It's Hard for Everyone

Training is hard for everyone. It is relative to your level of preparedness.

For example, in rugby league we have front runners and slob’s way at the back of the pack. The blokes at the back of the pack will sook all day when there is a conditioning session planned. When one of the more conditioned guys says “yeah it sucks” and just shrugs it off, the slobs will normally say “well it is ok for you because you are fit”.

They have no clue. The blokes at the front of the pack hurt just as much, if not MORE than they do at the back of the pack. The reason is the players leading the way at the front actually make the set target times, beat them in fact, and strive to beat their own bests day in and day out. This is very painful to do and takes a lot of mental toughness to push hard for every day. The bloke at the back of the pack doesn’t make the set target times and for a lot of them, they just cruise at a comfortable pace they have determined for themselves accepting that they just aren’t fit. They quit. They just do the absolute minimal required and don’t try to improve because they fear getting uncomfortable.

Now, some blokes at the back of the pack do try. These are the guys that end up getting towards the front through a lot of hard work and effort. The thing everyone who was once at the back of the pack (like myself) and works their way to the front realises is that the amount of pain you go through from the days at the back to the front, are no different. The amount of effort remains the same. You just run faster, lift more weight, jump higher, jump further, whatever the task may be, you just do it better, which makes it harder.

There is no end. You have to work hard all the time. Sure, you can get to an average fitness level and just maintain it. That isn’t that hard once you stop trying to improve. But if you are trying to be the absolute best you can be, the pain never really ends. You just get used to it and learn to enjoy the challenge.

So, if you are a slob and you are continuously at the back of the pack. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get to work. No one wants to hear you cry about it, especially when they see you aren’t giving it a proper crack because you’re too piss ant to get uncomfortable and have a real go. There is nothing more pathetic than the bloke who says he wants to achieve it all but does the minimum to get by. Then sits up the pub for the rest of his life telling stories of what could have been. On the other hand, if you bust yourself, giving a real effort from deep within yourself and don’t quite get there, you will still be respected and you can look at yourself in the mirror knowing you just weren’t good enough. You can have peace of mind. There will be no “what if” or “I could have”.

Challenge What You Believe To Be Possible

September 15, 2018

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Nathan Waters - Total Health Performance

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." – Bruce Lee

I think we all have so much more in us than what we currently believe. If you just take training as an example, mentally you think you are done long before you actually are physically. I can't recall the amount of times I have thought I may only have one rep left in me but end up pumping out an extra 3-5 reps, sometimes more. 

When it comes to learning a new skill, language, or anything else, you can learn pretty quickly if you focus on it. I remember reading Science and Practice of Strength Training and I could barely understand it. After reading more and more I began to understand the principles in that book and by the third time I read it I reckon I would have understood probably 70% of it. If I would have stayed where I was at and didn't try to learn more I would never have reached the point where I am now. 

There are so many areas of our life where we could improve if we just stopped putting those limitations around where we think we could progress to. Someone starts a business and says "I'll be successful if I make $100,000", but why just $100,000, why not $1,000,000? It doesn't have to be money driven either. If you want to help people and you think "I can probably reach 20 people", why don't we think of ways to serve 100 people, or more. Or it may not be about numbers, it may be "how do I continue to better service to my clients?" This last one is really my goal. I'm not out for quantity, I want quality. I want people who have a burning desire to achieve their goals and have laser like focus in attaining them. These are the people that give me energy and motivate me. I love being around people like that.

“I have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know, they do not approve, and what they approve, I do not know.” – Epicurus

Sure you need to start small and work your way up to it but I think many of us don't think bigger or what is truly possible. We set the bar too low. Maybe it is because we are scared to fail, to look stupid, I don't know. But I think if we sit back and assess our lives we will find so many areas where we can improve. Pick one and start implementing this week. 

As Jim Rohn has said: “Don’t join an easy crowd; you won’t grow. Go where the expectations and the demands to perform are high.”

