Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray
It’s a new year and there’s all this talk of goals and dreams and what you want to accomplish in the year ahead. But without the right mindset, it’s extremely difficult to create the kind of big, …
Continue Reading about 106. A Powerful Way to Start Your Day →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 106 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners, and today, I’ve got a powerful way to start your day. I love how that rhymes. So it’s a new year. And there’s all this talk of goals and dreams and what it is you want to accomplish in the year ahead. But without the right mindset, it’s extremely difficult to create the kind of big permanent changes that you want for yourself.
Whether you want to lose weight, become a faster runner gets stronger, or just become the healthiest you yet I want to help you to develop the right mindset, the mindset that is absolutely required to get you there. So in this episode of the podcast, I’m going to share a very simple mindset exercise that when done consistently, when done every day can be an incredibly powerful way to start your day and help you achieve all your goals.
But first, if you like this podcast, you got to come check out the Facebook community. This is the Running Lean Community on Facebook. We do some weekly coaching and training in there, we get tons of encouragement and support from runners that are just like you, we have fun. We just finished up our running through the holidays challenge and everybody had an amazing experience with that. Lots and lots and lots of great feedback from that. So definitely come check out the Running Lean community on Facebook.
And then listen, the most powerful way to hit all of your health and fitness goals is to really have someone there guiding you every step of the way, helping you to overcome your struggles, showing you things about yourself that you just don’t see holding you accountable, and keeping you on the right track. This is what I do as your coach. And I’d love to work with you here in the new year and help you absolutely crush all of your health and fitness goals in 2022. I want to encourage you to take action.
If this is something you’ve been thinking about for a while, I want you to stop thinking about it and just do it. Take action on yourself, invest in yourself in 2022 and make this the year that you finally become that lean, strong, badass runner that you’ve always wanted to be.
You can apply for coaching over at runningleanpodcast.com/apply and I’d love to see over there. And then in the Running Lean coaching group this month, this is another way to get some coaching – in my group program we’re doing a weight loss is our focus for January. So we’re doing the eight pounds down challenge. And so we’re into week number one people are having some great experiences. It’s not too late to join, we’re going to show you exactly how to become a fat-adapted runner and lose weight and hopefully get to eight pounds down by the end of the month. That’s the goal. That’s kind of what we’re challenging and pushing each other to do this month over there.
Okay, this is a good time to get started with this thing because we’re, you know, not quite in a marathon training season yet we’re still kind of in the offseason we’re just getting started with that. So it’s a good time to get fat-adapted and be able to crush your spring marathons. Just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join if you want to learn more.
Alright, so let’s get into this topic today. This is something that one of my coaches shared with me and I wanted to pass it along to you guys because I thought it was so powerful. I’ve been getting a lot of good results by practicing this little daily mindset exercise and I want to share it with you guys.
So first of all, why do we need to work on our mindset? Like why is this something we actually have to do? Aren’t you just supposed to have the right mindset? And listen, no, no. Mindset is not something you have or don’t have. It’s something you learn it’s a skill. If it’s a skill, that means you got to practice it right. That means you can get better at it.
And if you don’t practice it you’ll probably not have a good mindset and so in order to just like building muscle at the gym, right if you want to get stronger muscles you got to go lift heavy things at the gym right? Getting a stronger mindset requires a similar approach. You have to work on it.
You have to, you know, work on your thoughts, your feelings and things that you believe about yourself and believe about the world, you have to challenge yourself, you have to push yourself mentally, emotionally, just the same way that you do have to push yourself physically if you want to, you know, become a faster runner or build bigger muscles, right? So we have to work on our mindset, okay.
One of the most powerful ways of working on your mindset, in my opinion, is journaling. And some people think that journaling is just stupid, and it serves no purpose, and it’s pointless, and they feel stupid doing it. And that’s okay if you think it’s dumb. You don’t have to do it. Okay.
But I just have to tell you, the people that do this on a regular basis, are achieving at a higher level. They’re building mental toughness, they have a much more sort o well thought out and more powerful mindset. They got a mindset game going on. Okay.
So I just want to encourage you, if you’re one of those people that thinks journaling is pointless, I want to encourage you to kind of reconsider that and give it a go. And listen, journaling doesn’t have to be, you know, like, oh, dear diary, you know, here’s what Billy said to me today. No, it can be, it can be very specific and done in a very specific way, right?
I’ve talked about this before, we can do things like thought downloads, where you just get everything that’s going on in your head, all the thoughts in your head, and just get them out on the page. That right there can be a powerful way to start your day, that can be a powerful way to just get the junk out of your head and see it on the page and see what you’re actually thinking about.
Like what are the big thoughts that are just kind of swirling around in your head, we can become very overwhelmed with our thoughts. You know, I think we think something like 60,000 thoughts a day, 60,000 thoughts a day. And what if you just put some of those down on paper, and you could actually see what’s going on up there.
It’s kind of like a little snapshot of what’s going on in your brain. I love the thought download. And I kind of do this every single day. That’s kind of the way I start my day. There are other types of journaling you can do, which is you know, doing like a training log, you could do a training log for running, or resistance training, I highly recommend this, you know, to keep track of your runs, how you felt, timing, pacing, how you felt before and after, the weather. You can just like record all kinds of things, heart rate data, that kind of stuff.
And in resistance training, obviously, you need to log your resistance training, see how you’re feeling during those workouts, and keep track of your weights and reps. So you can see that you’re making progress, okay. But journaling can also be just like writing down daily goals and objectives. Okay?
So it can be like a food journal where you’re writing down things you’re eating just to keep track and create some awareness around that. It could be an exercise journal, where you’re creating awareness and helping you to make good progress then in that way, but it can just be whatever you want. Okay. Now, I’m not talking about journaling in general today, but I just wanted to mention that journaling can be a very, very powerful mindset tool. Okay.
So, right, just writing in general, is one of the best ways to build a stronger mindset. Okay. Some of the benefits of journaling, and doing some writing every day. It helps you to review your past and be honest. So it helps you to kind of, you know, you can recap the past day or the past week, and you can say, like, here’s what actually happened.
Journaling actually helps to reduce stress and anxiety, it’s been shown that people that do journaling, have less stress and anxiety, which is awesome. It creates a massive amount of self-awareness because like I said, you’re starting to create, you’re creating self-awareness by looking at what you’re thinking about, right? You’re sort of like, it’s kind of meta, you’re kind of thinking about what you’re thinking about. But it’s important to write it down, not just like, think about it in your head because when you write it down, you start to see things in a much different way. And it starts to really bring things into your consciousness that you may not be aware of.
Journaling can help you to make progress towards your goals. It can help you identify weak areas so that you can improve them. Journaling helps to boost motivation, helps you to stay motivated, helps you to stay on track, with whatever goals that you have. It’s been shown to help improve focus and concentration. And it just helps you to kind of see the bigger picture and get some perspective on what’s going on. Okay. There are no real rules around journaling. And you can do it any way that you want, but I just want to encourage you to get into some sort of daily journaling, practice okay.
Now I have a very specific little exercise a journaling exercise that you can begin to do to kind of add to your daily journaling practice if you’re already doing it, or if you’re not doing any journaling at all, you can start with this because it’s super, super simple and very powerful. So there aren’t really any rules about what to do or how to journal, okay? But having a purpose, and having an intention for your writing for what it is that you’re actually putting down on the page can really make this daily act of writing much more impactful.
Okay, we’re talking about creating a mindset and working on your mindset and improving your mindset. And it requires daily practice, just like lifting weights, if you want to get stronger lifting weights is your daily practice. Journaling can be your daily practice to work on your mindset, okay.
And so what I’m going to share with you today is one very simple writing exercise that you can do every single day, it’s going to give you one thing to focus on every day. One simple mindset exercise that can help you to create powerful results in every area of your life. Okay. And this little exercise is called the word of the day.
So it basically works like this is so simple it’s not even funny. Okay, you just pick a word each day, you write it down. And then you write about that word, you write about what you might do today, to embody that word. And that’s it. It’s super simple. I love simple things. It’s very powerful.
Two words can be life-changing, right? How many big events in your life could be summed up with just one word? Words like divorce, cancer, or injury or illness or failure or disappointment? All of these words describe powerful times of pain and suffering and despair in your life. Right?
And, and when you hear one of these words, or you say one of these words out loud, it sort of brings all those emotions from that time from that event, from the past that brings it all right back into the present, right?
What about positive words, positive words that describe good times, where it’s like marriage, birth and promotion, and PR, and it’s not a word, but close enough vacation, joy, accomplishment; these positive words can bring those good memories and those good times right back into your consciousness right back into the forefront of your mind. And they can help you to kind of get through some of the tough times in the present. Okay?
So words are very, very powerful, right? And so what we want to do is we want to sort of hack into this little process of using words in a powerful, positive way. So you’re going to pick a word each day, you’re just gonna write about it.
So how do you pick the right word? How do you know you’re picking the right word, there’s no right or wrong way to do this, okay? And if you’re doing this every day, let’s say you, you decide you’re going to do this for a month, or you can do it for a year or a week, whatever you want to do is fine.
But you’re going to have a whole bunch, there are so many words out there, there’s a lot of words out there like you’re not gonna really need to worry about not finding a word, okay? But I just want you to focus on whatever sort of comes to mind or whatever you might need in the moment. So for me, when I’m sitting there, and I’m thinking about like, what word should I make my word of the day here?
I might be like, so I listen to a lot of books and podcasts, and I read a lot. And sometimes I see a word or hear a word over and over again. Or maybe when I’m talking with my clients, I’ll hear a word and I’ll hear the same word like three or four times in a row or three or four times in just a couple of days. And that’s like a little alarm for me.
It’s like a little sign that I need to pay attention to that word, okay? So, there’s no real right or wrong way to pick a word and there’s no right or wrong words here. Okay? We do want to pick words that inspire action, like sit.
So here’s a couple of guidelines for you pick a word that inspires action, because you’re going to be using your word, to inspire some sort of action, some sort of change in your behavior, something that you’re going to do differently. Or something that you’re going to do today.
So even a word like rest can inspire action if resting is what you need today, maybe you need to rest physically, mentally, emotionally, that’s a great word. And it could be just like, I’m just going to rest, you know, I’m going to spend some time not doing anything, that would be a great word of the day for you if that’s what you need in the moment. Okay?
The other thing is you don’t have to pick a different word each day, you can reuse words. You know, I’ve got some examples that I’m going to share with you guys where I’ve, you know, basically, I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now. And I just wanted to share with you some of the words that I chose.
So you can like reuse words, you don’t have to use the same one every single day. But just pick something that you want to focus on for that day. Okay, so let me give you my examples. And this might help to clarify all of this for you. This is a really fun and really simple exercise, and I think you’re gonna get a lot out of it, I just want you to try it, I want to encourage you to give it a go.
So here are some words that I wrote down. And I’ll give you a little bit of a little, you know, I’ll explain each one a little bit and just tell you kind of like what I did each day, or how I wanted to embody that word each day.
So the first word was strength. So this for me meant that, okay, so I, you know, started this after my shoulder surgery. And so strength for me was like, showing strength in the face of pain, showing strength in the face of like being tired, feeling weak, to do what I needed to do to do my physical therapy exercises, which hurt to build a little bit of strength every single day. So that was kind of like a word that I needed in that moment. And I embodied that word in that day. So I did things that day, that embodied the word strength, and to build a little bit of strength, that data was really helpful for me.
Another word I chose was action. Like just getting into action and getting things done. I wrote this down, because I had a lot to do over the holidays, I had a lot of work to do. And I was feeling like, Man, I need to get all this stuff done. How am I going to get all this done? And it was just like, the word that popped into my mind was action. And so I just got into action, you know. And it’s one of those things where, for me, I am all about, like, you got to take action, even when you don’t feel like it. And maybe I just wasn’t feeling it at the time. So writing this word down really got that ingrained in my brain, I was just like, I need to just take action, get all this stuff done. And I did, which was awesome.
Another word I picked was vulnerable. So for me, asking for help putting myself out there, you know, telling people how I’m feeling, even though I may not be feeling very supportive makes me feel very vulnerable. You know, I’ve had some bad moments over the last month or so I’ve had some tough days, you know, and sometimes it’s hard for me to, like, share that with people and say that I’m having a hard time, or to ask for help, like, I need help doing things sometimes. But I’ve just been sort of embracing that and being able to ask for help and being vulnerable. And it’s very powerful to do that. Right.
Another word I picked was heal, like just to, you know, to give my body the rest that it needs to heal properly. To slow down. I think I wrote this down, because, you know, I started to get into some action. And I started to like, you know, do more exercising and taking more walks and things like that I can’t do a whole lot still.
But I think I may have overdone a little bit. And I was, you know, creating some stress in my body, you know, and the stress that I was creating was kind of making things worse for me, you know, I needed to slow down I need to rest a take care of myself. And I needed to give myself a chance to heal this long process of this recovery from this rotator cuff surgery, right? So it’s going to take a while. And I have to give myself the time and the space to heal. So I spent the whole weekend just like resting last weekend, which was amazing.
