Category: motivation

A “victim mentality” and a champion mentality live with us every day in our minds.

When unfortunate things happen to us, it’s natural for us to want some care and attention, some sympathy, love and reassurance that things will get better.

When that runs it’s course, it’s natural as humans for us to fight back, get back on our feet, feel better and get back to our former selves. We want to get back to feeling like a champion, taking charge of our own affairs and slowly but surely doing great things we can be proud of too.

I see both mentalities daily. People on the comeback trail, people who have overcome great odds and became champions again simply by taking daily action, not feeling sorry for themselves anymore and saying “enough is enough, let’s do it!!!!”.

A big problem when the victim mentality continues and no action is taken. Everyone knows that exercising makes them feel better, healthy food is good for your mind and body, but unless a start is made on both, the victim mentality is a much more comfortable place to be.

Also, you will have lots of company with the victim mentality, “the world is against me, why me?, I’m too told, too overweight, I have too many aches and pains, I can’t exercise anymore” are all common statements I hear many times a week in the community, but it has to be said NONE ARE REALLY TRUE.

Everyone can do something about carrying too much weight (and the often dire health consequences that brings), everyone can do a little bit of exercise and build up slow at their OWN level, everyone can ditch most of the ultra processed food that is slowly killing them, everyone can drink a little less alcohol that they may do multiple times a week that is often creating misery for those around them.

The facts are that when people say “enough is enough, I’m not taking this anymore feeling like this”, and escape the victim mentality and build momentum OUT OF IT, and start taking daily action to feel better, they DO start to feel proud of themselves because they are taking action, they DO reclaim that pride in self-esteem they used to have in themselves, and physically and mentally, they feel in a much better place ready to take on the world again, instead of trying to avoid it.

Winning the battle and fighting wisdom that actually will help you.

Getting monday right is always hard because it’s traditionally when discipline needs to kick in-immediately, You need 5 good days of eating, monday to friday, 5 good days of drinking more water, 5 good days of sleep and 5 good days of workouts (3 minimum).

You KNOW this, but it’s a human trait to see if we can “cheat” this system, somehow get away with it, and do it “our way”, I’ve never seen anyone cheat and win the long game.

The problem is as we get older, however much we fight it, we can’t escape the fact that we need to look after ourselves as much as we can, have some fun or plenty of fun yes, but if we don’t eat right, if we don’t workout most days, if we don’t get enough fresh air, we won’t build our immune system up enough to avoid serious illness, we won’t have the options in life if we are constantly sick, if we constantly have pain in our bodies, we will be turning down far more opportunities in life than we will be likely taking.

I can give you endless stories on people who didn’t look after themselves, people who wished they stayed on another path, people who would do things differently if they had their time back again, but I won’t.

What I can do is condense the wisdom of people who wished they lived a healthier lifestyle before sickness came into their life, combine the training wisdom of people who have done amazing things at the gym with their physical performances, I can give you the condensed wisdom of people at the gym who have reversed diabetes, got off blood pressure tablets by living healthier, there’s plenty of recovery stories and many truly flat out inspirational legendary stories happening daily with us.

See everyday as an opportunity, see everyday as a chance to get stronger, to feel better, to heal your body and to have a better future as well as living and feeling so much better right now.

We try to give you everything that will make you perform very close to your potential and stay at that very high level. In the week, you need to be giving it everything and avoiding the things that will hurt your performance.

Things that will NOT help you perform well or make you look and feel your best.

Eating poorly-not eating enough fresh food will not give you the fuel you need, for your workouts or recovery, same as not drinking enough water-add headaches and moodiness to that story too.

Alcohol-drinking in the week will seriously hurt your performance, and make you feel lethargic, be irritable, will make you put things off and generally give you a “what’s the point” attitude.

A negative environment-We are all products of our environment.If you are around people who discourage you from exercising and eating right, you will struggle unless you firmly tell them how important it is to you and your wellbeing.

Pick the 5 people who you hang out with the most, and you are most likely adopting the habits and mindset of those people studies show.

Sleeping poorly-this usually happens when you don’t exercise well, when you don’t eat right and you drink alcohol regularly (there are 120 sleep disorders-EIGHTY linked to alcohol).

The gym is a great environment for success, but what we do outside the gym counts big time too. Food for thought.

When you are in a team sport, it’s a mixture of characters, some strong, some seemingly quiet but very determined, some with their own goals, some who will support the team no matter whatever goes wrong or goes right, you can count on them.

The changing room before a game would be often full of emotion, deep thoughts and a sense  all the training has come down to THIS-the game.

The hard work is done before the game, there is some suffering, there is always learning, straight talking and even if you get knocked back down, you must have the attitude to get back up straight away.

All of these habits are very relevant to life, because life WILL knock you down, life WILL disappoint you, WILL leave you frustrated and will threaten to overwhelm you.

See your hard work in the gym as preparing you for a game every single week but nothing good comes easy in life. 

Your hard work NOBODY can take away from you. Nobody will take away your amazing fitness level you now have, nobody can take away the strength you now have to lift those heavy dumbbells, nobody can stop you running up that hill you once struggled to walk up, in short nobody can take away the tremendous journey of self-discovery and honesty you have found out about yourself at the gym.

See life at the gym as a game, a sport, but a HARD game, a hard sport.

But when you do overcome the challenges of disappointment through your OWN hard work the victories coming your way will taste much sweeter because it will be ALL YOU, and your successes will be so much well deserved rather than if life handed it to you on plate.

Stay in the game, enjoy the journey and keep slamming in the work, it’s the only way you’re going to win in life and have a true sense of wellbeing.

We get around 60, 000 thoughts a day, thats a lot of negative and positive thoughts.

Monday is the perfect day to be the fork in the road.

Do we create momentum to have a good week, or do we believe all the negative thoughts that threaten to derail our week?

There’s someone I read about the weekend who has done six DOUBLE ironman races six days in a row!!! The last one at 59 years old!

When asked how did he get through it, he said it was a minute by minute, daily battle with a flood of negative thoughts. He told himself to quit, it was too hard, it was impossible, he would fail, he was hurting too much etc etc.

But he kept arguing with himself, he focused on getting to the end of the next corner, up the next hill and see what happened,, he did ANYTHING but quit when common sense was telling him he should stop and walk off the course.

My guess is you all, WE all do get these negative thoughts every hour every day, it’s the reality of life.

The question is how we react. 

Do we accept the argument we aren’t good enough, we are too old, we aren’t fit enough, we aren’t good enough, we can’t carry on through tough times, throw the towel in?

OR do take one day at a time, one hour at a time even, and keep challenging the doubt, frustration, the lack of instant results, the depressing thoughts that at times threaten to engulf us, and WIN our own argument with our own brain telling ourselves we ARE good enough, we CAN do this, we will take one day at a time but we WILL do our best-that’s exactly where we need to be to win our battle with not only being physically healthy but MENTALLY healthy and ready for life’s challenges that seem to come relentlessly at times.

Good and bad thoughts are going to come, get ready to expect them, but be ready to FIGHT them and crush the bad ones through your exercise and the environment you choose to surround yourself with.