Fit For Life: Have You Gone Crazy?

Saturday, November 28, 2020

Matt Espeut, Health & Lifestyle Contributor

 

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Have You Gone Crazy?

Talk to yourself. It’s ok, you’re not crazy.

The world is broken but it can be fixed if you exhibit patience and resiliency

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My first tip is to lose the mind trash.

What’s in your head gets in your way, so keep telling yourself that things will be ok, and do what it takes to remove the negative thought process that’s constantly haunting us these days.

During these difficult and challenging times, do you notice that you are talking to yourself more frequently?

I do, and I think it’s ok to talk to yourself.

It’s not that you’re going crazy, it’s a time when we need to not only talk ourselves into doing the right things, but to talk ourselves out of doing the wrong things like quitting or looking for the easy way out.

Self-talk is essential when you are trying to improve on any level.

I call it thinking out loud, or searching for internal motivation when it’s needed, and there isn’t anyone around to motivate or push you to a higher level.

When you have a coach or mentor coaching you and pushing you through a tough task, you get external motivation to do the things you normally wouldn’t do on your own, however, where do we get this motivation when we are alone?

It needs to come from within, and this is where the self-talk is necessary.

I find myself replaying words that were spoken to me, or the words I have spoken to others when internal motivation is needed.

Things like, “Be a beast, and stop being a little bitch”, or “Too bad things are tough right now, it’s tough for everyone.” Or “Nobody’s entitled to an easy life, so what makes you special.” Are some of the conversations I have with myself when I need a push to keep moving forward.

Have you ever negotiated with yourself to get out of a tough task?

Maybe I’ll only do one more rep, maybe I won’t push myself any further today.

When I start sliding down this slope, this is the time the self-talk is essential, otherwise you give yourself justification for operating at a lower level.

When you justify negotiating yourself out of a tough task, you will always regret it later, but when you complete the tough task, you get this amazing feeling of gratification.

Things like, “It was raining out I needed to sleep. It’s OK to sleep in once in a while”, are justifications why you didn’t get up early and be productive that day. These are the words we tell ourselves, and we are all guilty of it, and it really does more harm than good, because you get a sense of regret over gratitude later on.

 

No Deals

Don’t make deals with yourself.

There was not one day last week that when the alarm went off, I felt like getting up, but I never hit snooze.

There was not one day that I wanted to go to work, but I worked 12 hours every day last week. Maybe not the most productive days but I showed up.

There was not one day that I wanted to work out last week, but I got six days in.

My self-talk was “Do what you NEED to do, NOT what you WANT to do.” And “Weak and mediocre people give up, complain and wallow in self-pity, you need to overcome ALL the adversity in your way”

The solution is to be harder on yourself than anyone else will be.

I always say, “tell me what I’m doing wrong so I can get better”, rather than tell me what I am doing right because I might get complacent and stop pushing myself.

Change your thought process constantly and you will change your course of action. Think and talk to yourself about the things that you can control, and don’t bring to light the things that frustrate you, or you can’t control.

Instead of focusing on what the problem is or could be, think “let me check on the solution.”

Like when you say the problem is, “That restaurant might be closed” you may want to say, “let me check if they’re open”.

When you start thinking and reassessing your thoughts, you start to think more positively, and self-talk is an essential help in changing your thought process.

I also use self-talk to reprimand myself.

When I tell myself I’m acting stupid, self-talk really comes in handy.

An example is when someone was telling me a story the other day, I had to tell myself to shut up and listen.

I try to be a better leader, and good leaders listen before speaking, so I need to be telling myself constantly to listen, let someone talk, then give your opinion or advice.

Another example we can all implement is when eating something. Stop and ask yourself, will this improve my health and get me closer to my goal, or will it move me farther away. You already know the answer, so don’t justify that “it’s just one bite” or “it’s my friend’s birthday”, or “it’s Saturday”.

You may justify it to yourself, but fat doesn’t care and will accumulate around your mid-section anyway.

I’ll say it again, things are tough, but don’t make them tougher by justifying bad behavior and negotiating yourself out of doing the things that are tough or make you uncomfortable.

You won’t fail if you don’t quit, and when you quit being tough on yourself, you go from nosedive to tailspin.

Translation: nosedives can be corrected and put back on course, but a tailspin will result in a crash and burn every-time.

We are all in a state of mitigation fatigue, and possibly find ourselves doing a nosedive, however it is going to require ongoing consistency and staying strong even when you feel burnt out to make it through to the other side. When you give up, you go into an uncontrollable tailspin, and that needs to be avoided at all cost.

 

Tough Times

Tough times build character, strength and resiliency.

I heard a quote from my coach and mentor that goes like this:

 

Tough times create strong people.

Strong people create good times.

Good times create weak people, and

Weak people bring on hard times.

Step out of the cycle and never get soft.

Don’t let good times prevent you from getting better, and don’t let the tough times break you down.

We got this!!

Committed to your success,

Matt

 

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