Another word I picked was clarity. So for me, this is one of those words that I heard over and over again. I just kept hearing it. I heard it on a podcast. I heard it from clients. And I was like, ‘Well, I think I need to write this word down. So what does this mean for me?’ I was like, ‘What is clarity?’ What do I need clarity around and really for me, it was like, I needed clarity around this vision.
I need a clear and focused vision of who it is I want to become. It’s being able to see and feel very clearly my future self. It’s like having this sharp and focused image of who I’m becoming. That’s what that meant for me. You know, so I spent some time getting clear on my goals getting clear on who I want to become in 2022.
Another word I picked was discipline. So for me, discipline is like suiting up and showing up to do what needs to be done. Even though I don’t feel like it, right? Motivation is great. But discipline will beat motivation every single time. You know, motivation is a feeling. So you got to have that feeling in order to like, take action. But discipline is doing it despite feeling motivated, right.
So for me, discipline was like, I need to do some things that are going to move me towards that future version of myself, right? It means I need to do what needs to be done here, not what I feel like doing. And I think at the time, I didn’t want to go outside. It’s like, I don’t want to go outside and take my walks, it was cold. I wrote this a few days ago, it was like 21 degrees outside. And I just didn’t feel like it.
But I was like, dude, discipline is what you need here. So I put on my coat, put on my hat, and just went outside and took my walk. And I was still in pain. And it was still, you know, cold and whatever. But I enjoyed it. And I showed myself that I can do it and was practicing discipline which got me out the door. Okay.
And then the last word like I’ve been doing this every day. And I’m just picked a few words for you guys here. But the last word I’m going to share with you today is impact. And this is this was my word for the day. And it’s also my word for this year like impact is the word that I’m choosing to embody for 2022.
And I have had to think about this recently, like, what is the impact that I want to create in the world? You know, what am I doing today to create that impact? Am I doing something today that’s helping to create that impact? Right? So how can I make a bigger and more powerful impact in this world, that’s my goal.
You know, my mission is to be an example of what’s possible and to inspire those around me to do the same. And that’s what I mean by impact. I’m being an example of what’s possible, and I’m inspiring you to be an example of what’s possible, and then you’re gonna inspire others.
And it’s a ripple effect. It’s a ripple effect of positivity. It’s a ripple effect of health. And feeling good. That’s the impact that I want to make. And so it’s very easy for me to see like, what am I doing today, to make that kind of an impact? Okay.
So I want you to take action on so I want you to like, get into action with this little simple mindset exercise. Try it for a week, try for a month tried for the year. My goal is to do this every day for this year, right every day. So I do some writing every day. And I’m just adding this into my journaling practice every single day. doesn’t take any extra time.
But for me, it’s just like, I look forward to this every day and like, ‘Ooh, what, what word can I sort of embody today? What area of my life do I need to improve today? What do I need to focus on today?’ And all I feel like I’m just starting each day with more purpose and more direction, and more intention and more focus.
And I’m going to tell you this right now, that if you do this every single day, you know, over time, it is going to dramatically alter the direction of your life. Because you’re treating each day as an opportunity to move a little closer to your goals. You’re treating each day as an opportunity for you to become that future version of yourself. And when you practice this every single day, and when every day you’re moving just a little bit closer to who you want to become. Little by little, you will eventually get there. Try this I think you’ll love it. All right, you guys love you all keep on Running Lean. Talk to you soon.
If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.
One of the most important principles that I teach here on the podcast, and work on with my clients is the principle of becoming the best, healthiest, most badass version of yourself. This is not …
Continue Reading about 91. Breaking the Habit of Being You →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 91 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners, and today we’re talking about breaking the habit of being you. One of the most important principles that I teach here on the podcast and one of the most important principles that I work on with my clients is the idea of becoming the best, the healthiest the most badass version of yourself.
And this is not meant to imply that there’s anything wrong with who you are right now, it just means that you have the desire to become more. That means that who you are right now is not the finish line, that you’re not done learning and growing and evolving. So in this episode, I’m going to show you how more than anything else your habits are responsible for who you have become up to this point in your life.
And if you want to change who you become in the future, it requires breaking the habit of being you strap in for this one, because it’s going to challenge you to think about yourself in a whole new way.
But first, if you like this podcast, please come check out the Running Lean podcast community on Facebook. This is a community of like-minded people who share their experience, their expertise at times their strength, their encouragement, their motivation, their positivity. And it gives you a voice. It’s a place where you can ask questions and get answers.
So the podcast and the Facebook group go hand in hand, just search for Running Lean community on Facebook and come over there and join in the fun, I do some weekly trainings over there. On Sunday afternoons, we do a little live and we have a lot of fun doing it. Love to see you over there.
And then here’s another five-star review of the Running Lean podcast. This one’s from Apple’s mama who says, “Continual and incremental steps for real results. This is my go-to podcast to listen to while running. Patrick teaches not only mindset but also actionable and incremental steps for continual health improvement. Thank you, Patrick.”
Well, thank you Apple’s mama for sharing that I really do appreciate it. And the reason I read these reviews and I encourage you to leave a review is because it helps me to know that I’m on track with the message that I’m sharing with you guys. So I so so appreciate that.
And then if you’re interested in digging a little bit deeper and getting a little bit more people asking how they can work with me. And one way of doing that is by joining the Running Lean coaching group. And so each week we do a different each week, we have a weekly group Zoom call where you can ask questions and get answers and, and on those calls. I do some teaching and training and coaching.
And each month we have a different focus in this month of September, we’ve been doing fat- and how to become a fat-adapted runner. And next month in October, we’re talking all about strength and flexibility. So that’s going to be the focus of our coaching and training for the month of October, building strength becoming more flexible as a runner.
Running injuries are so common upwards of like 56% of recreational runners experienced some sort of an injury every year. So injuries are very preventable though. Okay, so I’ve got some special guests coming in. I’m going to be doing some teaching and coaching on this topic. But I got some special guests coming in to share their thoughts and ideas and teach you how to get stronger, how to become more flexible.
We’re going to talk about exercises, different modalities that you can use for strength and flexibility so that you can become a stronger more powerful runner and keep running injury-free. Just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join and we’ll see you over there in the Running Lean coaching group. We have a lot of fun over there by the way.
And then you can always work with me one on one I’m a coach, this is what I do. Working with me one on one is probably the best way to get the results that you’re looking for. You know what we’ll look at your goals we’ll set actionable steps to help you get to those goals. And I can help you become the most badass version of yourself.
This is what I do. I love doing this I really do. And it kind of goes along with what I’m talking about today which is becoming a different version of you. You know if who you are up to this point is not where you want to stop like if you think there’s more than you want for yourself have one on one coaching is probably the best way to help get you there. And to apply for coaching, just go to runningleanpodcast,com/apply, you and I will jump on a Zoom together, we’ll talk about the coaching program and see if this is a good fit for you.
Alright, let’s get into this topic today because I’m so excited about this. So one of the most influential books I’ve ever read is a book by Dr. Joe Dispenza. And the book is titled breaking the habit of being yourself. And so that’s kind of where I got the title of this episode from.
So I’m going to take some of the things that he talks about in the book and sort of, I’ve kind of like, tweaked this over the years to kind of fit in with my coaching style and with the principles that I teach.
But these are concepts that have been around for a while. And I first read this book several years ago, and the book just had a profound impact on me, it really changed my life, it really showed me that who I am today is just a result of habitual thinking and habitual emotional responses and habitual behaviors. Okay?
And that if you want to create a different version of you’ve got to start, firstly, you have to understand, like what you’ve become up to this point and how you got here, then you can start to kind of dismantle that and break those old habits and start becoming the new version of yourself, okay. But more than just about any other book I’ve ever read, this thing has helped me to become who I am today. And so I’m going to be sharing my thoughts about today, what it means to break the habit of being you. Okay?
So we humans, we’re creatures of habit. Like we love doing the same things over and over and over again. And if you’re an older adult, you know, not old, but if you are an experienced adult, let’s put it that way. If you have some experience being an adult, then you’ve probably been doing the same things for decades, right? You’ve got the same routines, the same work, you’ve been doing the same relationships, the same way you interact with your family, like, we approach everything the way that we just have. And this is just what we do, right? This is who we are now, this is what we believe this is how we think this is how we feel.
And so our habits make up the majority of what we do, how we think how we feel. And so we’ve basically become our habits. Who we are today is just a set of repeated thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. And most of these things we do unconsciously, we’re not even aware that we’re thinking, feeling, and doing what we think, feel, and do on a regular basis, okay.
But here’s the thing, if you want to change who you are, like if you want to become somebody else, if you want to become a different version of yourself in the future, if you want to make positive changes in your life, if you want to lose weight, if you want to run a faster marathon, if you want to run an ultra marathon, you want to run your first 5k, you want to become a runner, whatever it is that you want for yourself, whatever is challenging you could be you wanting a new relationship, or you want a better career, you want to start your own business, whatever big thing you want for yourself, you have to change who you are today to get there.
You have to break the old habit of being you that you’ve become up to this point, you have to start creating a whole new version of yourself. So don’t worry, I’m going to break down kind of how we do this and what this looks like. Okay, I know this might sound a little out there right now.
So what is a habit? A habit is just a redundant set of automatic and unconscious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that you’ve acquired through repetition. It’s just stuff you’ve been doing over and over and over again, it’s the way you’ve been thinking and feeling and responding emotionally to events and the behaviors you’ve been doing.
It’s gotten to the point where you’re not even consciously aware that this is happening right your body does it like you’re doing things and you don’t know when really consciously aware, kind of like when you’re you know, taking a shower, brushing your teeth or something like that, right? It’s sort of an unconscious habit, your body does it better than your mind.
So an example of what this looks like. So a lot of people live their life in the past. And here’s what I mean by that. People wake up and they start thinking about their problems. Right? Your problems are just memories of like past situations, past issues, past stressors, past trauma. So you start each day living in the past. You’re thinking about oh, this thing that happened to me a while back, you know. And we call these things problems, or memories, whatever it is, you’re consciously back there in the past. So you start each day just like living in the past. And each one of these past memories has an emotion tied to it.
So you immediately begin your day feeling. Maybe you’re really feeling the unhappiness or the hurt or their unworthiness or the stress or the anger that you experienced in the past, just thinking about that situation now brings up the same emotional response, right? How you think and feel, creates your present state of being who you are, in this moment, is a result of how you’re thinking and feeling right now.
And most people start their day feeling all these negative emotions from the past. And so they’re just living in the past, your familiar past, the thing that you know, that you keep repeating over and over and over again, in your mind becomes who you are today. And it just goes on and on. And your familiar past becomes your predictable future.
So who you were in the past, you’re just going to continue to create more and more of that. You just become more and more of who you already are. You can’t go beyond who you used to be. You can’t get beyond who you are up to this point. Because that’s all you know. And that’s what you’re ruminating on. And that’s what you’re thinking about. And that’s the emotions that you’re experiencing right now. So your emotional state right now is the past.
And all you can think about is the future for your future is how you’re feeling right now. When all your feelings and all of your thoughts and your whole being is focused on who you used to be in the past like that’s who you are right now, that’s just going to be what you keep creating more and more and more for yourself, okay? This is what it looks like to be stuck in the habit of being you.
Now listen, there’s nothing wrong with this, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, or you’re doing something wrong. This is the way most of us have just kind of conditioned ourselves to operate in, it’s okay. But if you want something more for yourself, if you want to continue to learn and grow and evolve and become that badass version of yourself that I always like to say that phrase, I love it, becoming the most badass version of yourself. If that’s what you want for yourself, then you’ve got to break this habit of being who you are today, you got to get out of being who you are so that you can become more.
I told you, you’re gonna have to strap in for this one because it’s mind-blowing, right? Here’s a crazy stat – 95% of who you are, by the time you’re 35 years old, it’s just a memorized set of repeated thoughts, emotional reactions, beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, actions. 95% of who you are.
So you might be saying to yourself, you know, well, I want to lose weight. So I’m gonna change once and for all, but you’re like, only 5% of you is sort of onboard with making this change. Because 95% of you is still stuck on the repeated unconscious habits of who you believe yourself to be today. You’ve become your habits, you’ve become your habitual thinking and feeling. Here’s what this looks like, you have an emotional reaction to something, let’s say you get angry about something. And you allow that emotional reaction to last for hours or sometimes days. And you call this a mood, right? Oh, I’m in a mood. Yeah, this thing happened five days ago. So I’m still in a bad mood about it. I’m still angry about it.
It’s just like one long drawn-out emotional response to an event. And if you keep this up, if you keep up this mood for weeks or months, then it becomes your temperament. Oh, yeah, he’s got a temperament. You know he’s just in that mood most of the time. But when it goes on for years, it just becomes your personality, like, oh, yeah, that person, they’re their personality. They’re just an angry person. Right?
