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5 Ways To Get Stronger, Faster And Motivated By Training Your Mind

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Staying healthy, fit and motivated to achieve goals is every bit as much a mental exercise as it is a physical one. The fortitude it takes to get up with your alarm clock, get yourself to the gym before work, and achieve your set goals can be considered a herculean effort – yet, every day, the same people get up and get it done.

There are those who don’t want to hit the gym before the sun rises, but every evening, after a long day of work, those same people find the energy left in them to push through those reps, run those hills and complete their workout routines. Where do you fall on that range?

Mental fitness can translate to how well you can rely on yourself, and self-efficacy lends strength to physical health. In other words, knowing you have the power of choice is closely tied to your commitment to overall life goals, as well as fitness. Working out your brain is a little more difficult than maxing out on your bench press.  

Here are five ways you can begin to develop your mental fitness and physical fitness at the same time:

1. Practice Goal-Setting

Define a goal. A goal could be getting faster at hill sprints, doing more pushups in sixty seconds or solving critical thinking problems more efficiently. Anything can be a goal, and all goals are personal and specific. Having a mission in mind is the first step.

The next step is setting your expectations and plotting out the steps you’ll take to achieve that goal. Even if it’s a physical challenge, the mental fitness comes with defining the benchmarks toward reaching the finish line and devising the metrics to compare your progress.

Here are some examples:

  • Writing a book.
  • Running a 5k in under 30 minutes.
  • Losing just two pounds of weight.

“A goal properly set is halfway reached.” – Zig Ziglar

2. Practice Goal-Achieving

This might seem like it doesn’t even need to be said, but achieving your goals doesn’t naturally follow setting them. Just like salespeople are trained to ask a few easy ‘softball’ questions to get you saying ‘Yes’ and thinking positively, you should train your brain to get used to success.

Start by setting a few goals that are easy to achieve and with their finish, begin to develop a history of positive reinforcement. This is the easiest way to get your mental and physical health on the same track.

Here are some examples:

  • Spend an hour a week creating an outline for your book.
  • Walk 20 minutes four times in one week.
  • Plan and prep for three healthy dinners in one week.

 

3. Remove Mental Crutches

Developing mental strength means setting aside the crutches that we use without realizing. A snooze button is a prime example. By setting an alarm that you can ‘snooze’, you don’t just disrupt and reset the circadian rhythm; you actively train the brain to be more tired.

Seven minutes of snoozing isn’t as restful as seven minutes of real sleep because of the point in the sleep cycle in which they occur. Besides the sleep cycle issues, you’re also allowing yourself to be lazy. Get up and face the day! Mel Robbins’ TEDx talk about “How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over” mentions this specifically.

Here are some examples:

  • When you notice negative self-talk, make yourself stop.
  • Resist the urge to tell yourself you’re ‘fine’ the way you are.
  • Don’t allow self-pity; instead think of the first step toward success.

 

4. Build Resilience

There will be tough deadlines, personal setbacks, struggles and stress in your life. Being able to not only handle them as they arise, but to also continue life in a positive way afterward is resilience.

Resilience isn’t facing difficult situations or decisions with apathy; rather it’s meeting those same problems without antipathy. Training for resilience consists of building supportive relationships, accepting change without anger, setting realistic goals, developing a positive view and being decisive.

Consider an unpleasant experience:

  • Who is a person to whom you could turn for advice or comfort?
  • What is something you can learn from this situation?
  • Identify a single positive step you can take to move past this experience.

 

“Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive.” – Jamais Cascio

5. Develop Mental Dexterity

Careful planning of decision-making, reactions, attention and movements are all parts of mental dexterity. Active meditations like Yoga Nidra (a spoken guided meditation which is sometimes known as the ‘science of psychic sleep’) along with the practices of Tai Chi and Qigong are great for developing dexterity of the mind.

The brain relies on many factors to maintain physical balance, and cognition tends to be one of the last skills developed. Primarily, the inner ear, the body’s somatosensory system and vision contribute to how we move within the world around us. By working on mental dexterity early to become more in tune with our bodies, we condition our mental fitness and train our brain to maintain our balance longer – which is especially important later in life.

Here are some examples:

  • Find a tai chi or qigong center near you and try a class.
  • Download a recording of a Yoga Nidra meditation and listen to it before bed.
  • Practice being mindful of your moments with a simple five-minute exercise where you mentally or vocally say each movement before you perform it.

Taking the time to practice even one of the examples given every week, or possibly even one every day, will start to strengthen and increase your mental fitness.  

