Imagine Believe Achieve

I was doing some research this morning on mentality, and how it correlates with fitness, health, and wellness. I found what I am about to share with you, and read it a few times. It was written 5 years ago, the author at the time was 29, and in my opinion, wise beyond his years. 

Please forgive for not finding my own words to write, but I have found there are times when you simply cannot say it better, this is one of them! 

I hope you can take away the value of his message, and the great advice he gives. I promise it is worth your time reading!

I wanted to share with you my thoughts on how we can automatically change our motivation to exercise with a shift in our mentality. I've used this for myself and explained it to many others who were then able to get into gear, so hopefully it will have the same effect here. It's a very basic explanation, but I think you'll get the gist of it.

First

To start off, our motivation to do something - and then continue following through with it - is based on 2 things. The first is an emotionally compelling reason, the second is our self-perception of who we are relative to the rest of the world (in short, our identity).

Second

The initial motivation to become fit results from the desire to fulfill a presently unfulfilled emotional need. Everything we ever want has some sort of emotion tied to it. Everything we want and actually get has a strong enough emotion behind it that it drives us to follow through.

The key to lasting motivation then is to find a strong enough emotional reason to take action. This doesn't need to be complex, and very often it is in fact quite basic. For instance, the desire to feel attractive, confident, respected, etc., are very basic emotions we all want to experience. However, if an individual does not actively experience one of those feelings, it creates an emotional void that needs to be filled. Obviously there is more than one way to go about fulfilling this need, but if we mentally link physical fitness as an effective way to fulfill this need, we create an internal motivational force to get us going.

This is what happens at New Years. Many people associate excess weight as the cause of some emotional problem, and realizing that losing this weight will resolve this issue, they go to the gym. They are motivated to make change... at least initially.

Third

The problem is, having an emotionally compelling reason isn't going to be strong enough unless you identify yourself as being someone who can achieve the desired result. Whether your goal is to lose weight, put on muscle, or anything else, if you don't perceive yourself as being capable of achieving it, your motivation will fizzle, regardless of your reason.

Fourth

This creates the need for us to change our internal perceptions of who we are. This is done through what I identify as a self reinforcing mental cycle I call the "FIT Circle". F = Feelings, I = Identity, T = Thoughts. Feelings affect Identity which affects thoughts which affect feelings. The FIT Circle is a representation of our mental conditioning, and if you understand how yours is set, you can change it.

Fifth

I like to introduce how this works by looking at identity. Everyone of us has an self perceived identity of who we are. If you are overweight you may identify yourself as a "fat person". If you are in great shape you may identify yourself as an athlete. Now what's interesting about identities is that they are all made up of a certain belief system. You could say that your belief system is the DNA of your identity.

Here's how it affects your motivation. If you have a compelling reason to take action but you don't believe you can achieve your goal, you are identifying yourself as someone who won't succeed. And this is the problem a lot of people run into. If you don't see yourself as someone capable of making changes, ie. identify yourself as a fat person, you quite simply won't make the changes.

This is because seeing yourself as incapable spawns thoughts that reinforce this belief. For example, when I was overweight I would think things such as, "I can't do this I'm not fit," or, "I don't have the genetics to lose weight so why bother trying. It won't work." Obviously thoughts like this kill your motivation quickly.

As you continue thinking negative, self defeating thoughts like this, it will make you feel terrible about yourself. And if your feelings coincide with your identity, it reinforces the whole cycle. For instance, many fat people feel bad about being fat, and this reinforces their identity that they are a fat person who can't do anything.

Fit people are obviously the opposite of this, thinking things like "I CAN do this", feeling good about being fit, and as a result of feeling good about their identity, they continue doing things to reinforce it, ie. exercise.

Sixth

The beauty of this is, anyone can take control of their FIT Circle and change how they think about themselves. With a strong reason to take action coupled with the mentality that success is possible, they create the motivation to take action regardless of how tough things get.

The easiest way to this is a two step process.

The first step is to constantly visualize/imagine achieving your goal. If you can see yourself doing something in your head, your mind starts to accept the possibility of it happening in reality. This is because your brain can't distinguish between an imagined experience and a real one. So by doing this, you start to shift your identity from someone who can't to someone who can.

The second step is to consciously monitor and replace any negative thoughts you have. If you have a thought like, "I can't do this because ___", immediately cancel it and replace it with a positive thought that affirms you CAN. This is going to make you feel better about taking action, and work through the cycle to reinforce your newly changing identity. The better you feel about exercising etc., the more motivated you will be to do it.

Keep this up long enough, and you will discover that your whole mentality has changed to someone who view themselves as a FIT person, and you will then be self motivated to take action with very little mental effort.