And this is because you just keep replaying these past experiences. Why would you keep reliving negative past experiences? Why do you keep doing this? One of the reasons we do it is that you’re kind of addicted to it, you’re addicted to the chemicals released in the response, the emotions you’re feeling.
So when you have an emotional response to something, let’s say you get really resentful about something. Okay. Let’s say you have a super stressful event happen in your life. Like, your husband says he’s leaving you for his secretary. Okay, this is a huge stressful event. And you release you know, you get very emotional about it. And when you get very emotional there’s going to be emotions like anger and hurt, and, you know, resentment. And, you know, you’re gonna want to don’t want to hurt somebody, you know, like you get all fired up about this right?
Well with that emotional response comes this release of hormones and chemicals in your brain like cortisol and adrenaline it gives you this like rush of chemicals, okay? So every time you relive this experience in your mind, it’s just like it’s happening all over again. So you have the same emotional response, just by thinking about, you know, your husband, with that secretary will get you all fired up again, it gets you all angry again, it gets you all resentful again.
And to your brain, it feels like it’s happening right now all over again. And so you get the same chemical response that happens, the same chemicals get released. And you get that rush that you get from the adrenaline and the cortisol and all these other things, right? Your mind doesn’t know that the situation happened years ago. It just thinks it’s happening right now.
When you imagine something really vividly, and you really feel it emotionally. It’s like it’s happening right now, your brain doesn’t know the difference. So you’d think it really makes sense to release the anger and resentment don’t hold on to that stuff, right? But we do we keep replaying these situations in our minds, even though they make us feel terrible, but we do it because we’re sort of, we’ve sort of programmed ourselves to want that chemical reaction.
We want to feel the chemicals, even though it’s a negative experience, we still want that chemical response. Okay, this is kind of why we keep reliving these past negative emotional experiences, all right. And I hope you’re not thinking that this is all super depressing right now. Because it’s not meant to be, I just want you to see how your brain and your body work together, I want you to see mostly how your brain is sort of keeping you stuck where you are, and how you might feel like you can never get anywhere.
Or maybe you feel like you can’t make any progress toward a goal, I just want you to understand that it’s not necessarily like your fault, or you don’t have any willpower, or it’s too hard for you, and you can’t do it, it’s never gonna work for you. It’s nothing like that at all.
It’s just your brain doing what it does, you sort of conditioned yourself, you know, to become this certain version of you, and no matter how much you think about wanting to break out of that, you know, you just can’t seem to do it.
Okay, in order to break that habit of being you. It’s important that you understand how you got here in the first place. So that’s why I’m sort of breaking this down this way. Okay. You have to start looking at all the habitual things that you’ve been thinking, feeling, and doing for years. So that when you put all these things together, you have what we call you, like you’ve become what we call the person that is you today, right?
So there’s bad news and good news. The bad news is that you’ve been living a familiar past. And if you keep doing it, you’re just going to create the same predictable future, who you are today is who you’re going to be tomorrow. And not much will ever change for you.
The good news is now you understand what’s happening, and you can do something about it. Right? It’s like seeing the matrix, once you take the red pill, you can never go back. Now you can make a conscious choice to do something about it. You don’t have to be stuck here. That’s the good news. Right, you can do something to change.
So what do we do to change is how do we begin to break the habit of being ourselves in the moment, right? How do we become that different version of ourselves? And this is a great question. And in the book, Dr. Joe Dispenza talks about a daily meditation practice, okay, where you practice, being in the present moment, and you practice imagining the future that you want for yourself, you imagine the person that you want to become that you might be thinking, I don’t know about this? Hoo, ha, hokey, meditation stuff, whatever.
But listen, when you imagined something really vividly like I was saying earlier, your brain doesn’t know that it’s just something you imagined, you subconsciously believe that this is happening to you right now. Visualization exercises are super powerful and a lot of professional athletes practice some sort of mental imagery or visualization before any sort of big event.
And they’ve done these experiments with athletes and this one that I found to be very fascinating was the free-throw experiment. So there was an Australian psychologist named Alan Richardson. And he wanted to prove that mental imagery or visualization was beneficial in improving athletic performance. So he did this study, and he took three different groups of college students.
And they were going to practice free throws, you know, to show how they could improve their free-throw shooting on the basketball court. So the first group practice basketball, free throws for 20 minutes a day, for 20 straight days. And then the second and third groups only shot free throws on the first day and the last day of the 20 day period.
However, the second group spent 20 minutes a day, visualizing shooting, free throws, so they didn’t actually pick up a basketball except for the first and last day. But they spent each day visualizing themselves shooting free throws. And the results were fascinating.
So the first group, the people who actually practiced shooting, the free throws for 20 minutes a day for 20 days, improved by 24%, from the first day to the last day. The third group, you know, this is the so the first group improved 24% over the third group who did nothing, they did not practice at all, they just shot on the first day in the last day, and they didn’t make any improvements at all.
But the second group, the mental imagery group, the one that’s like just did the visualization for 20 minutes a day improved 23%, almost the exact same amount as the ones that actually shot the free throws. This is fascinating to me. So it just goes to show you that your brain can actually you can create new neural pathways by just visualizing doing something.
And they’ve done other experiments with people doing like piano drills, like people that don’t know how to play the piano. And they found that just visualizing themselves, like practicing piano drills, fingering drills, like they can actually get as good as people that actually practice every day.
So anyway, very fascinating stuff. So an example of visualization is to imagine yourself like crossing the finish line of your marathon and hitting your PR, like, let’s say, this is a goal for you, like you want to hit, you know, you want to break a four-hour marathon or something like that, right?
You have to visualize that that is really happening for you right now in this moment. And to do it, you need to do it in vivid detail, right, you need to use all your senses. So you know, the way you could do this, is you kind of close your eyes and spend a little bit of time just kind of relaxing, and then all of a sudden you are approaching the finish line and you’re in your body, you’re seeing this through your eyes, you see the crowd, you see the time on the clock.
You see the photographers up ahead of you, you hear the crowd cheering, you hear them calling your name, you hear the loud rock music playing, you can smell and taste the sweat on your lips, and you feel the soreness in your body and the rush of adrenaline. And then you feel this flood of emotions you feel accomplishment, pride and relief, and joy and ecstasy.
And this vivid visceral mental imagery exercise is going to wire your brain to think like this is happening for you right now. And it’s going to help you to hit that goal. And this is something that elite athletes do because it gives them an edge. And most runners, they just don’t do this kind of stuff. They’re like yeah, whatever.
But you know what, what I just taught you right there, this can be your secret weapon, this can give you a competitive advantage. Especially if you’re trying to, you know, you’re trying to PR by just a couple of minutes or something like that. This can be the thing that helps you get over the edge. Okay? So don’t dismiss this, do it.
Another way to start breaking the habit of being you is is through journaling exercises and I know what you’re thinking like journaling writing, like a dear diary, and whatever. Patrick a lot of people have a bias against writing and I don’t understand why but I think maybe they just are not used to it right and so maybe they just think it’s hokey or weird or, or just doesn’t work or I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think it works. I think you should try it anyway.
And writing about your own thoughts and feelings is a very powerful way to make changes in your life. Okay? If done properly, right. And there are two ways that I can think of that you can benefit from a daily writing practice. And listen, these things I’m talking about here, like the visualization and the writing, it’s got to be done daily, like, it’s something you have to do for a while, you can’t just do it once and think, well, I’m good, no, you got to, you got to do it.
So that you’re sort of rewiring those neural pathways in your brain, okay, so it’s something you have to get into the practice of doing on a regular basis. And I promise you, it’s gonna help you it’s going to make changes, it’s going to help you to become a different version of yourself.
Okay. So one way I can think of that writing will help you is to just get all the junk out of your head and onto the page. So you can just start to get all these crazy negative thoughts that are swirling around your head, get them out of your head and onto the piece of paper, right, you can begin to identify thought patterns that are keeping you stuck, you can start to sort out all the habits you’ve created over the years because you can see it, you can see it on the page, right?
Without this self-awareness, it’s really hard to make changes, like without knowing what habits you want to change, you first have to have the self-awareness of what your habits are in the first place. And the easiest way to do this is something I’ve talked about before here, and it’s called the thought download.
So just get everything out of your head and get it onto the page, write it all down, no filter, no analyzing, just do a brain dump, write all the random thoughts that you have, get them on a piece of paper, keep asking yourself, what else? What else? What else as many times as necessary.
And then once you feel like you’ve got it all out of your head, and you can see all your thoughts in front of you on the page, just look over it. Look over what you just wrote, what patterns do you see? What thoughts are like limiting you, holding you back, keeping you stuck? And when you’re armed with this information, you can actually start making changes to break those old habits and start working on who it is you really want to become.
Which leads me to the second way writing can benefit you. So besides just dumping out all of your thoughts, start writing about who it is that you want to become. So this is similar to the visualization exercise, you know, but you’re going to do it by writing about it instead of like just closing your eyes and imagining it. They’re both very powerful. And if you do both of them, it’s even more powerful.
So write about like, who do you want to become? What does she look like? How does she act? How does she feel about herself? What has she accomplished this future version of you? How does she show up for others? What big goals is she focused on? What fears and obstacles has she overcome?
How is this future version of you more motivated? How is she more confident? How is she more excited about her life? What is she more excited about? Write it all out, get it in as much vivid detail as you can, and really feel what it would feel like to be that future version of yourself to be the healthiest, the best, the most badass version of yourself and write it all down.
And by the way, when we talk about doing writing exercises like this, this is just for you, you don’t have to share them with anyone else. And if you’re concerned about somebody seeing this stuff, just throw away the page when you’re done, burn it, shred it, type it into a document and then delete the document, whatever you need to do, you don’t have to like keep the stuff around.
I just happen to do all my writing in these notebooks. And I just throw them in a drawer when I’m done. And eventually, my drawers get full of these notebooks and I just pitch them like it’s no big deal. I live alone too. So it doesn’t matter. Nobody’s reading any of my stuff.
So when it comes to breaking the habit of being you, some of the best things you can do to change that. Number one is you have to have the awareness of how you’ve become you. You want to understand the habits, the emotional responses, the living in the past, the feelings, the thoughts, the repeated behaviors that all add up to become who you are today.
And then doing this, this meditation or visualization, mental imagery exercises, the journaling exercises, these are amazing ways to start deconditioning yourself of becoming who you are and helping you to condition yourself to become someone else to break out of the habit of being the past version of you. That version of you that feels stuck here. And to start creating a better, more badass future version of you. I want to encourage you guys to try this. I think it would be an incredibly powerful thing for you to do.
Alright, remember October is strength and flexibility month over in the Running Lean coaching group. We’re going to be talking about building strength and becoming more flexible. I’ve got some special guests I’m going to be bringing into the group to share some stuff with you. Just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join. And I hope you got something out of this episode today. If you did, please consider sharing it with a friend. And as always, I love you all. Keep on Running Lean. Talk to you soon.
If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.
Your mindset is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. Armed with the right mindset, there’s almost nothing you can’t accomplish! Whatever it is you want for yourself - to …
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to Episode 88, of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, your host and the weight loss coach for runners. And today I’m talking about embracing the growth mindset. I talk a lot about mindset. And your mindset is absolutely one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. Armed with the right mindset, there’s almost nothing you can’t accomplish.
Whatever it is that you want for yourself, if you’re trying to lose weight, or you want to run an ultra marathon, the right mindset will absolutely get you there. Mindset is not always positive, though, the wrong mindset can keep you stuck and keep you from realizing your true potential. So if you can’t ever seem to make forward progress, or you’re feeling like a failure, your mindset probably got you there too.
So today in this episode, I’m talking about two very distinct mindsets, the fixed mindset, and the growth mindset. And why embracing the growth mindset is key to accomplishing everything that you want in your life.
But first, if you like this podcast, you have to come check out the Running Lean podcast community on Facebook, this group goes hand in hand with this podcast, we extend the conversation over there in the group, and it gives you a voice. Listen, I love talking into this microphone and sharing this information with you. But I also love hearing from you. I love it when you share your pictures and your stories and your questions.
And I created the Running Lean podcast community as a place for you to do that. So come join us in the fun. We have fun, by the way, just search Running Lean community on Facebook and join us over there.
Also, here’s another five-star review of the Running Lean podcast. This is from Kristen and Kristen says, “Informative podcast. I’m not sure how I stumbled on Patrick’s podcast, but I’m glad I did. It’s a very informative podcast with a lot of good information in regards to running and eating healthy.”
Thank you very much, Kristen, I appreciate that. And you can share the love of the Running Lean podcast as well if you enjoy this, and it provides value for you in some way. It would mean so much to me. If you could just take a moment. Open up Apple podcasts, scroll down where it says rate and review, tap the stars, and write a few words that just wouldn’t mean the world to me. So thank you for doing that.
Also, people ask how they can work with me? Well, there are two different ways. Number one, you can work with me one on one, I do one on one coaching with runners I help show you exactly how to become the healthiest, most badass version of yourself. The other way you can work with me is through the Running Lean coaching group. The Running Lean coaching group is a group where we get together and do weekly group coaching sessions.
