So I had this plan to write about a different subject for my blog each month of 2021. They would be subjects that are near and dear to my heart. I accomplished my first on Jan 1 and posted it. Maybe you read it. It was about resolutions. The month of February was about myths I’ve encountered. But somehow I had it all written, and saved and instead of publishing it, I was copying it and moving it, because I had actually divided it into two blogs. And of course, somehow I carelessly deleted it. I was pissed for about 10 minutes. Then I realized, all the info had come from my head. Instead of this being a negative (I had accomplished my goal, it was done Feb 1) maybe I could turn it into a positive. Maybe I could churn out this post and another one for March (I have a lot to say), and maybe it can be even better. Either way, writing it the first time can’t be a bad thing. I mean deleting sucks, but maybe this is just an opportunity for me to write more.
I’ve sort of narrowed down my focus lately as well. What started as a chance for me to write stuff about my goals and journey has taken on a slightly different trajectory. After much discussion and deliberation, I decided that my most potent contribution to the kids I coach, or really anyone actually, is that what I’ve specialized in is what I call the psychology of improvement.
So here it goes. I think in any journey, you can let people’s opinions drag you down. Shoot, your own opinions are probably tough enough to overcome, never mind the real obstacles whether they be physical or mental that are in front of you too. Well there are all kinds of myths out there that I thought if I talked about they’re lack of truth, might help someone get a different perspective on whatever they’re trying to accomplish.
Basically a few years ago, I decided it would be cool to be a movement expert. To be able to do all the parkour and gymnastic stuff that looks impossible, and then share my experiences with others. It used to be that my size (being 6’4″ and weighing 230-270 at times) was an excuse to not try since being on the taller side would make the things that I want to do more difficult. But after some careful decision making, re-framing, and working on my mindset and beliefs, I decided that my size should be a reason TO try, rather than not to. After all, all the advertisements for anything athletic always show an unreasonable proportioned person performing crazy difficult moves. I wonder how many people see them, and think “I’m just not gonna ever be able to do that, or look like them.” Then what if regular guy does it – how many more people could be convinced that they could too. I’ve called this journey “the psychology of improvement.” Along any process of improvement there will be roadblocks. In your own head, or someone else’s, and real or perceived. There were a few one’s that I believed to be possibly true, but as it turned out believing them for too long, was costly to progress. Usually someone shares their experience, or is trying to sell you a quick fix. Therefore these myths keep popping up. But with a little practice, you can learn which ones are real, and which ones are nonsense. So here’s my list of the top myths that stood in my way, or I heard on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.
When you get to be XYZ age you won’t be able to do that
When someone says this they either mean that when THEY got to that age, THEY couldn’t do it. Then to make them feel better they blame it on something arbitrary rather than taking responsibility. It takes the responsibility off of them and puts it on Father Time. Well, most of the time people that say these types of things to me are either actually younger than me, or not too much older. They don’t realize that they are projecting a false reality on me. Just because something is true for you, don’t assume it’s true for me. And are you sure it’s age, or is it lack of effort. Don’t mistake the two. Finally, if I can’t, I can’t. That’s fine. But i’m definitely not going to NOT try because of some random persons opinion. The opposite happens all the time too, and that’s the “when I was young I could XYZ.” It’s usually “eat whatever I want.” Yea, I’m calling bullshit on that. Show me you’re performance. What were you accomplishing that you could eat whatever you wanted? Chances are these people have a distorted view of their own history. I personally performed sub-optimally in everything. A lot of it has to do with we just didn’t know what we know now about diet and exercise. And that’s ok. But I’m not going around lying to everyone that I could eat cinnamon toast crunch all day, and that I was a dominant athlete when I was younger.
I’m going to be in the best shape of my life at age _______
That’s cool if you have that goal, and a deadline. I just much prefer to think of much smaller chunks of time. And it seems like you’re setting up for failure after. If your goal is 40, then if you’re in even better shape at 41, did you fail? I personally choose to think of health or improvement in terms of “I’d like to be in the best shape of this week tomorrow.” That means whatever I’m doing today will result in me being better tomorrow. If I do this enough, there doesn’t need to be a built in stopping point to when I peak. Ok, this technically isn’t a “myth,” but it still is a mindset that a lot of people try to sell you on quick fixes, when being “healthy” is not a destination, but a long strange journey.
