What does “living better” mean to you?
For me, it means being conscious of your daily choices and staying disciplined in aligning them towards your goals (who you wish to become).
”If we are intentional about what we repeatedly do, we can practice who we want to become, and through practice, we can become who we want to be.”
-Eric Greitens
Being an athlete goes beyond the work done at the gym. It comes with a lifestyle that requires careful effort to develop and to maintain. You have heard “what you do outside the gym matters as much as (or more than) what you do at the gym.” Have you stopped to think about what that means to you?
Our habits
Take a look at some of your current habits. Ask yourself, “Are these habits that I’ve chosen aligned with my goals and who I wish to become?” You might have not thought about “choosing your habits” before. Each day, you make decisions that turn into actions and through repetition, these actions become your habits. The reality is that we have chosen many of our habits so long ago that we cannot even remember how we got started with them at all.
“We first make our habits, then our habits make us.”
-Anon
The challenge
To become the athlete you wish to be, you must then first become intentional about what you repeatedly do. This is difficult.
There are two reasons why we fail (in anything we pursue);
1) We don’t know what to do (Ignorance)
2) We don’t apply what we know (Ineptitude)
In the current era of the internet, the abundance of information is no longer the challenge. What’s difficult is aligning the information and the ideas with where you are today and who you wish to become tomorrow. With too many (often contradictory) choices, it’s easy to become confused and unsure of ourselves. In the face of uncertainty, we hesitate to take action. We stall, we delay and we fall short of our expectations and our goals. This is our new, modern form of ignorance.
Recognising the challenge, our aim on The Training Plan is to help you turn information into knowledge so that you can take action. We know that through effort, you can align your habits to support your training and the goals you’re training for. This journey is never easy and we will be here to guide you.
An opportunity
Looking at your current habits, how well are they aligned towards your goals? Which ones are you the most proud of? Which ones would you most like to change or stop doing? What’s stopping you from taking action and making the change?
Close your eyes for 5-minutes to think about the following question, “What could you do (that you would do) to live better as an athlete today?”. Stay with the question and see what you find out about what you already know. Then, go make it happen. Not forever but just this once. I dare you.
Thank you
This is the first of our new series of articles on Living better, Training better and Competing better. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback and keeping the discussion going.
On our next article, coming this Sunday, we will take a look at a simple way to start exploring how your lifestyle can help you make the most out of your training.