So I do a little teaching and coaching in the group. But you get to ask questions. And you get answers. And we have conversations in the groups that have been super informative lately and super powerful.
And people have been seeing some really good results. And all month long during the month of September, actually starting next Tuesday. So that would be the first Tuesday in September. We’re doing the four weeks to fat adapted running.
So we’re going to be talking all about fat adaptation for runners, how to do it step by step which foods to eat which to avoid the kinds of carbs you should focus on the kinds of carbs you should stay away from and how to get through that tough transition period without losing your mind.
I want to help you to become that lean, mean fat burning running machine that you want to be and I’m going to show you the mindset that’s required to make it last. So if you’re interested in the Running Lean coaching group, just go to Running Lean podcast comm forward slash join and if you ever want to inquire about one on one coaching, just go to Running Lean podcast comm forward slash apply. And when you are a one on one client with me you also get access to the coaching group. So win win for everybody. Alright, let’s get into this topic because this has been really fun embracing the growth mindset.
So why am I talking about this today? Well, I’ve recently been reading Mindset, the book by Carol S. Dweck. And basically, the book lays out two very distinct mindsets. And I see these two mindsets playing out every day, in my coaching practice. So every day I coach people and help them with their nutrition strategies, with their weight, with their physical fitness, with building strength, and endurance.
And I see these two very distinct mindsets in different people every day and I realized that I have had one of these mindsets for most of my life. And it was kind of keeping me stuck. And I’ve changed my mindset, you know, over the last five years or so, something like that. And I’ve really adopted a different mindset. And things have changed dramatically for me.
So I don’t struggle as much with decision-making. I don’t get down on myself as much I don’t dwell on my mistakes. I don’t see failures as the end, I see failures as learning experiences. I’m always learning and growing. So I’m going to talk about these two mindsets today. And I had planned on talking about this topic in a later episode.
But I got a comment recently, from a follower on Instagram, Rick, and he said, “Hey, I’m crossing my fingers this is what the podcast will be about this week.” And because I had written a post about these two mindsets, and he wanted to hear more about this. So Rick, this one’s for you, my friend. And the topic I was going to talk about, we’ll just do that another time. It’s all good.
But this is just so fresh on my mind right now that I wanted to just dive into this and share my thoughts on these two mindsets with you guys here. So really, it’s all about mindset. I say this all the time, mindset is everything, whatever it is that you want. It’s your mindset that will get you there. If you’re feeling stuck, and you just feel like you can’t seem to move forward. It’s your mindset that got you there. Mindset is powerful.
And this is one of the reasons why I talk about it’s so much a lot of coaches that teach you to know physical fitness or personal trainers, or running coaches, they don’t talk about the mindset that much. But for me, it’s like fundamental. With the right mindset, you can face huge challenges, like losing 50 pounds, or running an ultra-marathon. Like these things are huge and hard to do.
But with the right mindset, you can absolutely do it, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be a piece of cake, it’s going to be like a cakewalk. It’s like super simple, but it does mean that you can persevere and you can absolutely achieve whatever it is that you want for yourself, okay?
But the mindset has this other side – mindset can also keep you from ever achieving those things, no matter how much you want it, how badly you want it, or how hard you try with the wrong mindset is going to be super hard for you.
And a lot of times, people just don’t even bother trying, right? And this is all based on the wrong mindset. Okay, so the two mindsets, they’re basically two mindsets that we’re going to be talking about today, the fixed mindset, and the growth mindset. And we all display traits of both of these like we all use a fixed mindset in certain situations, and we adopt a growth mindset in certain situations. But for most people, one of these is always the predominant mindset, okay.
And today, as I’m talking about each one of these mindsets, and I’m describing their characteristics, I want you to think about which one you most identify with. Now, you’re going to be tempted to think, oh, you know, I’m definitely the growth mindset because it’s the one we should all be adopting more of. But I want you to be honest with yourself because it’s only in being completely honest with yourself, that you can learn and grow.
And listen, if you think that you don’t need to learn and grow like you already know all this. That’s kind of the fixed mindset talking right there. Okay, it’s very meta. So let’s get into this.
What is the fixed mindset? So in a fixed mindset, you believe that your talent, your intelligence, your potential, your abilities, they’re all fixed, that your success is based on your innate abilities. In other words, you either have it or you don’t. So if you have a fixed mindset, people with a fixed mindset are most likely not, you’re not living up to your true potential.
People with a fixed mindset believe that you sort of have to be born with it, you got, you got to just like have that natural ability, that natural potential, that natural grit. And if you don’t have it, then you just you don’t have it.
People with a fixed mindset don’t see failure as part of the learning process, they see failure as the end, that’s it, I tried something, I failed, I’m going to just try something else. Like, I’m just going to give up on that dream, I’m going to give up on that goal.
Failure doesn’t mean you know, I tried something that didn’t work, I’m gonna like go at this from a different angle, I’m going to keep trying, I’m going to keep going, I’m gonna learn from this. No, they just see failure as I am a failure. I am a bad person, they make it mean something about their self-worth. I’m incapable of accomplishing this.
If you have a fixed mindset, you probably aren’t seeking out new challenges. Because to try them to go after something big and to fail. It’s just too devastating. Even a temporary setback would be seen as a total disaster to someone with a fixed mindset. So I coach a lot of people on these on all this stuff.
And the two mindsets become very clear, just after a few coaching sessions with someone like I kind of get where they’re kind of coming from most of the time, okay. So for example, if I’m coaching someone on weight loss, losing weight is never a linear process.
There are lots of ups and downs, lots of stops and starts, you might lose five pounds one week, and then you next week, you gain two pounds. I’ve never seen anybody just lose weight exactly perfectly, you know, one or two pounds every single week until they get to their goal weight, there are always fluctuations up and down.
But for people with a fixed mindset, this is devastating. They have such a hard time dealing with this because they see the scale going up. And they’re like, oh, I can’t do it. See it? Nothing ever works for me. You know, here’s the proof. Look, the scale went up, I’m just destined to be overweight, I’m destined to be at this weight forever. Who might think I could ever change?
That’s a fixed mindset, attitude right there. So those with an intense, fixed mindsets, they won’t even try to lose weight. Why would they even bother? I probably don’t see a lot of these people. Because people with a real intense fixed mindset, don’t seek out coaching, they’re not looking for help accomplishing a goal, because why would they hire a coach if they just believe it would never work for them?
Okay, so most of the people that I work with are, you know, they might have a little bit more of a fixed mindset, but they’re not, like, totally engrossed in it. Okay. And I know this, this fixed mindset example might seem like it’s a little exaggerated, but I promise you it’s not this is a very common scenario as this plays out, okay.
Another trait of the fixed mindset is shuttling responsibility fixed mindset. People don’t take responsibility for their results. They blame other people for their failures. They blame other people and situations for their setbacks. Because it’s not their fault. Like they’re doing everything they can.
But then there are all these other obstacles in the way there’s nothing, there’s nothing that they can do about it because they’re, they’re fixed, right? They’re doing everything they can. So instead of taking responsibility for the results, they blame other people. They blame things that are happening around them so that they don’t have to be accountable and that they don’t have to learn and grow because they don’t believe they can.
So in a fixed mindset, it kind of appears that nothing ever seems to go your way and there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s where the fixed mindset is, is pretty harsh. It’s like, here’s, here’s how I am. Here’s how I’m wired. And there’s nothing I can do about it. I can’t grow. I can’t change. I can’t evolve, and I can’t become more. Right?
I have a long history of being in a fixed mindset. I was in a fixed mindset for most of my life. When I was a teenager, here’s an example. I was in this band. All right, and we were kind of a popular band back in the day. This is back in the 80s, right. And I played the keyboards, and I had been taking piano lessons. And so I’m like, you know, I was the guy that knew a little bit about playing keyboards, or whatever.
But here’s the thing, I had a very fixed mindset. I never thought that I had the same innate talent and abilities that the other musicians I was playing with had, I always thought other musicians as more talented as naturally gifted. They had this natural ability to, you know, make their instrument come alive. And I just never could do that. And I just sort of felt stuck.
I felt like I was not naturally talented. I didn’t see talent as something that I could learn over time. With practice and dedication, I saw it as either you had it or you didn’t. And I did not have it. So I quit, I ended up quitting the band in my early 20s. And then I just never really thought of myself as a musician ever, ever again. So that was me.
Even at an early age being in this fixed mindset, had I adopted a growth mindset. And we’ll talk about the growth mindset here in a moment. But had I adopted a growth mindset, who knows where I’d be today, probably some, you know, huge rock star, something like that.
But then later in life, I wanted to be a runner, like, in my 30s. You know, I was like, you know, what, I really want to be a runner, I see these people running on Saturday mornings, and I thought, I want to do that. But I was like, there’s no way that’s just not me. I am not a born runner. I can’t become a runner.
Also, for me, most Saturday mornings were like, I was super hungover from, you know, a night of drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes. So there’s no way I could ever be one of those runners. I’m just like, I was too out of shape. I never thought I could get in that kind of shape. Like my health and fitness were fixed.
This is this was my mindset, okay. And the idea of trying to become a runner, and failing at it, it was just too much for me. So if I tried and failed, it meant that I was a failure. That meant that I could never become a runner. So why would I even bother? It’s much safer to just avoid all that altogether. And then I never have to feel like a failure. This is the fixed mindset right here. Okay.
Now, this line of reasoning doesn’t make any sense to me today, because that’s, this is not who I am anymore. I definitely have more of a growth mindset. And I’ve worked hard at it. But at the time, I thought that’s, that’s just who I was. And I wasn’t capable of change. I wasn’t capable of becoming more.
So the overarching message for me was don’t try anything too hard. And you’ll never have to feel like a failure. This is the overarching message of the fixed mindset. And I hear it show up with people that I coach as well.
So I’ll hear people say like, you know, I’m really having a hard time losing weight. And so I’m okay, if I just stayed this way, I’m okay. If I just don’t ever lose the weight. Maybe this is just a good weight for me. When deep down, they desperately want to lose the weight.
That is the fixed mindset where it can kind of get a little bit sneaky and start you start to convince yourself that this is just as good as it gets like you can’t become more you can’t accomplish this goal. Because, you know, you’re just too afraid to fail.
And listen, this isn’t about whether I think people should or shouldn’t lose weight. This is not for me to say this is for you to decide if this is what you want for yourself. What I’m talking about here is people that say, this is what they want for themselves, but then they don’t do it because they’re afraid of failing. This is what I’m talking about. That’s the fixed mindset in action. Right there.
Okay, so let’s talk about the growth mindset because this is the one that I have been working on so hard, and this is the one that I really want to share with you guys. So in the growth mindset, you don’t believe that talent, intelligence, abilities, and potential are fixed, but these things are malleable, they can always be learned and always be improved upon.
In the growth mindset, you believe that your success is not based on innate abilities and talents, but rather your success is based on your hard work, your practice your determination, your grit, your discipline. In the growth mindset, you’re always striving to reach your true potential. And in the growth mindset, you also understand that potential, it’s kind of a moving target.
And that you can always learn, you can always grow, you can always become more always in forever. This is my mantra these days is just like always growing, always becoming more people with the growth mindset, don’t see failure as the end, they see it as a necessary part of the learning and growing process.
People with the growth mindset see failure, not as something to avoid at all costs, but as a prerequisite for all success. People with a growth mindset know that every success is built upon a pile of failures. So they don’t see failure as a problem, just an opportunity to learn and grow and try something else.
So failure is just one thing that didn’t work like, oh, I tried that it didn’t really work. Let’s try something else. Let’s see if this works better. I deal with this all the time with people who are trying to we’re trying to figure out the right, you know, diet for someone, you know, the right meal plan.
And there’s no right answer that works for everybody. I’m just going to tell you that right now. And so there’s some trial and error there. Oh, let’s try eating you know, this much protein. Let’s try eating this, this many carbs this week. And let’s see if that makes a difference. Oh, you feel better? Okay, good. Let’s, let’s keep doing more of that.
Or oh, that didn’t really work for you. Running is still hard. Okay, well, let’s try something else. So for somebody with a growth mindset, failure never means I am a failure. People with the growth mindset don’t internalize failure, they don’t make it all about themselves or their self-worth, they don’t see themselves as less worthy because of a failure, a setback, or some disappointment. They just keep going. They just keep making progress.
People with a growth mindset aren’t afraid to do big things. They’re not afraid of facing challenges, because failure isn’t the end of the line. It’s part of the process. And it’s going to happen, we expect failure in the growth mindset. And we just embrace it and just keep going.
So how does this play out? Well, I can also tell in my coaching, I can tell the growth mindset people right away, too. They understand that if they’re trying to do something like lose weight, that is not a straightforward process. They’re okay with that. They’re not fazed by the ups and downs of the scale. They’re just like, oh, yeah, I get it. I, you know, weight went up again. But I’m committed to doing this. And I understand how this works. So I’m just going to keep going.