Tags:

mindset

Answer Your Question With Yes or No To Achieve Your Goals and Make Decisions

July 5, 2018

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Nathan Waters - Total Health Performance

Marcus (one of my clients) and I got talking after his session yesterday about goals and doing whatever it takes to achieve them. I told him of a simple strategy I used when I was younger to stay on track and make good decisions. It is very simple. Whatever your goal is, you ask yourself one question and answer it with a yes or a no.

For example, if your goal is to play in the NRL and you are going out to dinner with friends you simply ask yourself "Is this food I am about to eat going to help me make the NRL?" Yes or no. No maybe's, but's, it's only once, I've trained hard, none of that shit. Just yes or no. So if they were going to eat pizza you ask yourself "will this help me make the NRL?" No. Then you don't eat it. 

Another example. "Will sitting up on social media all night help me make the NRL?" No. 

"Will going to bed and getting the proper rest and recovery my body needs to help me train hard tomorrow help me make the NRL?" Yes. Then you do that.

"Will going out all night on the beers help me make the NRL?" No. Don't go out.

"But I see heaps of NRL players on the drink" True but for one, they are there, you aren't. Two, how much better could they be if they didn't? 

It's not about what others are doing. It is about what you need to do to get there and more importantly, it is about being better than you were yesterday. This is how you not only make it to the top but stay there long term. Anyone who is the top of their field continuously strive to be better. They dedicate their lives to it.

Most people struggle with decision making but this approach makes it very easy. I still use it today and in all areas of my life. The question for each part of my life is different but I use the same approach and answer yes or no. 

When you start to answer yes or no you become more ruthless and more focused on your goal. You feel empowered and you genuinely feel in control of your future. You gain confidence and that snow balls into training even harder and making even better decisions. It becomes easier and easier. You stop worrying about others and what they think. You know so clearly where you want to go that nothing can distract you.

This one thing changed my whole life for the better.

Tags:

mindset

goals

motivation

To Have What You Want, You Must Give-Up What’s Holding You Back

June 25, 2018

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Nathan Waters - Total Health Performance

A few days ago I read this great article by Benjamin P. Hardy which had the title "To Have What You Want, You Must Give-Up What's Holding You Back". In the article he explains that we basically have the same thoughts every day and that we know what we have to do and how to do it but we have things that stop us. Things such as fear of the unknown cause us to give up on our dreams and sit in a comfort zone even though we know our life could be much better, we hold tightly to what we have.

Personally, I have to constantly push myself to do things where I don't know what the outcome will be. I get into a routine and can become so focused on it that I forget to look around and see other possibilities or opportunities. To keep having new experiences I really have to sit down and asses whether I am progressing in areas I want to or if I am just playing it safe. I think it is a good habit we all should get into. 

One I see daily is with health. Many people know they should change their lifestyle and eat better foods and exercise more but they are scared to change what they currently do even though they know they would be much better off if they did. Again, it is the fear of the unknown as mentioned above. Their current lifestyle has become their safe zone and stepping outside of it scares them, even though what they are currently doing isn't beneficial for them anyway.

Same goes with athletes who want to become a world champion or make the NRL for example. They may hang around people who don't share the same goals and drink and party, they may need to give up some time on social media, they may need to get to bed earlier and get more sleep, they may need to focus more on their strength in the gym, whatever it may be, they know what it is but they don't change their ways. 

"You’re giving up your dreams and your greatest potential for something you know isn’t serving you."

You have to decide what you want in life. For me, the thing that really made me change my ways was making the decision that I didn't want to live a life of regret. I wanted to achieve a goal since I was a little kid and knew what I had to change but hadn't yet. When I thought about it, it was much easier to give up drinking alcohol, change my nutrition, and miss out on time with some of my friends then it was to sit back at 50 years old and say "what if?".

When setting a goal you should write down what you are willing to give up to achieve it. We all say what we are willing to do but what we don't think about is what we are willing to sacrifice. 

So as the article asks at the end “Am I willing to give-up what I’ve got in order to have something better?” I think this is a great question to ask yourself and to help you move forward. 

Tags:

goal setting

goals

motivation