The key to success in any endeavour starts
with one thing- who you believe you are and what you believe you are capable
of.
Obviously HPC-UK is concerned with helping
people develop their body and minds to fulfil their potential. So I get to speak
to many people who are not happy with their body, their minds not so much;
which is a shame because the unfulfilled potential in their body pails into
insignificance compared to what they could do with their minds.
The reason 99.9% of these people have
failed, and continue to fail to achieve progress with their body, is that their
belief in 'who they are' dictates this.
Case in point = Me.
My body is athletic; it has a good level of
muscle mass and low bodyfat percentage. I can co-ordinate various parts with
precision and so on, etc, etc...for most of my adult life I've been 13 - 13 1/2
stone at approximately 6% bodyfat.
Why is this so? Because of my self belief
that 'I'm an athlete'.
Okay so now you're saying, of course you
believe you're an athlete when you have that body, that can do those things and
you compete...DUH!!!
You honestly couldn't be further from the
truth.
My body is that way, because I
wholeheartedly believe it to be so. I have no doubt in my mind that I'm an
athlete...three years ago my body disagreed.
Three years ago I was diagnosed with
Hodgkins Lymphoma, a fairly aggressive cancer, but fortunately due to the great
work of scientists worldwide and the amazing, AMAZING people in the NHS, very
treatable. So 9 months of Chemotherapy, end result being lots of vacuuming
around the house (hair loss), huge muscle loss, huge fat gain, nerve damage (intermittent
loss of feeling alternating with periods of intense pins and needles), lung
damage, and cardiovascular damage (heart and blood vessels).
I ended up at 14 1/2 stone at approximately
20 percent bodyfat, not being able to effectively feel my hands and feet, not
being able to walk the length of a street without feeling exhausted and out of
breath, mitochondrial dysfunction, and as for co-ordination, well, the
chemo-brain did a wicked number on that.
One thing didn't change, in fact it became
even more resolute in my mind….'I'm a mudda-funking athlete'. My body at that
point certainly wasn't what I would consider athletic. I however, mindfully
disagreed back.
Had I agreed, I would still be in the same,
if not worse, shape now. Why? Because if I no longer saw or believed that I was
an athlete, I didn't really 'need' to do certain things. Maybe I still 'should'
do these things, but as we know 'should’s' don't usually happen. When you truly
'need' to do something, in fact a better term to use would be 'must'...when we
'must' do something, it gets done...period. And when we take the right actions
and get them done, we get the right results. After all, outcomes don't occur
without actions.
As an athlete, I must train. Specifically,
as a sprinter I must sprint. To support my sprinting I must weight train. To
support my weight training I must eat the correct foods. A big part of
sprinting is co-ordination and reaction speed, so I developed a training and
nutrient supplement to improve this. I can't carry 20 percent bodyfat and still
hope to move fast, so that too must be changed. And it would be a good idea to
be able to feel your hands and feet, so again I developed a nutritional
protocol to assist in the repairing of my nerves. I sought out the best
information and practiced it consistently and frequently.
Where am I today? 13 stone at 10% bodyfat
(and still getting leaner, I'm not rushing this as some of the toxins from the chemo'
are stored in the fat cells which makes me ill if released too quickly). I'm
completing higher quality sessions than I ever did in my earlier career and
aiming towards some big things in the next few years.
Now honestly, if you're always 'wanting' to
lose weight, or continually dieting, why do you never really achieve your goal?
Be really honest, what is the story you tell yourself? Do you believe you're a
cover model or do you actually just tell yourself you're fat and never really
truly believe this will change? If it's the latter, guess what, you're right.
If you believe you're fat and have tried 'everything' to lose weight, then
you'll always remain the same, even if you temporarily lose a bit. Why? Because
if you believe this, your actions will reflect it.
If you truly believe you're a cover model,
then that bottle of wine and sharing size packet of crisps, although appealing doesn't
get consumed. They may indulge occasionally but not frequently. The things they
do practice frequently are train, eat goal supportive meals and generally
organise their environment to ensure that specific actions are taken.
If you believe you're fat and out of shape,
then you're much more likely to make decisions and take actions that affirm
this, or tend to gravitate towards people who affirm this for you, and you for
them. You change your standards to reflect your vision.
If this is you, and you're happy with it,
fine. Nobody really (really, really...) cares. But make the decision and live
with it, stop saying you 'wish this' or 'wish that'. No you don't. You simply
are lying to yourself. If it's important to you, you'll find a way. If it's
not, you'll find an excuse.
If you really want to make progress with a
facet of your life, make the decision. Be honest about what you want, and get
it clear in your head where you want to be. Think about what you need to do to
get there (here’s a hint: look at what the majority do, and do the opposite).
Find the absolute best information you can to achieve your goal. Then
frequently (every day) do those things.
‘We are what we
repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.’ ~ Aristotle