They see it as part of the process, they see it as the path to success. And they’re always learning and growing from it. You know, they might say to themselves, like, what did I do this past week that contributed to a little bit of a weight gain? You know, what can I do differently this week to get better results. This is how growth mindset people attack setbacks.
People with a growth mindset, they’re willing to go after hard things, they’re willing to do challenging things. They’re not afraid of failure, but failing. I work with a lot of people who are of the growth mindset, which is awesome. This one woman, in particular, she’s training for her very first 5k.
She’s never seen herself as a runner, but she made a decision that she wanted to become a runner. And for her running was always too hard. Right? She’s never really gone after like becoming a runner before because it’s just been like too hard.
But now, she’s on this training plan. And she’s been doing this for a month or two now. And she’s loving it. She says she finally feels like a runner for the first time in her life. And it hasn’t always been easy. She’s had some tough runs. She’s felt terrible. Sometimes she’s had some setbacks and failures. But she keeps on going with the growth mindset. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in your past or not. What matters is that you’re doing what it takes today, to grow and improve yourself, and become more.
She’s going to become this. She’s going to do her first 5k here soon. And I’m so excited for her because it takes me right back to those days when I wanted to become a runner. And I started and I could visualize doing my first 5k that’s the growth mindset in action.
This is not who I am, but this is who I want to become. And I’m going to go after it. I’m going to do it. I don’t care how hard it is. I don’t care if I fail. I don’t care if it’s It’s challenging. I don’t care if I mess up or you know, I have setbacks or it feels terrible. Sometimes I’m going to keep going, I’m going to accomplish this goal. That’s the growth mindset right there.
So every time I talk to her, I just, I feel so good, because when she talks about running these days, she just lights up. She loves it. She’s a runner, and she’s so proud of herself. And it’s palpable, that feeling I just love it, love it. Definitely someone of the growth mindset. Also, people with the growth mindset take responsibility for everything for all of their results, the good and the bad.
They don’t blame other people. They don’t blame circumstances. They don’t. They don’t like shun all the responsibility, they own it. They own their successes and their failures, and they learn from them, and they move on with a growth mindset.
These are people who take ownership of all of their results. They know what they can control, which is their own thoughts, feelings, and actions. And they know what they can control, which is basically everything else.
So I call this concept radical responsibility. This is taking responsibility for all of your results no matter what. And people with a fixed mindset, people definitely do not do this. They always have stories and reasons and excuses for why things aren’t working for them. On the other hand, the people with the growth mindset, you know what, they have results.
So, here are a couple of my experiences with the growth mindset. I just want you guys to understand something if you find yourself more in a fixed mindset, it doesn’t mean you’re stuck there forever. Doesn’t mean you’re doomed forever like you can never change like this is just who you are, you can change your mindset.
And so I used to be more of a fixed mindset. And now I’m not. Over the last few years, I’ve been really practicing this growth mindset I’ve been trying it on. And things are very different for me. So a couple of examples here.
A few years ago, I decided that I didn’t want to run marathons anymore. running marathons was too hard, right? Are you guys with me on this one? Do you have you ever felt this way? Like you’ve done some marathons and you’re like, well, that’s too hard. I’m just gonna stick with half marathons from here on out. Well, that was me. I had that attitude. And I could justify it. I had all these reasons and excuses.
I was like, oh, the training just takes too long. You know, running a marathon, what do you out there for all day, you know, with a half marathon, you can just go home when you’re done. And you know, you can still walk around the rest of the day.
And so I made this decision at some point that I’m just like, going to do half marathons from here on out. So a few years back. Well, this is the fixed mindset in action. Because marathons were hard. Marathons were challenging. There’s an element of suffering that you have to be able to endure if you want to run marathons.
And I didn’t want to deal with that I didn’t want I feared failing. That fear of failure kept me from doing big challenging things like this. So why would I even bother trying? So if I just tell myself, Oh, I just do half marathons. That’s the fixed mindset, keeping me stuck keeping me small, keeping me from doing big things. Stay safe, stay comfortable. Don’t try these big hard things. Because, hey, if you fail, it means that you know you are a failure, Patrick.
I don’t want to feel that way. But since I’ve adopted a new mindset, a growth mindset. I’ve completely shifted my thinking around all this. In fact, let’s see last year, I ran my first marathon and several years last year, and I also did my first Ultra in several years last year, so I did a marathon and a 50k towards the end of 2020. And then this year, I’ve already run a marathon.
I’ve got another marathon coming up, I’ll most likely do an ultra later on this year. And I’m not afraid of challenging myself anymore. I’m not afraid of pushing myself I don’t see failure. As a measure of my self-worth. I don’t see having a bad time during a marathon as meaning anything about me and my self-worth. I know I’m awesome. I know I’m a badass. I don’t have to prove this to myself or anybody else.
But I do want more for myself. I do like to push myself I do like to challenge myself. And I don’t want to be stuck in this fixed mindset anymore. So now I’m like back to running marathons back to running ultra marathons and it feels amazing. Another example of me embracing the growth mindset and moving away from this fixed mindset was when I decided that I was going to start eating meat again.
So I was plant-based vegetarian, and then plant-based for, like 15 years really. And I had started gaining a lot of weight during this time and decided that I needed to do something about this. And one of the things I did was I said, okay, instead of just being stuck in this fixed mindset and stuck with this fundamental principle of like, I don’t eat meat, I’m going to explore other options, I’m going to learn all about nutrition, I’m going to, you know, do a deep dive into this topic and learn about what other options are available for me, like, what is the right plan for me, what is the right diet for me?
And I did a lot of learning and a lot of growing and a lot of internal, there was some struggle with this decision, but I decided I was going to try eating meat again. And I did and things changed for me for the better. You know, this is a decision that I came to it was a personal decision that I made. And I would not have, I would not change it.
I’m still eating meat these days. And I think it was the right choice for me, I feel better, I’m healthier. And you know, I stopped eating all the sugar and the carbs and stuff like that too. But I really just embraced eating meat and got out of that fixed mindset. Because that fixed mindset was kind of keeping me stuck and keeping me not healthy and keeping me overweight.
And so I had to like embrace the growth mindset is the only way that I could be open to like, new ideas to learning new ways of doing things. Because if you’re just stuck with your ideology, and you’re stuck in this, like fixed way of doing things, if it’s not working for you, then you have to start adopting a different mindset, you have to adopt that growth mindset in order to change.
And so this is a glaring example of me being willing to try on again, try on the growth mindset and see how it felt and see how it changed for me. And so since then, I feel great. My health has never been better. I’m so glad I’m not stuck in that fixed ideology anymore.
And listen, I’m not bashing. You know, vegetarians are plant-based. If that works for you. That’s amazing. I mean, this is so awesome. This just works for me. Right? There’s nothing wrong with doing it that way. This just works for me.
So, here’s what I want you to think about here. Which of these mindsets do you identify with the most? So here are some questions for you. Is there something you want for yourself, but you’re too afraid to fail? Do you find yourself blaming others? Or circumstances for your results? Or your lack of results? Do you believe that your talents, your intelligence, your abilities are fixed? Like you either have it or you don’t? Do you tend to give up easily when you experience a setback? Or when things don’t go your way? Or don’t go as planned? Do you feel stuck? Do you feel like things are just never gonna work out for you?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re probably more of a fixed mindset. That’s okay. Nothing wrong with that. Here are some other questions for you. Let’s see if you’re if you adopt a few relate to more of a growth mindset. So are there things that you do? Even though they’re challenging and hard? And you might fail? Do you go for them anyway? Do you take responsibility for all of your results? The good and bad? Do you believe that your talents, your intelligence, your abilities, your potential can be learned and improved upon when you experience a setback or a failure? Do you learn from it and try something else? Do you keep going no matter what even when Progress seems slow? Do you believe that you can always learn and grow and become more?
So if you answered yes to these, you’re most likely to have a growth mindset. And here’s the last thing I want to say if you identify more with a fixed mindset, it’s okay. You can work to change it. Just notice where your fixed mindset is keeping you stuck or keeping you from pushing yourself.
Now we all experience you know we all display these traits in different parts of our lives. So for different situations, we might have a fixed mindset. For other situations, we might have more of a growth mindset. You know, I talk to people all the time who say like, oh, yeah, I’m super dedicated and when it comes to running, I can get out there and do it and stick to it. I make a plan and I stick to the plan even when things don’t go my way, I can keep pushing myself, I keep moving forward, I learn from my mistakes, like, great, okay.
But then when it comes to their diet, it’s like, oh, it’s so hard, I can’t do it, I can never make a plan, I can’t stick to it, if things don’t go, right, it’s just devastating. You can see that there’s a fixed mindset in one area of their life, but a growth mindset and another, and I’m like, hey, you know what you can do? Copy and paste, copy and paste that attitude, that mindset into this other area of your life over here. And I’m sort of joking about it.
But I’m sort of not. Take those same principles, take those same thoughts and feelings, take those same thoughts, feelings, and action patterns, take that same mindset and apply it over here. That’s all it takes, really, it’s just start practicing doing this.
And this is not something that’s going to change overnight. It’s not like flipping a switch, you know, it’s like, oh, I want a growth mindset. So now I’ve got it. You just don’t announce it. Like, I now have a growth mindset, and then everything changes for you know, you got to practice it. Because it’s gonna, it’s going to take some practice, it’s gonna be challenging for you to do this. I’m, I’m telling you, it’s not, as you know, simple as I’m making it sound, it is simple.
It’s a simple concept. Apply this growth mindset to everything that you do. But it’s not easy. It’s simple, but it’s not easy. So just notice, where you’re feeling like, stuck, or feeling like you don’t want to do something because it’s too hard. This is your fixed mindset. You know, anytime you feel like I could never do that, that’s just not who I am. This is fixed mindset thinking.
Notice these places in your life where your fixed mindset is holding you back and try on the growth mindset instead. And then just notice other areas and try it on there as well. And just kind of rinse and repeat. Until this growth mindset becomes more second nature for you. Cool.
Remember, September is four weeks to fat adapted running over in the Running Lean coaching group. So we’re gonna go through exactly how to become a lean, fat-burning running machine, I want you to become the healthiest version of yourself. That’s my goal for you. I want that for you.
I hope you want that for yourself, too. So we’re gonna learn all about fat adapted running. Just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join. It’s not too late. We haven’t gotten started yet. We start next Tuesday. And I hope you got something out of this episode. Today. It was a lot of fun putting this together for you guys. And if you did get something out of it, please consider sharing it with a friend I love you all keep on Running Lean. Talk to you soon.
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Probably the number one issue people struggle with when it comes to healthy eating is sticking with it! They do great for a few weeks or a few months but then eventually find themselves elbow-deep …
Continue Reading about 57. How to Make Healthy Eating a Way of Life →
My name is Patrick McGilvray. And I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners, I’ve learned that running more and eating less does not work for weight loss and that there’s a better way. Now I help runners like you to get leaner and get stronger, so you can run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 57 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. Today, I’m going to be talking about how to make healthy eating a way of life. Probably the biggest issue that people struggle with when it comes to healthy eating is sticking with it.
They do great for a few weeks or maybe a few months. But then eventually they find themselves elbow-deep in the edible cookie dough and they have no idea how they got there. Well, here’s the thing. We all have the ability to make healthy eating a way of life. For some people, it’s no problem for others, it seems virtually impossible.
So today I’m going to talk about what’s going on here. Why it’s easy for some people to make healthy eating a way of life and why for others, it’s really hard. I’m also going to offer some practical tips to help you start making that shift that mental shift from the temporary diet mentality to the permanent way of life mentality. Cool. All right, I’m gonna get into all that in just a minute.
If you haven’t already, come check us out on Facebook, we have this awesome Running Lean community on Facebook. And next month, this is February 2021, we’re going to be doing a 28-day low carb challenge. So our focus for the month will be on reducing problematic carbs. So we’re talking about sugar and refined grains.
Mostly, this is not a no carbs deal here. You know, this isn’t like keto month or anything like that. What we’re trying to do is just see what it feels like to ditch the really problematic carbs for a couple of weeks or four weeks if you decide to do that. So I’m going to be offering some training each week in the Facebook group, during the challenge period here, tell you how to do this simply and safely.
And we’ll also be offering encouragement for one another. We’ll support each other through this whole month. Okay, so join us in the Facebook group. And this Sunday, this will be the 31st of January, I’m going to do a kickoff call. So our weekly coaching calls that I normally do on Sundays, this one will be all about kicking off our 28 day low-carb challenge, cool.
It’s gonna be fun. It might open your eyes to some different ways of doing things and I think it could change your life for the better. So if you’re interested, just come check us out on Facebook, just search for Running Lean community on Facebook.
