If you have ever experienced any muscular or joint pain, you’ve become aware of your body’s warning system. It is like a red flashing light on the dashboard of your car, warning you that there is a problem. You can simply ignore the warning signal and continue or you can take note of the warning and respond appropriately.
But what is the appropriate response?
First, let us take a look at what happens when we get caught up in bad thinking. This is what it sounds like: ‘I don’t have time to get this fixed’, ‘I need the fastest and easiest fix’ or ‘This is too much work’.
The way you think, always leads your response.
If you think you don’t have time, you will ignore the red light. If you think you need an easy fix, you’ll find a crazy solution like asking the mechanic to remove the bulb of the red light. Either way, it is much faster than getting it properly checked out and in the short-term it saves time.
However, you know that ignoring a problem in one part of the engine, can escalate the damage with time, eventually impacting on the rest of the engine. And then the car stops. Even though you still have hundreds of tasks you must get through. And getting it fixed is suddenly costly. And time-consuming.
This pattern of bad thinking is illogical in the way that you take care of your car yet, we use this bad thinking when we approach how we treat our bodies. Ignore the pain, mask it with a pill, don’t seek professional help or don’t follow the prescribed advice/exercises. Because ‘it takes up too much time’, ‘I don’t have the time’, ‘it is too much work’.
Our bodies are a complex mechanical system.
I’m sure, like me, you would like that complex system to keep running well for your entire life. Unlike a car, we don’t get a new model if we mess this one up (okay, you can get a few spare parts but it is painful).
Because we only get one body, we have to change our thinking, which in turn will lead our actions (I’m starting to sound like a broken record). Start looking at long-term outcome rather than simply short-term goals. Goals are good, but they do not give you the motivation to keep going when it gets really tough and the sun is still in bed. Good habits, like regularly checking the oil of your car, only develop from knowing the WHY behind the action.
A wise man recently told me that this is why people can’t even make it to the end of January before their New Year’s resolutions have lost their appeal. They only know what they want to achieve but have not really explored the why. I am goal oriented and use them to motivate me to exercise regularly, but there is no longevity attached to this approach. You must keep coming up with new goals to inspire you along the way and eventually that energy burns out.
So I am going to leave you with the question why.
Why do you want to get better? Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to get strong? If you truly and honestly answer that question, you’ll find a picture in your mind that gives you the motivation to continue because a powerful picture leads good thinking which in turn leads good actions/habits.
What do I want to do/achieve VS Why do I want this/want to achieve this
e.g.
| I want to be pain-free | So that I am able to play with my children |
| I want to lose 10kg | I will feel more confident and be able to exercise without pain |
| I want to run a 21km race | So that I am strong and healthy until I am old |
If you want to discover and develop some good thinking habits, my advice to you is to try out executive coaching. I can highly recommend Luan Koen at Thrive who helped me understand how powerful the brain is in this process of getting better.