My Fleep:
Health
Health
Developing the Ultimate Muscle Building/ fat Loss/ Fitness/ Success
Mindset
A few years ago, I regularly had those brief but friendly
verbal exchanges with a fellow gym member upon arriving at
the facility each day for my muscle building workouts. You
know the kind of interaction I'm referring to; just some
small talk and friendly joking with someone you never get
to know outside of that one specific setting. I recall
having a conversation with him on one particular day that
went something like this:
"Hey Scott… how's the training going?" "It's going great,
Mike", I answered. "But I'm feeling a bit tired today."
"Well… ", he said almost perfunctorily. " At least you're
in here. You showed up for your workout and that's better
than a lot of people"
Interestingly, I cringed a bit at the sound of those words.
‘At least I'm in here?' What if the muscles I had come to
work that day were in dire need of one more day's rest?
What if working them prior to that rest would be the
catalyst that sends them down a spiral of over-training and
inadequate recuperation? If that were the case, then
showing up would be about the most counterproductive thing
(in regard to bodybuilding) I could do that day.
Although Mike's point made sense within a specific
circumstantial context, I detected traces of a mentality
that's all too common among us and all too subtly damaging
to human potential. This mindset rears its ugly head in
every life context. It resides within each of us in varying
degrees, depending on the life setting and circumstances. I
will refer to it here as simply – the Motive-Driven
Mentality.
The motive-driven mentality sits in direct contrast to the
Outcome-Driven Mentality. The outcome-driven mentality is
concerned with objectively measurable outcomes that result
from our actions. By contrast, the motive-driven mentality
is displayed when we congratulate ourselves for our
intentions rather than concerning ourselves with the
effects of our actions. When we hurt another person's
feelings and the first thing out of our mouths is "I didn't
mean it", we are (in that moment) saying: "judge me for my
motives and forget about the actions".
Unfortunately, the tendency to be driven by motives is
especially prevalent in the contexts of bodybuilding, fat
loss, and fitness. It's displayed when gym members drift
from one piece of workout equipment to another with no
objective other than to "get a good workout". With such an
ambiguous short-term goal, it's transparently revealed why
the very same people will congratulate us for simply
showing up at the gym. If we're not driven by the
consequences of our actions, we end up patting ourselves
and others on the backs for activity – no matter how blind
that activity might be.
The best mindset for success in life is to be as outcome
oriented as possible. This is vitally important in all life
contexts where more success is sought, regardless of how we
define that success. When frustration sets in due to our
current lack of understanding of what strategies will bring
forth the outcomes we desire, we must rein ourselves in
before that flustered state leads us to letting our
intentions feed our egos. If that happens, we've been
bitten by the motive-driven mentality.
Reining ourselves in is mostly a matter of how we set and
pursue goals. Those goals need to be specific and
accompanied by measurable steps that beat a path to their
achievement. For example: When I enter the gym, I know
precisely what my objective is and what I need to do in
order to meet it. I know how that objective sits within the
path to my long-term goal and I know upon leaving the gym
whether I've met that objective. The rewards of this
mindset, accompanied by an effective workout strategy, have
far exceeded any fleeting pleasure I once derived from
workout spontaneity. In other words, the results from an
outcome-driven mentality in bodybuilding have made those of
the motive-driven ones pale by comparison.
So much of success in life depends on our mental approach.
Therefore, it's important for us to honestly assess our
mental strategies and discover how they affect our outer
ones. Above all, when we detect that we've succumbed to a
tendency to be self-congratulatory for our terrific motives
rather than the consequences of our actions, it's probably
time to psycho-evaluate ourselves within the context in
question. This can lead to an outcome oriented mentality,
which provides a foundation for the ultimate success
mindset.