Here’s a recent five-star review of the Running Lean podcast from Rudy Root. Love the name by the way. And Rudy Root says, “Five stars. Super awesome podcast. I’ve been listening since last summer and find so much inspiration from this podcast. I’ve actually listened to many of the podcasts twice. Because there aren’t many great podcasts out there. So many of them sound monotone and rehearsed, but not this one. Patrick’s passion comes through and his sincerity. I’ve learned so much about journaling, mindset, food fasting, and of course running. I’m impressed that Patrick shares so much knowledge for free. The Facebook group is also worth checking out. I enjoy the Sunday live videos too. Again, so much you can learn from on this podcast.”
Thank you, Rudy wrote for that awesome review. And if you feel moved, you can share the love as well. If you enjoy the podcast, it would mean so much to me. If you would just take a moment and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It’s just a nice way for you to say thank you. Cool, awesome.
Alright, let’s get into this topic today. I’m excited about this. Because this is something that is very near and dear to my heart and this is how to make healthy eating a way of life. So the problem that most people face is that you know, they have this issue, they’re like overweight, okay, or they don’t feel good.
Maybe they have inflammation, bloating, gas, health problems, all kinds of, you know, metabolic issues, right. And so, the answer is just to change how you’re eating right? Change your diet, do something different. You know, for most people just switching from the standard American diet to literally anything else is going to be is going to, you know, help you to improve in some ways, okay?
But whatever it is that you adopt, whatever healthy eating plan that you get on – vegetarian pescatarian, Paleo, the South Beach diet, whatever it is. I mean, you know that you need to do these things, right, you know what you need to do, okay, and so you do it.
So you start just taking some action, you start changing how you eat, you’re changing the types of foods you’re eating, and maybe how often you’re eating, okay. And for most people, it starts out pretty good, like a few weeks go by, you might be able to stick with it, you start to feel better, and you might even lose some weight.
But then something happens, something always happens by the way, and you find yourself you know, gorging on cupcakes, or whatever your bingeable food of choice is. The edible cookie dough is so hilarious, I think it’s funny that they even make such a thing. It’s like, we know you guys like to eat raw cookie dough. So we’re just going to make that just eat that, okay.
But what happens is, you’re able to stick to it, most people are able to stick to some sort of healthy eating plan for a few weeks or a couple of months. But then they quit, they can’t do it anymore. Okay. And a lot of times, they blame that diet or that diet doesn’t work.
And they’re not really taking responsibility for their own actions. Okay. And I’m gonna get into why it’s hard to take responsibility for our own actions and why we don’t do that very well, especially when it comes to sticking with a nutrition or exercise plan. But the core problem, though, is that after a few weeks, or a few months, most people quit.
Now, I have to say this, like not all diets are the same. When it comes to changing your diet changing what you’re eating, some diets are, are much harder to stick to, in particular, like caloric restriction diets. So any diet that reduces calories is going to put your body into this kind of starvation mode, and you end up being most people end up being very hungry all the time, like overly hungry, and they end up getting to a point where they just start binging on junk food again.
Also, these caloric restriction diets tend to slow your metabolism down. So you’ll end up burning fewer calories. So not only are you hungry all the time, but your metabolism actually starts to slow down to match what you’re taking in. And so the weight loss tends to stall and kind of just plateau after a little bit.
So any diet that makes you super hungry, though, is going to be very hard to stick to, okay, it’s almost impossible to stick to a diet and expect to lose weight if you’re like voraciously, hungry all the time. And most diets work on some principle, some version of a caloric restriction.
Okay, so this is why most typical diets are so hard to make a way of life, right? For most people, it’s not impossible, just it’s very difficult to stick to a caloric restriction type of diet for any long period of time. It’s very hard to make this a way of life for sure.
Okay, well, the type of diet does matter. There’s bigger issues at play here. Some people do well with caloric restriction, and they can do that for their whole life. And that’s fine. And most people have an issue with that, though. So the things I want to talk about here are the so the first thing is this idea of the diet mentality.
The diet mentality is this underlying principle that what you’re doing is temporary. I’m going on a diet, that that just sounds like you’re doing something very short-term, right? You know, I’m going on a diet, and then I’ll go off the diet. You know, it’s it doesn’t sound permanent, right?
Whether you consciously are even aware of this or not, when you say I’m going on a diet, it kind of implies that you’re making changes for a short period of time, and then you’ll be able to go at some point and to go back to doing things the way you used to do. Right. This is sort of the unspoken rule, I guess you could say, or principle behind most diets. It’s this mentality that it’s temporary, okay?
There’s also the mentality that it has to be hard. And then it has to be uncomfortable, and you have to suffer your way through it. You know, and once you suffer long enough, you know, maybe you get to your goal weight, then you can go back to not suffering anymore and eating comfortably again.
So eating all the sugar, all the refined grains, all the comfort, food, all this stuff that got you overweight in the first place. Yeah, just go back to eating that stuff. Again, this is the mentality of a diet, right? It’s temporary, it’s super hard, you’re going to suffer. And then at some point, you can just go back to doing things the way you used to do and get back to being comfortable.
Again, you know, those things that you used to do that got you 40 or 50 pounds overweight in the first place. Do you see the kind of ridiculousness of this way of thinking, the way that I do? Good, I hope you do. This mentality, it just does not work and never has worked. And it never will.
To think you can go back to your old ways, the stuff that got you, you know, metabolically unhealthy, overweight, whatever it is, to think you can go back to doing that, and not like gain all the weight back and be become unhealthy, again, is bananas. It just is totally bananas. I don’t understand it.
But a lot of people think this, even people I work with sometimes, you know, we change their diet, we get them where they’re starting to get healthy. And they have this thought that like it’s temporary, they can go back to doing the old things. Again, I missed that way of eating. Of course, you do. That way of eating is amazing.
It feels great to eat pasta, bread, and sugar all the time. Like that stuff is amazing. But it got you sick, and it got you super overweight and unhealthy. You can’t expect to go back to doing that and not suffer the consequences. Okay. So remember, nothing changes if nothing changes, you can’t expect different results by doing the same things over and over again.
Trust me, I’ve tried this. I tried this for years and years, and it kept gaining weight. I was like, maybe if I just try this harder. If I just eat more carbs and more fruit and exercise more, it’ll finally work for me. And it just was never working. Maybe if I count my calories harder, maybe if I kept three apps that were tracking and a spreadsheet for tracking all of my macros that would help, and like no, this stuff was working right.
And I just kept gaining weight. I finally had to throw my hands in the air at some point and just say, okay, I’m going to try anything, whatever I need to do, it’s whatever I’m doing is not working, I need to try something different. Okay. So my point here is that you, you can’t get into this mentality of diet, this is like temporary, and you can go back to doing what you used to do, that is not going to work. All right?
What happens though, when you’re entrenched in this temporary diet mentality, you’re just bound to fail, right? Your chances of quitting are so much higher. Why? Because you’re not in it for the long haul, you’re thinking in terms of a few weeks or a few months. And guess what, that’s exactly what you get, you can do it for a few weeks, or a few months, and then you quit.
So this thought that you have whether it’s conscious or not, this thoughts that you have is going to lead to that outcome of quitting in a few weeks or a few months. Even though you’re not really aware of it. And you may blame the diet, you may just say, Oh, that diet doesn’t work. No, this is what you’re thinking about it. Okay.
So what’s the alternative? What’s the alternative to this, like, temporary diet mentality? You know, the alternative is the way of life mentality, right? You’ve got to change your whole mindset around healthy eating. You have to let go of that whole old diet mentality, idea, that temporary idea, and you have to adopt this new way of life mentality.
Why does this work? Well, when you make healthy eating a way of life you’re no longer in this temporary mindset. Okay, you have a mindset of permanence, right? Healthy eating becomes who you are, it becomes what you do. You’ll have a much easier time sticking to it because in your mind, you’re never going back to eating the way that you used to eat again.
You’ll never quit because quitting isn’t an option, you have this deep desire at the core of your being to be as healthy as possible. And it’s a for life kind of a deal. So you develop this unshakable determination.
Think about it this way, like, it’s very similar to when you’re training for a marathon, right? There’s something very powerful, and deep inside you that when you’re training for a marathon, it drives you, there’s something inside you that drives you to train, to do all those long, hard runs to get up early on the Saturday mornings to run in the rain and the cold and the snow and all that other stuff, right?
You’ll do it because there’s something like visceral that’s driving you, right? No matter what I’m sticking to my marathon training schedule. That’s what I mean by unshakable determination. We want to apply that same unshakable determination to healthy eating, no matter what happens,
I’m sticking to my healthy eating plan. No matter what happens, I’m going to make this work. For the long haul. I’m in this 100% I’m committed. That’s where we want to get to. Okay. So how do we do that? Like, how do you develop that unshakable determination? Well, really, it involves not just changing what you do, because when you just change what you do, you’re changing your actions, your behaviors, kind of your habits, right?
This is just surface level stuff, right? You have to go deeper than that. You have to like, get to the core of who you are, right? You have to make healthy eating part of your identity. Okay? You got to make healthy eating just a way of life. Right? It’s just what you do. It’s just who you are. It’s part of your identity.
So when we talk about identity, what do we mean by that? Identity is everything that comes after the words I am. So your identity is who you are at the deepest core layer of your being. And we all have identities, we all have several identities. Some of the identities I have are I’m a man, I’m a father, I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a coach. I’m a hopeless romantic. I’m a personal trainer. I’m an expert in sports nutrition. I’m a runner, I am a runner, this is part of my identity. You can probably relate to this one, you probably have that same identity. I am a runner.
Now, this has not always been the case. For me. I didn’t always use to be a runner. I used to be the fat guy. I was sick. I smoked cigarettes, I drank alcohol, I was super unhealthy. That was my identity. I was a smoker, drinker, and eater of junk food. You know, at one point, I’m a smoker. That was my identity. You know, and I couldn’t imagine not being a smoker.
And honestly, I tried to quit a million times. And that never worked. My identity was even when I was trying to quit my identity was tied around this idea of like, I’m a smoker who’s trying to quit. That was like who I was. It wasn’t until I shifted my identity to I’m a nonsmoker then I was able to quit for good.
I decided that I was going to be a different person. I was going to be a nonsmoker. In fact, I had to be I had to feel that at my core that had to be part of my identity in order for me to quit for good. I am a runner was not part of my identity until I was like almost 40 years old. Now, I can’t imagine not being a runner.
Honestly, I cannot imagine having the identity of someone who’s a non-runner. Being a runner is just deeply ingrained into who I am. I’ve made running and helping runners figure out their diet, their nutrition, I’ve helped runners take control of their health I help runners adopt a more powerful mindset. My whole career is built upon this core identity of mine that I am a runner.
This is just such an ingrained part of who I am. Same thing with I am a healthy eater, and I didn’t used to be, you know, junk food. I was overweight. I was obese. I was sick. I had cancer. And all these things were part of who I was, I was like this, I didn’t care what I ate was a human garbage can just eat anything, just throw it all in there, whatever.
And again, I didn’t really take control of my eating around until I was around 40 years old. And then it got better, you know, and it got out of hand again, and I had to take control again about a year ago. But today, I’m, I have this identity of someone who is a healthy eater.
This is really, really ingrained in who I am. And it kind of colors, everything that I do and how I go through my day, and who I interact with, and the things I do for my work and everything else. Today, healthy eating is not just what I do, it’s who I am, I can’t imagine being someone who doesn’t eat healthy.
So this is deeply rooted in the core of my being this is a deeply rooted core identity of mine being a healthy eater, right. It’s the foundation of like all this work that I do, it’s what Running Lean is based on. Okay.
So when I talk about identity, I’m really talking about those things that are just part of who you are at your core. All right. Now, you might have an identity, that’s kind of keeping you stuck, you might be carrying around this identity of someone who can never lose weight, you might have the identity of someone who can never stick to a diet, you might have the identity of someone who always struggles.
I hear this all the time, oh, I’m, you know, I just always struggle with my weight, I’ve always struggled, this is just who I am. That’s like so deeply part of your core, that trying to lose the weight or changing how you’re eating is going to be extremely difficult.
And these thoughts that you have these beliefs that you have about yourself, they may be buried in your subconscious, you may not even be aware that you have this identity, but it’s like the ultimate form of self-sabotage, you’re never going to make progress, you’re never going to be able to stick to anything, any healthy way of eating.
If you have this identity of like, I always struggle, I can never lose weight. I’m someone who just this never works for me, you have to make a shift at the identity level, if you want to get different results. And that identity level, this is where your beliefs are this is your worldview, your self image or self worth your values, your judgments about yourself and others.
That’s where all of these things reside, this is all these things kind of makeup who you are at your core. Okay? In order for you to make healthy eating a way of life, it has to become a part of your identity. And I love this. I was talking to a client last night, Autumn, and she shared with me that she has been journaling lately.
And she wrote that, you know, healthy eating is what I do. This is who I am. And she shared that with me. And I was like, yes, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. This is what I do. This is who I am. When you have that mentality, there’s no question of sticking to it or not. It’s just what you do. It’s just who you are.
