. You cannot control anyone else. Mindset underpins everything we do in life. It influences whether we will set and achieve certain goals and dictates how far we will ultimately push ourselves. The true power and extent of where your mind can push you is unbelievable if you let it. We’ll give you a few examples and take you through methods we hope will benefit you strengthen your own positive mindset and mental resilience.

We have goals in all areas of our life, no matter how big or small. Setting goals is important, it sends your life on a specific path, keeps you constantly progressing AND gives you a huge sense of achievement when you hit them. We’ll get into how to effectively set goals in another post, but once you have your goals, there are two important questions to ask yourself. Firstly, is it your goal? And Secondly, why is that your goal? You need to go deep into yourself and really find the core reason of why you’re striving towards certain goals for them to be achieved successfully.

These days, we have many external influences constantly in our faces from the media and social media telling women they need to look like a Victoria’s Secret model and men like a jacked up superhero. So, do you really want to look like that? Or is that just what your Instagram feed is telling you? Make sure it is your goal, not someone else’s goal for you. If it’s not truly your goal, you just won’t be able to find a real ‘why,’ or maintain it.

Why is this your goal? Be totally honest with yourself, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Take the most popular body composition related goal: ‘fat loss’. Firstly, this should be more specific, but secondly, what’s the ‘why?’ ‘Because I want to look good.’ Ok, so does everyone. But WHY? ‘Because I don’t like the way my body feels when I run with this excess fat’… ‘Because I want to run around and play with my kids for more than the current five minutes I can manage’… You can go deeper still – how does that make you feel? Your reasons make the goals more tangible and more personal to YOU. These deeper reasons will then motivate you when your mind is telling you to give up. At that point, ‘I want to look good’ doesn’t cut it, but the thought of doing it for your kids, or something meaningful, will drive you forward further than you could imagine.

Just don’t say can’t. How do you know if you’ve not even tried yet?

We challenge ourselves daily in all areas of life. Trust us that your mind will want the easy way out. That voice in the back of your head that gives you an excuse, validating your reason for not doing something is your brain defending you from potential challenge and short term pain. Shift your mindset and block those thoughts out. The way to do this: think about your ‘why’. If your ‘why’ is strong enough, you will be able to use it to motivate you. Note: if it’s not, you need to go back to our first question: was this your goal in the first place?

Conversely, think about how much you can damage yourself if you have a weak or negative mindset. How many times do you reprimand yourself, tell yourself you are not good enough, you are not anything enough? We often speak to ourselves in ways we would not tolerate towards our friends. We think this is normal, but it is crushing your mindset and will slowly build up walls in your head that will continue to grow until they become part of the furniture and you don’t even realise that you put them there in the first place. But you did. And good news is, you can break them down again.

There is no question that your mindset manifests itself in your physical self. A negative mindset is absolutely capable of making you physically ill, shake with nerves, sweat, become flushed, hot and bothered. All of this comes from your mind. But, a positive mindset will make you stand up tall, feel genuine confidence, smile, laugh, support your immune system to prevent illness, improve brain performance, improve physical strength and performance. You need to make the conscious decision and put the effort in to fight those negatives away and keep your mindset strong.

We’re not saying all of this is easy, but we’re saying it is worth it.

Take a few of these methods and see what works for you. Maybe you have some other ideas and we’d love to hear your suggestions…

• Write it down. We love a good list! Write down your motivations and why you are doing this. Re-read it every morning, and whenever you need that boost.
• Visualise it. If your ‘why’ is your kids, take a moment each morning to visualise playing with them, running around the garden, the smell of the garden, the sound of their voices laughing, the smiles on their faces, the smile on your face. Take this movie round with you for motivation.
• Repetition. If you find it difficult to visualise, tell yourself your reasons out loud each morning. Do it alone so you’re not conscious of other people. Simply saying the words will filter into your brain and motivate you, even if subconsciously.
• Take baby steps. Don’t feel you need to smash mindset and positivity in a day, it takes time and practice. If you can change just ONE thought each day from can’t to can, you are achieving massive things.
• Who’s around? Take note of who you surround yourself with, as this can have a huge influence on your own mindset. Make sure you surround yourself with positive people. If the negative people in your life are there to stay – work, family etc, make sure you are concentrating a little more on what they say. You can decide not to let it aimlessly filter in to your brain. If you are more aware of it, you will be able to block it out more easily.

Revisiting what we said at the start, if you think you can, you’re right. If you truly believe you can do something, know why you are doing it, motivate yourself to hit that goal no matter what, remember your ‘why,’ you will succeed. If you think you can’t, you’re right. You’ve already lost the battle because you’ve told yourself it won’t happen and cemented the first few bricks of that wall. Just don’t say can’t. How do you know if you’ve not even tried yet?

Mindset can carry you to the ends of the earth or it can pin you down: your choice.

Try this yourself if you’re still not convinced…

Stand up straight and say aloud ‘I am weak and unworthy’ ten times over. Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant at this point.

Stretch out one arm in front of you. Ask a friend to push down on your arm, and you have to push up against their arm. Remember how easy or difficult that was.

Now, say ‘I am strong and worthy’ ten times over. Again, it’s irrelevant if you believe it at this point, but you should. You are.

Repeat the arm task and see whether you feel differently this time.

Now, if you’re a hardcore gymmie, your friend’s arm strength may not adequately display the effects of our task! Give it a try at the gym. Test the above phrases before lifting a difficult weight and see how each one makes a difference to your performance.

We have found that just saying these phrases, whether they are believed or not, makes a significant difference to performance. Even with such a simple task as this. So, think about what you are doing to your mindset and performance when you are telling yourself you are weak, unimportant, not good enough, etc AND believing it. It is crushing your mindset and slowly building up brick walls in your mind, blocking you from whatever it is that you truly want to to achieve.