"Mind, you've been the one holding me back all this time."
1 hour 15 minutes. That was my best time on this particular run by nearly 20 minutes. I still had much, much more left in the tank.
I said, in sum and substance, the same thing to a new friend I made during the 5k this past Saturday. I explained my rationale to her this way:
"The body is capable of so much more than a normal person's mind is willing to give it credit for. When you're tired, it's not your body that's weak. It's your mind. What word do we use for people with weak minds? Feeble-minded. That completely changes the conversation. People laugh it off and are OK with being called pudgy or lazy or tired. I don't know anyone who's OK with being called feeble-minded."
Feeble-minded.
What other term should we use for the undisciplined, for comfort addiction, for effort-aversion?
Feeble-minded.
It's what I see staring back at me when I read down my training log. What I've done this year does not reflect the passion, the heart and courage that I aim to have. So what do I do? I just get stronger. If weakness is the problem then strength must be the solution. Physical strength, when I'm lacking. Mental strength, when I'm lacking.
I wrote about this several times (to my memory) in Purgatory but this passage bears repeating. Mark Twight wrote it on the Gym Jones website and his words have not only spurred me on in my pursuit of greater physical achievements but also in the nature of what I'm achieving. What was I really after in my training? I had a body that was visually satisfying to me, maybe 85% of the time. Did the other 15% of the time merit so much effort? No. What I really wanted was to change. I was satisfied with my body but I had not yet become satisfied with my soul. Nor do I believe, should I ever. Will I ever lack for a deeper depth to plunge or a greater height to ascend? I hope not. Will I ever have enough courage, imagination, creativity, willpower, determination or resourcefulness? I don't think so.
...without predators or self-imposed challenges of similar magnitude it is easy to become soft, to regard health and fitness as unnecessary anachronisms. The modern world values intellectual horsepower and the "spirit" in complete disassociation from the physical body. Athletes are "entertainers" rather than examples of mankind's potential...
...Mishima believed in the correspondence between the flesh and spirit, "... feeble emotions, it seemed to me, corresponded to flaccid muscles, sentimentality to a sagging stomach, and over-impressionability to an oversensitive, white skin. Bulging muscles, a taut stomach, and a tough skin, I reasoned, would correspond respectively to an intrepid fighting spirit, the power of dispassionate intellectual judgment, and a robust disposition." ...
What I want is my own transformation. Our bodies follow our souls. This is what I call "soul-lag." Think of the obese, unathletic victim of the modern world for a moment. His sagging flesh, his decrepit body simply followed where the mind led. "It's too hard to get out of bed to run in the morning." "I've had a hard day. I'm going to eat cheesecake for dinner." "I deserve to watch T.V. because I'm tired and exercise is hard." What word did we previously use for mental impotence again?
Your body follows your mind. Change your mind and your body will follow. I'll finish by pasting this e-mail that I received in one of the newsletters I read. It expresses what I want to say very well.
I saw a movie on Showtime a few months ago called "Reversal of Fortune".
The documentary film makers followed a homeless man around for a week or so. At the end of the week - they gave him $100,000.
For a homeless man - living under a bridge - this is clearly a life changing sum. They even paid for a financial counselor.
Within six months he had less than $5000 left. Within nine months he was back on the streets - homeless.
Owing more money than before.
The morale of the story I suppose is that the homeless man's attitude to money didn't change. You need to invest that money - or at least continue to make money - or look to budget.
The difference between this man living on the streets and not living on the streets was his attitude, choices and behaviors - not just the $100K.
Fitness and your health can be a lot like this also.
Imagine if you woke up tomorrow - with your ideal body... looking and feeling exactly how you want...
What would you do differently to maintain it?
Maybe what you would do differently might involve changing your exercise habits, or your eating habits.
Then why not start doing that now? Make the changes in behavior first...
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