I don’t want to be fired up to train.
I used to do that 20 years ago. A heavy squat day meant popping pre-workout stimulants, turning up the heavy death metal, and psyching myself up for the work sets.
That’s a terrible way to train. I do not recommend it.
When I lift, I don’t even want to be excited.
The less emotion and less thinking involved, the better the outcomes.
Even for my heaviest sets on days I work up to max singles, I want to be in a state as close as possible to serene calmness.
Emotion disturbs the soul which disturbs the body. This, more than the weight you are lifting, is what causes the majority of the negative after-effects of hard training.
Calmly lifting a heavy weight (heavy for you) puts the stress right where you want it: on muscles and nerves. You don’t rev up your nervous system and leave your whole body a wreck for hours or even days after the session.
The same principle of neutral emotion applies to eating, by the way.
Feelings of hunger, which are as much illusions as your feelings of fatigue and motivation, drive most decisions about food.
Folks driven by hunger make terrible decisions about what goes in their mouth.
Whatever’s right there, or easiest, fastest, and cheapest to get, is “good enough”.
I don’t want food to be exciting. Most of the time.
I’m not too good to splurge calories on chocolate or pies or beers every once in awhile. But I get away with it because the other 90% of my food intake is handled by a system.
Boring food is consistent food, and consistent food means consistent progress toward the goal.
Don’t train and eat by emotion.
It isn’t the negative feelings you have to watch out for, which may surprise you. Doubt, fear, sadness, guilt, and all that kind of thing can and do put a freeze on progress.
But the bigger trap is excitement, which is what most people mean when they use the word “motivation”.
Excitement is a blindside because it’s a so-called positive feeling, and how could a positive feeling be bad for you?
Answer:
Excitement is a temporary shine inside your mind which distorts your perception of reality.
Excitement always fades. When it goes, all that’s left is you and the choice you made.
The “power of positive thinking” people never say much about this part.
Excitement leads to eating the cake, drinking 12 beers, and skipping your workout because you don’t feel up to it.
Not exactly a desirable situation.
Use excitement to guide you, yes. Emotions are a powerful and unbeaten source of feedback. But emotions are not by themselves a reliable guide to good decisions. Recognize them, accept them, ask yourself why you’re feeling what you feel, but always, always treat them as suspect.
Better decisions come from better decisions, not what you feel right this second.
I can teach you how to do this. But most reading this are creatures of emotion that don’t want to change, so that means you’re happy to live in the hole you dug yourself, aren’t you?
If you’re not happy to settle, you might want to be on my email list where I can help you get unstuck. Use this link:
Matt Perryman