Fit for Life: This May Hurt Your “Feelings”

Fit for Life: This May Hurt Your “Feelings”

Do you make most decisions from your heart or from your head?

Are your decisions emotion-based or results-focused?

Your heart dictates decisions based on emotions and feelings, whereas your head makes decisions based on your mindset, motivation, goals and decisions that will set you up for success.

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That’s why in many instances in life, from your workout regimen to your financial status, you need to let thoughts override feelings and emotions.

I am reading a book called winning by Tim Grover, the man that trained some of the greatest of all time.

Michael Jordan, Dwayne Wade, & the late Kobe Bryant to name a few, and in his book, he depicts the traits of true winners.

People that are the best at what they did, the results they achieved, and what it takes to get there.

The harsh truth is, that it takes a ruthless approach to be a winner. Not just to be good, great or competitive, but to be the absolute best at what you do.

Yes, hard work and discipline will make everyone good, maybe even great, but this book talks about taking it to a level that far supersedes great, the pinnacle of success and being a true champion in everything you do.

You need to be relentless, and in order to reach the pinnacle, you need to hardwire your mind to override feelings and emotions, or you will stay stuck at the level of mediocre, and most of us want more than that.

Your heart will tell you to stay in bed a few minutes more. Those are feelings of comfort. Emotions tell you that “you deserve to relax or sleep longer, and there is always tomorrow to workout.

Your mind needs to override those feelings and emotions and let you know that every workout is important, and you need to stay consistent in order to hit your goals and maintain a healthy lifestyle. It needs to slap you with the reality that 9 minutes more in bed will start your day in the wrong way, and you will regret it all day, whereas getting up NOW will set you in motion to win the day.

You need to understand that the pain of getting up will dissipate much faster than the pain of regret. Regret will gnaw at you all day long, because when you start your day with a loss, it creates a domino effect that carries out far longer than the pain of discipline.

Your heart will tell you to eat that dessert because eating crap gives us an immediate feeling of comfort, and an initial hit of dopamine that will make you feel better for a few minutes, but what happens after? Again, the regret hits when you jump on that scale on Friday.

When you program your mind that you have a goal, and you don’t eat dessert during the week, you are more likely to resist the temptation of falling out of your routine. In Tim’s book, there are no shortcuts, and no negotiations, when you are trying to accomplish greatness, and it takes strong will and mindset to stay the course of your intentions.

Leaving work on time when you know there is still work to do, is an act of your heart and emotions overriding, your thought process. Yes, you are entitled to leave on time, but if you are trying to climb to new heights, make more money, and get promoted faster, your thoughts will tell you differently.

They will be saying “yea, it sucks leaving work late, and being the last one to leave, however, it will put me in a better position to succeed”. If I stay and get this done, it will take me a step closer to being the best at what I do, and that is the winning mentality.

When you have a business to run, and quotas to reach, you need to have people around you all performing at a high level, and you can’t tolerate sub par performance from your team.

Your heart and emotions will allow poor-performing people to stick around because “you feel bad for them”, or “they are a good person”, or you feel “bad’ firing someone.

Your mind and thoughts will tell you otherwise.

They will allow you to focus on things like the bottom line, how this person is holding back the team, losing the business money, and creating extra work and stress for everyone around.

It will tell you that you will miss this person for a while, but you can’t grow or reach greatness with them around. It will tell you to man up and make the right decision based on results and outcome over feelings.

Think to yourself, do you want to pay the price of discipline, or pay the price of regret? The rent is due every day.

The pain of discipline lasts a few minutes, but the pain of regret will linger on and eat you up inside.

Even when you do something you regret, you need to think your way out by saying, ok I fuc@ed up, now I’m going to fix it, get back up fast, and find solutions.  

If you let your emotions take over, you will stay in a place that’s not only unproductive, but you will spiral down even further. You will play your mistake over and over again, and let it fester into something bigger than it needs to be.

When a football player fumbles, the best thing he can focus on is the next play. Keep thinking about that fumble, and you will do it again, and again. Think of the solution…hold the ball tighter next time and go out to dominate.

The same goes for taking a test, bouncing back from a bad deal or relationship. If you let your emotions take over, your toxic cognitions will last longer than if you brush it off, program your mind for the future, and move on

I made this mistake when I lost it all in 2007. I stayed in the real estate market too long and nearly went bankrupt.

I stayed down nearly seven years retreating and playing it safe, working to “stay afloat” and it ate me up the whole time, until I opened my gym in 2014 and focused on being successful again.

Now, I try to keep emotions at bay. It’s nonproductive to get emotional with every speed bump we will encounter. Emotions will make you create bad decisions, whereas thought processes, and mental focus will help you make the decisions that take you a step closer to where you want to be.

I tell my high school football players NOT to play with emotion and go into a game with the mindset that we are prepared and winning is the only focus we should have.

Bad call by the refs? Think of the next play. Did you make a mistake? Next play. The other team scored? We need to score twice now.

Getting flustered with emotions and dwelling on any of those instances will put you deeper in a hole and make it tougher to get out.

In conclusion, take this practice and apply it to everything you do when you have goals and intentions to conquer.

It may sound harsh, but it works.

Stop being emotional, leave your heart out of the equation, and program that mind to override anything that can get in your way to successfully being the best version of yourself.

Committed to your success (like it or not)

Coach Matt