Do you remember this game, The Sims?
Reason I ask is that we can use The Sims as another great mindset tool to help you stay disciplined day to day in your training and eating habits.
If you're not familiar with The Sims, it's a video game where you basically make every decision for the characters you're in charge of:
The activities they do
How they look
What they eat
Who they they hang out with
What they do for work
You get the idea...
Ultimately, you decide what the best decisions are for your Sim depending on what you want them to become.
And stacking all of those decisions on top of each other over time leads to them reaching that end goal.
So let's say for example that you want your Sim to become a professional athlete, what would you make them do each day?
I would make their day look something like this:
Wake up at 5:30
Eat a healthy, nutritious breakfast and get hydrated
Get dressed in smart looking training gear
Arrive at training early to do some extra mobility work
Train
Stay for 1 extra hour after training to work on strength or recovery strategies
Eat lunch
Go home and have a nap
Take a walk
Hang out with other pro athletes
Eat dinner
Chill and unwind with a self development book
Go to bed at 9pm
Repeat.
Do you think if YOU followed a schedule something like that, every day for a year (or even 5 days a week), then you would get alot closer to your dream goals compared to how you're currently living?
Ofcourse this is in an ideal world where you have 100% control over every part of your day, but you can see the point I'm trying to make and you can still build something effective around your other current commitments whether it's study or work.
So here's a question - what makes it easier for a Sim to follow something like this every day for a year, compared to an actual human?
It's the removal of EMOTION.
We all predominately act out of emotion first and then with logic, not the other way around.
If we have a choice, emotion largely guides our actions...and we rely heavily on will power to follow through with a long term plan.
If you know you're supposed to get out of bed and go train, but you just don't feel like it, there's a big chance that that emotion will prevent you from getting out of bed.
A Sim on the other hand doesn't have this to contend with.
So here's what I now do when I know I've got something like a lower body gym session scheduled for today, but I just don't feel like it (in the past I would have put it off all day or made it shorter so that I could just get it out of the way...)
I ask myself one simple question:
"What would my Sim do?"
The answer is that my Sim would stop being a winy snowflake and get the session done because it needs to be done.
It's not up for debate.
Actually, it wouldn't even be winy, because there wouldn't be any emotion at all attached to the action. He would get it done simply because it needs to be done.
It's interesting, what do you think your body would actually be capable of (in a safe way), if you were able to completely separate or remove the entire mental aspect of what you're about to do?
Is mental fitness actually more impactful than physical fitness?
You know when you're out of breathe, the lactic acid is building in your legs and your body tells you "you've gotta stop!", are you stopping because your body cannot physically continue? Or because your mind doesn't want you to continue?
It might sound very strange, but here's what I find helps...
I imagine that my body is a Sim and I'm looking down at myself from above, what should that Sim be doing now to get closer to his dream goal?
8 sets of lunges you say?
Great let's go!
50 squat jumps? Let's do it.
1 hour of reading every day? Consider it done.
You can even develop an alter ego for yourself when you're training. As soon as you step onto the pitch or into the gym you're no longer John Smith...
You know how Beyonce has the alter ego "Sasha Fierce"? That's because Sasha does not act like Beyonce.
You know how Dwayne Johnson has "The Rock"? Do you think "The Rock" acts a little differently to Dwayne?
You can do the same too.
I don't know about you, but these little mindset shifts are really helping me get more out of every day and I hope they can help you too.
Comment below and let me know what YOUR new alter ego name is!
(Mine is "The Machine").
Looking for a strength and conditioning programme for a youth footballer?
We have two options:
The Matchfit Youth Elite Programme (For Players 12-18 Aiming For Pro Club Or International Selection)
The Matchfit Method Youth Footballer S&C Programme (Ages 9-18)
Comentarios