I’ve just been reading this amazing book, by James Clear, called Atomic Habits. And people have been recommending that I read this book for years. And I’m like, yeah, I’ll get to it. I’ll get to it. And finally, I’m like, okay, let’s start reading this book. And really, the stuff he talks about in there is amazing. And it really lines up with a lot of stuff that I teach here, too.
But he says, “The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity.” It’s one thing to say, I’m the type of person who wants this. And it’s something very different to say, I’m the type of person who is this. So, again, in order to make healthy eating a way of life, it has to become part of your core identity.
So how do you do that? Good question. How do you make healthy eating part of your identity? So I’m going to give you a couple of practical steps that you can actually take care of. Okay. The first is this, the first thing you have to do is you have to commit. You have to go all in on this idea that I’m just going to make healthy eating part of who I am. You have to make that commitment to yourself. You have to go all-in on yourself.
I am now a healthy eater, period. This is who I am, period, make the commitment that you’re going to stick with, this doesn’t matter what happens, you’re sticking with this. It’s like making an unwavering promise to yourself, right? This is who I am, this is what I do. So that’s number one. You have to make that commitment and you have to really feel it.
What a lot of people do is they say, yeah, I want to eat healthy for the rest of my life. Yeah, sure. And they kind of half-ass that commitment. Well, guess what, you’re gonna get half-assed results from that. Okay, so you got to be you got to full ask this commitment. why don’t why isn’t that a phrase? I want to full-ass this thing? Anyway, things that make you go, that’s weird. Okay, step one, make the commitment has to be like, you have to go all in on yourself.
Number two, you got to spend some time visualizing this new identity. All right. If part of your identity if you want part of your identity to be I am a healthy eater. What does that look like for you? You have to spend some time thinking about it, visualizing it. What does your life look like? What do you look like? What does your typical day look like? What do you do? What do you eat? When do you eat? How much do you eat? What’s now important to you? Now that you’re a healthy eater? This is a lifestyle for you what’s important to you? Maybe the most important thing to ask yourself is how do you feel? How does it feel to have this identity?
I am a healthy eater. How does it feel to be a healthy eater? When you visualize who you want to be when you visualize this identity, it’s like a mental rehearsal for the reality that you want for yourself. Right? So you mentally rehearse the reality that you want. And when you do that, you create that reality for yourself.
Dr. Joe Dispenza, amazing, amazing guy. By the way, if you’re not familiar with his work, definitely read, Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself. This is an amazing book. But anyway, he says, “According to research on mental rehearsal visualization, once we immerse ourselves in that scene, changes begin to take place in our brain. Therefore, each time we do this, we’re laying down new neurological tracks in the present moment, that literally change our brain to look like the brain of our future.”
In other words, the brain starts to look like the future we want to create has already happened. This is such a powerful, powerful thing, okay, visualization changes your brain to basically look like the future that you want to create. And when you do that, that future that you want to create for yourself begins to take shape for you. Okay.
Elite athletes do this all the time they rehearse the race, they’re about to run in their mind first, and then when they go to do it, it’s like it’s already happened. Basketball players do this, they rehearse, shooting free throws, and then they get out there and they can do it more effectively. Visualize your new identity. That’s step number two.
Step number three is to start paying attention to yourdaily thoughts, your feelings, and your actions, right. These are only things that you can control in this world are your own thoughts, feelings, and actions, right? So start paying attention to them.
A great way to do this is to do some daily journaling. We’ve been talking about this all month in the Running Lean community on Facebook. We’ve done this journal challenge for January, people have been getting some great results. You start paying attention to what you’re thinking about, you start paying attention to your emotions, and you start paying attention to the actions you’re taking.
Right because you’re the things you think about all the time, you’re your constant thoughts. They create your feelings, they create your emotional state, and then you take action based on your emotional state. So your thoughts lead directly to the actions that you take and the results that you get right.
For example, if you feel motivated, you might go for a run. If you feel motivated and excited, and you feel like oh, I’m sticking to my meal plan here. You might eat a nice kale salad and a piece of salmon. Okay? Now if you’re feeling crappy if you feel sad, you might sit on the couch. You might binge-watch some Netflix you might eat a whole large pizza by yourself and cry. I may have done that. Right.
So your emotional state kind of drives your actions. So pay attention to what you’re constantly thinking because your thoughts really create that emotional state. And one great way of doing that is just doing some journaling each day, write down what you’re thinking about, just get all your thoughts out of your head and onto the page.
And so pay attention to what you’re thinking about, then pay attention to how you’re feeling. And it really helps to just give your emotions a name, instead of just like, oh, I’m depressed, I’m down, I’m blue. I don’t know, I’m overwhelmed, whatever, whatever state you’re in, try to name it, I’m, I’m angry, I’m frustrated, I’m lonely, I’m sad. I’m bored. I’m stressed. Try to name those emotions and try to find out, like, what thoughts are causing those feelings, okay.
And then look at the actions that you’re taking right in and start paying attention. I’m not talking like you don’t have to change all this stuff. But start paying attention to your thoughts, start paying attention to how you feel. And then really start paying attack attention to the actions you’re taking.
Start taking aligned actions, like is eating a large pizza by yourself moving you closer to or further away from your goals? I’m gonna say probably moving further away. That’s just something you can say, oh, that’s interesting. I wonder why I’m doing that. Right. So just make sure that the things you’re doing or not doing are in alignment with this identity that you want for yourself.
Like, if your identity if you want your identity to be I am a healthy eater, then you know, just sitting around watching Netflix and eating a large pizza by herself, is probably not going to be in alignment with that identity that you want for yourself, okay? So make sure you’re taking aligned action.
What you do should be moving you closer to who you want to be. When being healthy, becomes part of your identity, you gain confidence in yourself, you build trust with yourself, and sticking to it becomes natural. It’s just it’s what you do. Remember, being healthy is not a destination you’re trying to get to this isn’t a temporary deal. Being healthy is a way of life.
Being healthy has to become part of the very essence of who you are. Like Adam said, This is what I do. This is who I am. That’s what we want. Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you got something out of it, please consider sharing it with a friend. You guys totally got this. Lots of love. Keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.
If you’ve tried to lose weight by running miles and miles or starving yourself and you’ve had zero results, you are not alone. This model of weight loss is broken. It’s never worked, and it has to be replaced. That’s why I created a powerful new training just for you called How to Become a lien running machine. You’ll discover why running more and eating less does not work for weight loss and you’ll learn the three secrets to losing weight and keeping it off for good to get this free training right now just go to runningleanpodcast.com/lean and learn how you can become lean running machine.
Last week I talked about how all of your problems are actually created in your head - by your thoughts. Today on the podcast, I explain how your feelings drive all of your actions and those actions …
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My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, running coach and mindset expert. I believe mindset is the most powerful and most underrated tool you have as a runner. So I’ve devoted my life to helping runners like you develop the mindset you need to fuel your inner fire and become the badass runner you were meant to be. This is The Running Mind podcast.
Hey there, and welcome back to The Running Mind podcast. My name is Patrick McGilvray. And I’m your host, and I’m a master life and success coach for runners and other cool people. And today, I’m going to follow up from last week’s episode. Last week’s episode was all about how your problems are all created in your mind.
It’s a very empowering way to look at the world, it’s the way the world is, it’s kind of like seeing the matrix once you understand how this stuff works. And I’ve received a lot of great feedback on last week’s episode, and people have been sharing their feelings with me about it and their thoughts about it. And it’s creating some really interesting conversations.
And today, I want to kind of follow up with that, with the second part of that episode. So when we talk about how our thinking, how circumstances are neutral, and our thinking is, we get to choose our thinking and our thinking causes our feelings and how we feel about things. And we can see things as a problem or not as a problem.
Today, I’m going to give you kind of the rest of the formula, the next two pieces of the formula for mastering your mindset. So you are going to enjoy this. I mean, seriously like this is if you want to get different results in your life, if you want things to be different in your life. It’s going to start with changing your thinking. And it’s going to start with learning the things that we’re going to be talking about here on this podcast, not just today.
But going forward. I want to help you get whatever it is you want in your life seriously. And you can do it. And I can help. But first I want to talk a little bit about my group coaching program, which is called The Runner’s Edge. And this is where it’s a private membership group where I take this teaching and this coaching to the next level. It’s a monthly membership program, it’s only $26.2 per month. Do you like what I did there with the price? It’d be easy to remember, but I wanted it to be just less than $1 a day.
I wanted it to be a simple, no brainer for you to say I want to be a part of that. Because what you get in the program is you get more of what I’m doing here, you know, we take it to the next level, we take it go a little bit deeper. And then you can also ask questions and get questions answered.
And I can do some, you know, kind of one on one coaching with you in that group as well. So we get the mindset training online coaching some one on one stuff, which is what a lot of online programs don’t do, they don’t offer. You know, from a group perspective, they don’t offer a one on one component. And I wanted to do that for you.
So you’ll get some one on one time with me. It’s a fun, supportive community composed of other runners just like you. You can ask questions, learn from others about how to build mental toughness, how to gain more confidence in your running and in life. And then everything I do in the program is going to be archived on a members only membership site.
And on that site, I also have courses that I create. And I’ve got a really cool course on there right now on goal setting and how to find a better way to do goal setting, okay. And all that is included. Like I said it’s $26.2 per month, $26.20. And you will get the edge that you need to perform your best whether it’s in running or just in life. So get The Runner’s Edge and start becoming the best all around version of yourself.
Okay, so today, we’re going to be talking about how you’re thinking more than anything else determines your results. Now we want to do a quick little recap from last week, in case you’re brand new to the podcast that this is your first time listening. Or if you just want a quick little recap, you know, like when you’re watching Netflix and they’re like, here’s what happened last week on you know, whatever it is and then they show you and you’re like oh yeah, I forgot about that. Well, that’s what I’m going to do here for you. Okay, so here’s what happened last week on The Running Mind podcast.
So you sit, you ration the circumstances in your life, the stuff that’s happening around you, is neutral, it’s always in neutral. It’s your thoughts about your situation that cause you to feel the feelings inside, okay? So you know, if you get a flat tire on your way to work, the flat tire doesn’t cause you to be pissed off. Okay, it’s your thoughts about getting the flat tire that caused the emotions, okay.
And then your thoughts about a particular situation will be different depending on how you experience the world. So whatever your model of the world it is, which is based on your past experiences, your beliefs, your values, your religious views, and on and on, these are all filters that we use to kind of, it’s how we perceive the world around us. And they’re different for everyone.
So we each have our own model of the world. We each experience, quote, unquote, reality differently. Okay, the way you interpret the circumstances in your life, that is your reality, the way that I interpret the circumstances in my life, that is my reality. So we each have a kind of a different reality. We call this the model of the world, your model of the world.
But the empowering part about this is that you get to create your own reality, and everyone else does, too. So what you actually think is like, just the way it is, isn’t the same for me, it’s not the same for everybody else. Just the way it is, is the way it is for you. Okay.
And an example I gave was like, if you are running a marathon, and you get a cramp in your calf at mile 18 and it hurts, and you have to stop and walk. So that’s just a circumstance, that’s just what is happening. You can choose for it to mean nothing, no big deal. I’m going to finish a little bit slower than I thought. Or you can choose it to mean, I’m an utter failure. I can’t, you know, ever be successful at running a marathon. I can’t believe I had to walk. I’m a terrible person. I’m unworthy.
Yeah, the cramp in your leg is not causing those feelings. Okay? This is what you’re thinking about it. All right. So situations are always neutral. There’s just circumstances in your life, your thoughts, you get to choose your thoughts. That’s your thinking, which causes you to feel emotions, and emotions are those one word things like anger, sadness, fear, frustration, disappointment, even like joy, happiness, confidence, love. These are all emotions that we feel based on how we think.
Okay, then today, we’re going to fill in the last two pieces of this puzzle, which is actions and results, okay. So your thinking causes your feelings, your feelings, determine your actions, okay? And then your actions, the actions that you take, determine the results that you get. Okay?
So let’s talk a little bit about actions. Actions, our actions are the stuff you do. Actions are the behaviors that you engage in the steps that you take. Actions can also be stuff you don’t do. Now, inaction is a form of behavior, right? Or an action. So every action you take is driven by your feelings.
And you might be thinking, Well, no, I just, you know, I do things because I know I have to or whatever, but think about this for a second. Have you ever gone out? And just like you went for like a 10 mile run? And you’re like, I don’t know, when I did that, I just felt like it. Right? Or if you’re, if you’re Forrest Gump, and it’s like, why have you been running for so long? I don’t know. I just felt like running.
Or maybe you were supposed to go out for a training run and it was like cold and rainy and you’re like, I don’t really feel like it today. So your feelings about the situation are determining what you’re going to do or not do? Okay? Another example is like, people with depression, they often don’t feel like doing anything, you know, and hear me out on this like depression is a diagnosed mental disorder. And I’m not saying it’s something you can just turn on and off with your thinking.
But, you know, depression is caused by things like you know, it’s biological, psychological and social sources of distress cause depression, the definition. You know, the Google definition of depression is a mental health disorder characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life. In other words, if you have depression, you don’t feel like doing anything. You have a lot of loss of interest in activities.
