When you’re hitting the weights and that “burn” starts to kick in…do you enjoy it, or avoid it?
Now, I don’t care if you’re a gym rat, weekend warrior or you haven’t worked out in a while, I know you know what I’m talking about.
It’s that moment when your breath turns heavy and the first bead of sweat starts to drip from your brow, as your body begins experiencing the discomfort that comes with transformation.
Regardless of your fitness goals, how you react to “the burn” will determine the type of results you’ll see.
But what you probably don’t realize is that this very reaction also tells a story about your achievement mindset and your capacity for success in any situation.
The 3 most common reactions are:
- Stopping At The Onset shows that you’re:
- Unable to see past the moment
- Inclined to run from pain and suffering
- Likely to avoid conflict and confrontation
- Unwilling to leave your comfort zone
- Pushing Through It shows that you’re:
- Able to endure suffering and pain
- Capable of managing discomfort to achieve a specific goal
- Likely to require distraction to endure pain
- Organized in a chaotic environment
- Getting Turned On By It shows that you’re:
- Capable of transcending necessary suffering and pain
- Able to foresee what’s desired as completely possible
- Likely to feel a sense of pleasure amidst discomfort
- Ready to experience accelerated results
You might argue that your reaction depends on the scenario. Maybe. But, most people, if they’re honest with themselves, default to one or the other.
At this point, you’re probably asking yourself:
“Is one reaction considered better than the other? How does this relate to my ability for achievement and capacity for success?”
Well, unfortunately the answer isn’t as simple as we’d like it to be. It all has to do with personal conditioning, which is complex.
Conditioning comes from our interpretations of the things we witnessed, heard, and mimicked as impressionable youths. And the reactions we have today are the byproducts of this conditioning.
For example:
- Think back to what you witnessed from your parents after their long day’s work – what did they do to destress or cope?
- Remember what your coaches or teachers would say to you as you trained for competition or prepared for a big test – what stuck with you the most?
- Look back to how you mimicked your favorite celebrity or professional athlete because you wanted to be just like them – what did that do for you?
That’s why your fitness attitude is a great example in seeing how your conditioning played out.
It’s a jumping-off point when considering how your reactions to different challenges, or “burns,” may be limiting your capacity not only physically, but in other areas of your life as well.
Let me give some personal perspective to highlight what I mean.
I was raised as a competitive athlete. It was demanded of me that I push myself as hard as I could, no matter the situation, because this was supposedly the only way to turn pro.
This spilled into all areas of my life, but none more consequential than during my bodybuilding years. My competitive friends echoed the same sentiment: pushing through “the burn” at all costs was the only true way to gain mass and strength.
I became so mentally focused on pushing through “the burn” that I never considered my physical limits. So, when I achieved my goal of becoming a 245lb monster, it came with a price.
I began waking up to the negative impact of those long, highly focused hours in the gym. I found myself leaning more heavily on supplements and the distraction of intense music to get through the workouts.
Unfortunately, over time I started to feel chronic pain and muscle fatigue from this incessant pushing. It even began to hinder my efforts.
I knew at that point something needed to change.
Soon thereafter, I shifted my focus towards shredding my body with intense cardio while keeping it light with the weights. And although I dislike long, sustained running for the most part, hitting that treadmill surprisingly led to a different reaction.
I felt this euphoric, deeper connection to the long-term results rather than limiting focus on my body’s condition in the moment, which was how I operated during heavy weightlifting.
Running stopped being a daunting task and seemed to get easier each time the rubber began churning beneath me.
The idea of lean and shredded had an enticing pull. I could see and feel this version of myself in a new way as if it had already been achieved. That turned me on to the intense “burn” and breathlessness that came with my crushing sprints on the treadmill.
For months, I never once approached injury. This further convinced me that getting turned on by the uncomfortable “burn” accompanying this exercise was indeed my new secret sauce.
As a result, I achieved physical results almost overnight.
My friends and family were astonished at how I looked and felt. At first, they thought maybe I had taken some magic supplement or found some special method to my success.
But there was no gimmick, hack, or substance involved, nor was it just the cardio alone.
It was my personal conditioning that transformed.
With that newfound awareness, I realized there was a much better way to reach optimal performance.
I knew if I were to achieve the same monumental results in other areas of my life as those I achieved on that treadmill, I needed to put myself through a serious conscious and subconscious reconditioning challenge.
So, I did just that.
To begin this process, I started with a single question:
What was I tapping into that fully connected me to seeing only positive outcomes for such immediate results?
From there, I began considering my reactions to every area of my life: personal and professional relationships, business opportunities, money and wealth building, my family.
I paid attention to the challenges, or “burns,” within those dynamics as I worked on reconditioning my reactions through the help of my own mentor.
I was able to sit comfortably in the discomfort of others and the most challenging of situations.
This is when and where my success really took off. And it can for you as well.
But you must understand that this isn’t about some old adage like “think positive and good things will come” or learning new techniques to change your mindset and “shift your state.”
What I’m talking about is real human performance that provides personal enhancement through transformational reconditioning. It takes into full account all your past and present reactions that then delivers to you a new dominant one: your ability to Get Turned On by life’s challenges, or “burns” so to speak.
In my experience, most high achievers and leaders like you operate like I did as a bodybuilder. Your dominant conditioning is that of pushing through without considering the very real and potentially dangerous consequences.
What I can tell you is this:
When you start to feel “the burn” at any point, whether it be an argument with your spouse, or the report of an imminent business loss, or the pressure of leading your company through new obstacles, you must stop and assess your inherent reaction to these challenges.
When you do, realize these three points first:
- If you Stop At The Onset, you’ll stifle your progress, limit your results, and struggle to be productive, and those close to you will suffer the same consequences.
- If you Push Through It, you’ll gain some ground, but will always suffer a negative consequence somewhere, somehow, and often unexpectedly.
- But, if you can be reconditioned to Getting Turned On By It, I guarantee you’ll experience results faster and more effortlessly with bigger and better success than you ever thought possible.
If you’re the type of leader who’s interested in being reconditioned into a success magnate, then call me and we’ll go hit the trail or the gym to start setting the right tone.
This is your opportunity to blow past your old conditioning limits.
Are you ready to erupt? If so, contact me.
Not sure you have what it takes to do this work? Take the Character Index.
