Your mind is your most powerful tool

The title might make you think 'yeah duh', but hang with me for a minute. This is a short read anyways.

I learned this after talking to many people at all different levels of health and fitness. As I spoke with them, I was continually asking ‘why’ and drilling down until I found that the core of their challenge, and then the core of their success or failure against that challenge.

I found that at the core of nearly everything was the mind. Regardless of goals, current level, other challenges in their life, etc., the mind is the most important tool. That makes sense. Any tool that can be used to such high level in so many different ways is bound to be a valuable tool.

I will let you 'cut to the front of the line' and just tell you the three most important things I found. Learn from my time spent on this so that you don’t have to spend your own time discovering it.

#1) The importance of doing away with your ego. 

Here’s an example of how ego can get the better of you...I was 20 years old when I learned a much stronger way of tying my shoes. It was luck I learned this better way. I was so certain I wasn't wrong that I didn't even question if the way I was doing it was optimal. My ego made me feel certain I was doing well already and resisted the idea of a ‘new’ or ‘better’ way because that would mean I’d been doing it ‘wrong’ or ‘poorly’ for so long! The ego tried hard to prevent me from adopting this new information and changing my behavior.

Want an easy example of this in the health and fitness world? People inadvertently fall into this trap when it comes to proper nutrition. If they change their eating habit now, it feels like admitting we were wrong for a long time. Don't let the ego keep you on a sub-optimal path! Remember, in all parts of your life, learn to be totally okay with learning new info and adopting it.

#2) You get out what you put in

Yes, this is obvious and no I didn’t come up with it. You’ve probably heard it before so hopefully, this will be a good reminder. 

You deserve the results you get. Small Effort will yield small results, and Big Effort will yield big results. The speed of results from the Effort is determined by the quality of execution and efficiency. 

What you get is largely on you. This idea can be kind of scary because it puts the responsibility (and a lot of pressure) on you. Even if you aren’t successful, you are responsible for saying “well that didn’t work, time for the next method/attempt/whatever’. If you are not successful and you give up trying, then you will get what you put in. If you are not successful there is rarely someone else to turn to.  you deserve all the credit but you also get all the blame.

#3) Be '_________ enough'.

Be big enough or brave enough, or compassionate enough, or detail-oriented enough, or smart enough, kind enough...you get the idea. 

Be big enough to turn away from someone who hurts you. Be brave enough to ask when you need help. Be compassionate enough to other that they want to help you in return. Be detail-oriented enough that you notice the small things others miss.

If you’re striving to get something, be tough enough to put it all on the line. Some people don’t try with full effort because then they always have a little room to explain why they failed. I say forget that! Try to do the absolute maximum you can, rather than the bare minimum.