----------------------------------------------------
Scott Abbett is the author of HardBody Success: 28
Principles to Create Your Ultimate Body and Shape Your Mind
for Incredible Success. He is a certified fitness trainer
and a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP. To see his
personal transformation, visit
http://www.hardbodysuccess.com
Mindset
A few years ago, I regularly had those brief but friendly
verbal exchanges with a fellow gym member upon arriving at
the facility each day for my muscle building workouts. You
know the kind of interaction I'm referring to; just some
small talk and friendly joking with someone you never get
to know outside of that one specific setting. I recall
having a conversation with him on one particular day that
went something like this:
"Hey Scott… how's the training going?" "It's going great,
Mike", I answered. "But I'm feeling a bit tired today."
"Well… ", he said almost perfunctorily. " At least you're
in here. You showed up for your workout and that's better
than a lot of people"
Interestingly, I cringed a bit at the sound of those words.
‘At least I'm in here?' What if the muscles I had come to
work that day were in dire need of one more day's rest?
What if working them prior to that rest would be the
catalyst that sends them down a spiral of over-training and
inadequate recuperation? If that were the case, then
showing up would be about the most counterproductive thing
(in regard to bodybuilding) I could do that day.
Although Mike's point made sense within a specific
circumstantial context, I detected traces of a mentality
that's all too common among us and all too subtly damaging
to human potential. This mindset rears its ugly head in
every life context. It resides within each of us in varying
degrees, depending on the life setting and circumstances. I
will refer to it here as simply – the Motive-Driven
Mentality.
The motive-driven mentality sits in direct contrast to the
Outcome-Driven Mentality. The outcome-driven mentality is
concerned with objectively measurable outcomes that result
from our actions. By contrast, the motive-driven mentality
is displayed when we congratulate ourselves for our
intentions rather than concerning ourselves with the
effects of our actions. When we hurt another person's
feelings and the first thing out of our mouths is "I didn't
mean it", we are (in that moment) saying: "judge me for my
motives and forget about the actions".
Unfortunately, the tendency to be driven by motives is
especially prevalent in the contexts of bodybuilding, fat
loss, and fitness. It's displayed when gym members drift
from one piece of workout equipment to another with no
objective other than to "get a good workout". With such an
ambiguous short-term goal, it's transparently revealed why
the very same people will congratulate us for simply
showing up at the gym. If we're not driven by the
consequences of our actions, we end up patting ourselves
and others on the backs for activity – no matter how blind
that activity might be.
The best mindset for success in life is to be as outcome
oriented as possible. This is vitally important in all life
contexts where more success is sought, regardless of how we
define that success. When frustration sets in due to our
current lack of understanding of what strategies will bring
forth the outcomes we desire, we must rein ourselves in
before that flustered state leads us to letting our
intentions feed our egos. If that happens, we've been
bitten by the motive-driven mentality.
Reining ourselves in is mostly a matter of how we set and
pursue goals. Those goals need to be specific and
accompanied by measurable steps that beat a path to their
achievement. For example: When I enter the gym, I know
precisely what my objective is and what I need to do in
order to meet it. I know how that objective sits within the
path to my long-term goal and I know upon leaving the gym
whether I've met that objective. The rewards of this
mindset, accompanied by an effective workout strategy, have
far exceeded any fleeting pleasure I once derived from
workout spontaneity. In other words, the results from an
outcome-driven mentality in bodybuilding have made those of
the motive-driven ones pale by comparison.
So much of success in life depends on our mental approach.
Therefore, it's important for us to honestly assess our
mental strategies and discover how they affect our outer
ones. Above all, when we detect that we've succumbed to a
tendency to be self-congratulatory for our terrific motives
rather than the consequences of our actions, it's probably
time to psycho-evaluate ourselves within the context in
question. This can lead to an outcome oriented mentality,
which provides a foundation for the ultimate success
mindset.
----------------------------------------------------
Scott Abbett is the author of HardBody Success: 28
Principles to Create Your Ultimate Body and Shape Your Mind
for Incredible Success. He is a certified fitness trainer
and a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP. To see his
personal transformation, visit
http://www.hardbodysuccess.com