And I’m not saying this is all there is to it, but it’s part of it. It’s part of the equation of depression. But think about this for a minute. If you’re feeling lonely, if you’re feeling sad, or depressed or unworthy, how are you going to show up in the world? What actions are you more likely to take? Or what are you not going to do?
You know, how are you going to show up for work? For your partner, for your kids? What behaviors good or bad do you think you’ll partake in? If you’re feeling lonely, sad, depressed and unworthy? My guess is that you’re probably going to take some negative actions, you’re gonna engage in some negative behaviors, you probably make some poor choices, you might even, you know, start doing some escape-ism stuff, you know, checking out and numbing.
But what if you felt differently inside? Like, what if you felt feelings of confidence? What if you felt feelings of contentment, of peace? What if you were grateful and happy? How would these feelings determine your actions? What do you think you would do if you felt that way?
You know, what actions would you be more likely to take? And then think about how you would show up for work if you were feeling that way? How would you show up for your partner or for your kids? How would you show up for your training runs? What do you think you would do or not do?
So it’s so important to understand that, you know, everything that we do, we do because we are feeling a certain way. And a lot of times, you know, there’s things we do, because we don’t want to feel that way anymore. So this is like in painful situations. We can engage in some, you know, I call it like escapist or escapism, numbing behaviors, you know, overeating, drinking too much. lethargy, you know, spending money.
A lot of people, you know, shop, they have that shopping addiction. And I’m not making fun of that, but I saw this meme recently that I thought was pretty funny. And at the top of it, it just said, you know, therapist says, “Now, what do we say when we’re feeling sad?” And then the patient says, “Add to Cart”. The therapist was like, “No”.
But it’s true, it makes us feel good, we get that little hit of dopamine when we purchase something, or when we, you know, have that drink, or take that particular drug or eat the french fries, and the burger and the milkshake. You know, it makes us feel good temporarily. It does help us to not feel the feelings of pain or sadness, or loneliness, or unworthiness or whatever.
And it does work, it works for a minute, it kind of makes the pain go away temporarily, but then when that little buzz wears off, the pain is back. And then it becomes worse, because now we beat ourselves up about engaging in this bad behavior. And then the cycle just continues. So our feelings can really determine that our feelings really determine our actions.
And we have to be careful about the kinds of actions we take when we’re feeling certain ways, okay. And then these behaviors that we engage in can become habits after a while, and they can actually form new neural pathways in our brains. And so they can become easier to do over you know, over time, they become easier and easier to do these things, they become habits, and they become part of our subconscious.
And this can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the behavior. Okay. So just to kind of summarize what I’m talking about with actions, your actions are the things we do or don’t do, they are the behaviors we engage in, or don’t engage in, they are good or bad behaviors. And then it’s our actions that actually determine all of our results. Okay.
So results are the things that you get in your life, or the things that you want in your life. These are usually tangible and measurable. So results can be things like, hey, I ran a half marathon and under two hours, that’s a tangible measurable result. I lost 10 pounds. I got a promotion at work. I made $100,000 last year, these are all tangible, measurable results.
Something like there’s a little bit of a gray area, but it’s like I have a great relationship with my partner. So that could be an opinion. But you could quantify that by saying, like, oh, we communicate clearly and openly and regularly, we work through all of our issues. You know, we spend quality time together, we speak each other’s love languages, that could be a measurable way of saying that that is a result that you have, okay, but every result that you get in your life is determined by action you’ve taken or your inaction, okay?
So what you do, or don’t do, determines what you get, or don’t get. And if you want different results in your life, if you want something to change, you have to take different actions, right, the definition of insanity, that’s doing the same things over and over and over expecting different results.
And the crazy thing is like, we all do this, we’ve all done this at some point in our life, right? You know, I just, I’m going to keep training the same way, every season for my marathon, and I’m not getting any faster. And it’s still way, super hard. But I’m not changing my diet, I’m not changing my training plan, I’m not doing anything different. And I keep getting the same results. Why is this happening to me?
It’s like, Hey, you gotta switch some stuff up, right? But what we do, determines what we get. And what we do is driven by how we feel. So if you want to change your actions, you’re going to have to change how you feel. First, you have to change the emotions that you’re feeling. And since your thoughts determine your feelings, you’re gonna have to change your thinking first. So basically, what I’m saying here is if you want different results in your life, you have to change your thinking, Okay?
How you’re thinking more than anything else is going to determine your results, how you think about your situation, or how you think about, you know, whether you can do this thing or not, you know, if you think I remember when I sign up for my Ironman, that was a big deal for me back then. I was scared to death.
I hit the, you know, submit button when I paid for it, which was like $700, by the way. So there was fear. And there was like, a sense of like, am I doing the right thing here? But anyway, I was full of fear, like, can I do this? Can I accomplish this really hard thing? I mean, it’s a crazy event, you know?
And so I had to change my thinking, at some point, I had to sort of become an Ironman, like I had to, you know, get into the thinking of like, Yes, I can do this, in order for me to get those results. Because if I thought the whole time, like, there’s no way I can do this, there’s no way I can do this. There’s no way I can do this.
Guess what? When I show up at the starting line, my habitual thought patterns and feelings around this are all going to be I can’t do this. That’s a terrible way to approach something like that. So instead, I had this thought of like, I’m going to do this, I am going to do this, I can do this. You know, I was still nervous and fearful and things like that. But I pushed through that. I thought and felt in my heart that I could do it. And I did. Okay, so here’s a great question. Ask yourself, what do you want? Seriously, what do you want? See, very powerful question. And unfortunately, we don’t really take it very seriously. But think about it, like maybe you want to run a full marathon someday.
Or maybe you want to start your own business. But you’re thinking like, I could never do a full marathon like, I’m just I’m not capable of that. Or I would love to start my own business, but it just seems so complicated. I just don’t know enough. You know, or maybe what you want is a better relationship with your husband, or you want that promotion at work or you want to start your own business or you want to hike the Appalachian Trail you want to vacation in Italy.
Or you want to spend a month on a tiny island in the middle of the South Pacific. Seriously, that’s what I want. I want to spend a month on some remote little island in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. That’s what I want. But think about it, like what do you want in your life? Start asking yourself that question seriously, and figure out the answer, figure out what it is that you want. Because it’s a very, very important question.
So I’m going to give you guys a little writing exercise this week. And this is going to help you to see how this all works. I’m gonna give you an example here in a minute, but it’ll help you to see how this works. But it will also help you to start in creating some new realities for yourself and start getting some results that you want. And when you start doing this work on a regular basis, you will start to create better habits, and you’ll start to create those new neural pathways like I was talking about.
So here’s the exercise I want you to do, I want you to think about something that you really, really want, okay? And just write it down. And then write down all the thoughts you have about that thing, just brain dump everything out on the page doesn’t matter, good, bad. Otherwise, just break down everything you’re thinking about. It’s really interesting, when you start doing this, to see what it is, your thoughts are around something like that, you’re going to surprise yourself with what you’re actually thinking.
And then write down how those thoughts make you feel. You know, some might make you feel good, some might make you feel terrible, but just write down the feelings you’re feeling. You know, the emotion words, those one word emotion words. And then think about the actions that you’re taking or not taking because of those feelings. And then are those actions going to get you the result that you want? Are those actions going to get you what you want or not? Okay?
So that is like step one is to write down all that stuff. And then what you want to do is on a separate piece of paper, you know, write down that thing that you want again, but then, you know, write down what you want to think instead, the thoughts that would make you feel differently. You know, a lot of times, it’s going to be kind of the opposite of some of those thoughts that you had that maybe the negative thoughts.
So write down the thoughts you want to think instead. And then write down the emotions that those thoughts cause you to feel. And then write down the actions that one might take, because of those feelings, and then see if that is going to move you closer to that thing that you want. And I think you’re going to find some very interesting results from this. So here’s an example. I want to spend a month on a tiny little tropical island in the middle of the South Pacific. Okay, that’s what I want.
My initial thoughts when I just think about it is, oh, my gosh, that’s gonna be really expensive. I don’t think I can afford it. I don’t know if I can be away from home for that long. I would really want somebody to go with me, but I’m not sure who so I don’t know, do I just go alone? That sounds lame.
And I just don’t know if you guys need to know this or not. I’m going through a divorce right now. It’ll be finalized soon. I’m doing good. I’m doing pretty good through all that. But when I talk about things, like, you know, maybe I should go alone or find somebody to go with me. I’m not cheating on anybody. Just so you know. Okay.
So those thoughts are like, it’s expensive. I don’t know if I could be away from that long. Who should I go? You know, who would want to go with me? Do I just pick a friend? I don’t know. Maybe I go alone? What are those thoughts cause me to feel well, they caused me to feel fear, like financial fear, like, oh my gosh, I don’t know if I can spend that much money. You know, there’s that fear of the unknown of uncertainty.
Then I’m feeling things like loneliness and sadness about it. Because if I go by myself, is that lame? Does that make me feel sad? Maybe? And then what actions would I take? Because of those feelings? Probably nothing, I probably wouldn’t do anything.
And what are you thinking about this right now, as I’m saying this to you? Are you thinking like, do you just go? It’s going to be so much fun. What a fun adventure. I know, that’s what you’re thinking. And I’m kind of thinking that too. And I’m looking at this and going like, I don’t want to feel those feelings. You know, if this is something that’s important to me that I want to do, I need to take some different actions, I need to feel differently, I need to think about it differently.
So the results I would get would be nothing. I wouldn’t go on this trip. I just wouldn’t do it. Now. Piece of paper number two. Let’s say I write the same thing on there. I want to spend a month on a tropical island in the middle of the South Pacific. What thoughts would I want to think instead? Well, first of all, I can probably save money for this. It wouldn’t take that long. You know I can work, get out so that everything is covered from a work perspective, you know, get all that stuff covered. Because I don’t think I’m gonna have access to the internet in this place. I think I just want to be unplugged.
You know, workout, social connections and meetings. And although I can get my schedule figured out, my schedule is flexible on purpose. So I can do things like this. And I bet I could find someone to go with me. I mean, who wouldn’t want to go to a tropical island for a month with me? It would be amazing. Are you kidding me? So oh, my God, he’s so amazing. I could even go alone and just make it an opportunity for me to like, really discover myself. I mean, that sounds right there.
When I say it like that. It’s like, Whoa, that sounds so cool and empowering. And how does that make me feel? Oh, my God, now I’m feeling excited and adventurous. And it sounds like fun. I’m feeling joyful, and even grateful. Grateful for my schedule, grateful for these kinds of opportunities. And I’m even feeling a little bit of fear. But it’s okay. It’s like, it’s fear. But I know, it’s like, the fear of like, of the unknown. And that’s okay, like, I can handle that.
All right, then what actions would I take based on those feelings? Well, oh, my gosh, I’m gonna start planning this thing, I’m gonna start a savings fund, I’m gonna grab a map and start figuring out what island I want to go to and figure out how to get there, gotta take all these little planes or whatever, and I’m going to talk to some friends and find somebody to come with me.
And then, you know, the two of us will start talking about it and planning together and all that into anticipation. And all the planning just sounds so fun. Like, that’s the kind of action that I want to take. And then the result would be that I go on this life changing adventure to this little island, you know, and it all starts with thinking about it differently. You know, so that result that I want in my life, that thing that I want, I can get that and I can see how I can get that by changing my thoughts by changing my feelings and changing my actions.
I feel I want to go on this trip now. I’m gonna have to do that. And like keep you guys posted as to what is happening with that, because this would be amazing. So here’s a quick recap. circumstances in our life, the situations where it’s always neutral. Okay, we get to choose our thoughts about how we feel about each situation, okay, choose our thoughts.
And then our thinking determines our feelings and our emotions, our emotion. Our emotions drive our feelings. I’m sorry, our emotions, drive our actions or inaction. And then those actions determine the results that we get. And if you want different results, you got to change your thinking, okay.
So there’s like five little components to this, these little five things, you learn these five things, and you’re gonna learn how to master your mindset, for running and for life. Okay, I hope you’re seeing how this all fits together. This is the secret to the universe.
Seriously, if you understand this, and you start to really grasp these concepts, and understand how this works, you are going to live a more empowered life, you’re going to start getting what you want in your life. And you’re going to start feeling amazing. And you’re going to start doing amazing things and start getting amazing results. Cool.
I would love to hear your thoughts about this, you can always reach out to me directly at hello@innerfiretribe.com. Questions, comments, anything. And then you know, I post these things on the socials. So follow me on Facebook @pmcgilvray and on Instagram @pmcgilvray.
You can always drop comments on my posts there too, or send me a message or whatever. I’d love to hear from you. I love connecting with you guys individually. I love hearing how you’re thinking about this stuff and how it’s changing the way you’re thinking and seeing the world. And I would love to hear about the results that you’re getting. Cool. I hope you all have an amazing day. Much love to each and every one of you and I’ll see you next time
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