I’d like you to step outside the box and take a look at life through a different set of lenses. This article is meant to pertain to the fitness lifestyle, but it also has carryover into the application of everyday life. Understanding how to not take life so seriously and manifest whatever your dreams and desires are is a crucial part of the human experience, yet many of us don’t know how to make these things become our reality.
I’d like you to step outside the box and take a look at life through a different set of lenses. This article is meant to pertain to the fitness lifestyle, but it also has carryover into the application of everyday life. Understanding how to not take life so seriously and manifest whatever your dreams and desires are is a crucial part of the human experience, yet many of us don’t know how to make these things become our reality.
This reality or lack of perspective should I say, is the cause of so many perceived failures that sit in our subconscious—and this doesn’t allow us to fulfill our full potential. I’d like to quote the greatest powerlifting gym coach of all time, Louie Simmons: “It is all just a dream anyway.” That statement is so powerful, and I would encourage that you read that again to really get a full understanding of what it means—let it sink into your current reality. What I am suggesting is a concept that can be applied to numerous situations and ideas.
Put Trust in Your Hard Work
Strength and conditioning, fitness, and sport are all goal-based activities. The very nature of these types of skilled goal based modes of activity require a balance of dedicated actions, perseverance, and trust that all your hard work will one day pay off. At a deeper level, it’s not about the goal as much as it is about the accomplishment and how the goal will make you feel once you have achieved it.
Photography by J Perez Imagery of Oahu, Hawaii
Think about this, the goal itself isn’t the objective, it’s what you think you will feel at the end of that goal that keeps you moving forward. In the healthcare, wellness, and fitness professions we have to take a look at how these things impact ourselves and our clients because at the end of the day numbers and programming are just writing on a piece of paper and nothing more.
We adhere to these strict guidelines because we believe these will bring us the success we are seeking. We have faith that all these things will work with no real thought because the process is happening behind the scenes.
Change comes from belief, intention, and expectation—the mind-body, spirit, and the collective knowledge experienced through many cultures and religions. I want to impress upon you how these concepts can change your reality—and your physical experience is definitely a part of your reality.
How this pertains to the strength training world is that change happens as a byproduct of the faith and belief that if you continue to commit to training hard, and adhere to your coach’s advice, you will become a better version of yourself.
You have faith that what was once improbable is now probable with continued effort, hard work and training. What you are experiencing is an understanding of how your body responds to the stimulus you place upon it and changing how your mind works.
Your Body Is an Avatar for Your Mind
Through the process, you are getting stronger, not just in body but in the mind and these two areas of your being function frequently as one and the same. Without a mind-body experience, you will never be able to achieve any sustainable amount of success because what you perceive is what you can achieve. The mind is a powerful partner in the pursuit of fitness.
Think of your body as an avatar. The avatar is only a reflection of what you think, see, and feel. It only responds to the stimulus you give it. You can mold, direct, and change this avatar to fit any projection you want it to have and experience.
Natural laws are constant and real but can be manipulated and shaped, so what we put out into the universe will only reflect back into our reality. If you give this avatar a certain type of training stimulus, it will respond by growing in a direction in which you tell it to grow. I quote another very good lifter, CT Fletcher, “ I command you to grow.”
Last, but not least, you must understand how to make this work for you in a real-world application. In order to do this, you must ask yourself the question, “how do I trust the process?” This is actually a relatively easy concept and it can be applied immediately to one’s life. It begins with understanding that you have to live with intention. Intention is the key to your mind partnering with your body to pursue your goals.
Intention Is Faith
Intention activates the faith that is behind all of your fitness and strength training goals. Intention is the space in which we can manipulate time, focus on goals, and bend our reality to what we want to perceive. Trusting the process is the understanding intention. You have to be more intentional with your life.
You must understand that when you use intention, your fitness desires are at your fingertips no matter what your goals and aspirations are. You have to choose to act in faith and trust the process.
