Do you ever struggle mid-workout with mindset? Do you sometimes want to quit because you’re tired, or frustrated? You aren’t the only one… Read on to see RCFP Coach Mitch’s perspective on self-doubt.
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Faith: The Real Fire Inside
I ask too many questions. I take too many unnecessary actions. I waste too much energy on procuring the wrong things. And I know I am not alone. Action is the single most necessary ingredient for progress, but in these instances mentioned, progress is out on lunch, and the employee that everyone just sort-of tolerates has taken over. I’m talking about doubt.
It’s in all of us. And every time we’re about to step forward in our lives, doubt starts acting like it owns the place, and asks if we really have the goods to take the next step. This is when I usually start asking questions. Can I? Should I? What if I don’t? Then, like an idiot I decide the afternoon would be best spent finding the answers. Four hours later, I’ve wasted too much energy taking the wrong actions, to find the wrong things. And when I try to end the madness by seeking an outside opinion, I don’t feel any better. Why? Because I don’t believe it.
When Sara Blakely, the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, told her friends she was going to cut the bottoms off pantyhose, do you think anyone asked to buy a stake in the company? When Steve Jobs dropped out of USC, I wonder how many high-fives he got? What these two and countless others have in common is an unflappable self-belief; a faith not only in themselves, but in their surroundings. The support of the world lives inside of them, and all the resources they need, they see right before their eyes.
How nice, right? To be born with such super-human conviction; with an unbreakable tunnel vision and clarity. Sure, some people appear more confident than others, but in my opinion, faith in yourself is a learned practice. We can read all we want about faith. We can pray, we can meditate, we can talk it out… but like it or not, we are a results driven people. We need to experience something before we believe it.
At the gym we have no choice. If you’re scared of heights and the workout says climb a rope, you will be suspended in the air in some capacity by the end of the hour. If the workout calls for a bar to be thrown overhead, you will be dropping under weight, regardless of how terrified you are. It’s through this action that our questions turn into statements. Can I, becomes I can. Should I, turns into I will, and what if I don’t is met with I’ll regret it. Insurmountable obstacles wither as our self-belief grows stronger. And the wonderfully convenient thing about belief is that you can take it anywhere! Belief can’t tell the difference between standing under a pull-up bar and standing before the one you’re about to ask to marry. It doesn’t know if you’re on the lifting platform or about to interview for your dream job. All it knows is the one it’s working for: You.
So think you can. Do something to show yourself that you can, and let us know about it! 🙂
Coach Mitch MC