What’s one exercise that you could do right now? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below!

Mike Wines is a strength and conditioning coach and content editor for muscle and strength. He received his Degree in Exercise Science and seeks to combine personal experience with practical application to provide programming and movement based solutions to match each individual's goals.

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How Your Beliefs Can Supercharge or Sabotage Your Success

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There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity

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In just a few weeks, we will be wrapping up 2023. Can you believe it? This year has been absolutely incredible for me.

I have seen amazing doors opened, new relationships formed and I am seeing dreams realized in my life. While this seems like the hallmarks of a great year, this has also been the most challenging year of my life. With all of the change happening in my life, I have been forced out of my comfort zone and challenged to grow in every area of my life.

I can truly say that I have made the most of my moments this year and I have used everything as a catalyst for maximizing my greatest potential.

As a revolutionary leader, I have the pleasure of consulting and advising leaders around the world to fulfill purpose, realize their greatest potential and make an impact.

I want to share some insights with you that will help you to break cycles of mediocrity and manifest your greatness

Everything legal must come through the matrix

I am sure that some of you are wondering why I am using the term matrix. However, what you have to understand is that I am trying to make a highly complex spiritual principle practical to understand.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, every life has an origin and I believe that origin is divine and begins with eternity. You are birthed from eternity and into time to fulfill a unique purpose and assignment in your lifetime and generation.

The matrix is simply the portal or vehicle that brings something out of the invisible realm and into tangible form. The problem with much of the teaching today is that it excludes the matrix. We are told to believe that success is instantaneous and overnight.

Nobody talks about how a dream progresses through stages beginning with visualization and ultimately culminating in manifestation. Without a matrix or portal then everything that you attempt to birth and build will be illegal.

The matrix not only makes you legal but it gives you the authority and power to function as the greatest expression of who you were created to be. 

Every matrix has an incubation process

While many people admire and respect me today, I remember a time when nobody knew who I was or the significance of my message. How did I get to where I am today? I got here through an incubation process.

In other words, everything that has been destined for your life is incubating and awaiting a set time of manifestation. The problem is that most people live their entire lives idle and never initiate the incubation process.

What do I meany by that? Most people are living reckless and very few people are living intentionally. I am amazed at the number of people I have conversations with that have no vision, goals or strategies for their lives. They show great promise and they have undeniable potential.

However, without development they will die with their dreams still in them.

Everything that has been destined for your life must be incubated and converted to become realities born to time. 

“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.” – Robert Collier

You must give expression to that which is not yet born to time

When you think about a matrix or a prophetic incubation process, you have to understand that potential is often unrealized and untapped. In other words, your potential is in raw form and your potential cannot serve you as long as it is untapped.

The thing that makes me valuable is that I have the ability to convert potential into power. I have done it in my own life and I have empowered leaders around the world to do the same. How do you convert potential into power?

First, it is important to note that you have to perceive potential. If you cannot perceive your potential then you can never cultivate your potential. In addition, you must take the time to cultivate your potential. We often get excited about our capabilities; however, we never expand our capacity in order to realize our greatest potential.

In other words, the strength of your potential is only discovered through your willingness to stretch. The more we are challenged the more we are empowered to expand our capacity for greatness. Most of all, you must begin to express your potential. The expression of potential is different for every person.

For example, the expression of my potential is best demonstrated through the thoughts, ideas, products, services, books, etc.

For another person the expression of potential may look like a screenplay, artwork, sports, scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, etc.

Regardless of the form of expression, I know that you will live empty and unfulfilled until you make the decision to express your potential. The expression of your potential gives voice to your dreams, life to your vision, significance to your moments and activates your true power.

You must manifest your greatness

As a revolutionary thinker and leader, my work has impacted people around the world. I am grateful that my life is a source of empowerment to so many people. However, before anyone could ever benefit from my life, I had to make a non-negotiable decision to become who I was born to be.

I wish I could tell you that this journey is easy and that you will get there overnight. However, in a world that celebrates us for doing we are often criticized for being. As a result, I wasted a lot of time trying to be who other people wanted me to be instead of being who I was born to be.

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity. It is through our bravery to be vulnerable that we ultimately manifest our greatness. We do not bless the world by being a duplicate. We bless the world when we honor our difference. When you honor your difference you honor your potential.

Ultimately, your difference is how you manifest your greatness.

When you present anything but your authentic self to the world, you are playing small and you are robbing the world of your significance. Manifesting your greatness requires you to master your gifts.

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