Do such and such HIIT workout to “burn fat”
If you love boot camp or running, then by all means do it. Do what you will continue to do, and makes you happy. I’ll just say that for me, my best results ever, aka I can do more with less pain, have skills that 99% of people don’t have, stay lean and light and muscular looking year round is when I ditched all cardio, all HIIT (by current definitions) and focused on intuitive movement only. That’s not to say that I don’t feel as though I worked out intensely when I’m finished. I usually feel very accomplished after I move. I just generally feel like I could keep going. I don’t look forward to the end. Which leads me to this next piece of garbage I’ve heard…
A great workout is one you hate starting but love finishing
Just NO. Recipe for disaster. Like 1% of people have the discipline to continuously start things they hate. This is such a horrible take. If you hate it, don’t lie about it. You have 2 choices. Find a way to like it because you know it’s good for you. Or find something that you like. There’s literally endless options. If you think doing a Spartan Race would be fun and you would LIKE to start, but you’re intimidated – then to me you’re now just making excuses. You actually have something you’d LIKE starting, but now just don’t. If you think you’d like something, then start working towards it. Five minutes a day, or ten. Consistently, every day find a way to start. Start because it’s where you want to go. Like step one to driving somewhere is “starting the car.” If it doesn’t start you ain’t going. I like when my car starts because even if I’m going to work, I’d rather go in my own car. So if you’re going somewhere, go on your terms. Find something that you LIKE when it starts.
You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with
So you want to improve at something, but your friends are losers? Just get new friends. Easy right? Wanna be good at basketball? Just be friends with Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Giannis, and so on. That should bring your average up right? Yea it doesn’t exactly work that way. It actually works in reverse. The closer YOU get to being the best in your field, the more likely that the people you have access to will change. Why would anyone super impressive hang out with you? If you don’t have an idea, then working toward becoming an expert at anything will get you closer than you are now. That is to say, that while this statement may actually be a decent way to level up aka change your environment and you will change yourself, it probably works the other way. Change yourself, and you’ll change your environment. It is infinitely easier. Imaging trying to meet Lebron James, or becoming an expert on breathing techniques. I’d imagine the latter would be easier to get started on. Now say you can lower your heart rate, and calm your nerves through breathing and you can teach others. Now maybe you have a skill that Lebron James is interested in. Now you’re his and some other players’ breathing coach. Yea, maybe somewhat far fetched, but less far fetched than him responding to your email to him asking him to hang out. The point remains – Improve yourself and it will be infinitely easier to improve your circle.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day
This tends to get people all riled up. To me this is such a first world problem. If you’re starving, every meal any day is the most important meal of your life. Because that’s what’s keeping you alive at the moment. In the world we live in, we probably don’t have to worry about starving. We used to though. And chances are that our bodies are reacting the same way they were designed to for millions of years, and not adapting to the fact that we never need to hunt or gather our food anymore. In fact, I think you could argue that hunger isn’t actually a signal to eat, but rather a signal to get moving. If I’m hungry and I work out, my hunger almost immediately goes away. Anyway, all food is important. I’m pretty sure a billion dollar food corporation came up with the idea that breakfast is so important to brainwash us into buying their “breakfast” food.
Train insane or remain the same
Soreness, lift weights, get your heart rate up, blah blah blah. I’m honestly kind of tired of it. It’s actually kind of reckless to me to continue to promote weight lifting, when we mostly sit all day and stare at a screen. Typical though. You do so much damage, that what’s the opposite? Must be adding weights to everything else I do to counter act all the sitting and hunching. Eh, doesn’t sound so smart to me when you actually think about it. And there in lies the problem. We typically don’t think, we copy. And often what we see, we copy. But we’re only shown the sexy stuff. The barbells, muscles, movements. We don’t see the “measuring food, passing on the night out with friends, or hour long flexibility or recovery session.” Further – there is tremendous value I’ve found in being able to move your body in a way that it has the potential to, and in a way that is not restricted by tight muscles and tendons or pain. Why isn’t flexibility taught or held in the same light as musculature. If your body approaches it’s optimal ranges, it will approach it’s optimal performance. This has somehow remained secretive? So has appropriate diet and exercise. Gotta wonder why? All I know is that it doesn’t have to be this way.
Well that’s all for now. I’m sure there’s 100 more that will come up for a part 2. Hope you can find this useful if you’re starting something, and possibly struggling with overcoming some negative beliefs that could be making your life more difficult.