10. The Incredible Power of Your Mind

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 to The Running Mind podcast. My name is Patrick McGilvray. And I’m your host, and I’m the life coach for runners and other cool people. And what I do is I help you overcome your obstacles, both in running and in life, so you can unleash your inner badass. I like the way that sounds.

And I think you should join my monthly coaching and training program called the Runner’s Edge. It is a comprehensive online training program, designed specifically to help you develop the mindset that you need to to be able to achieve powerful results. When you join the Runner’s Edge, you’re gonna get weekly mindset training.

So each week, you’re gonna get a new training, where you could ask questions and get answers, much like the teaching that I do on the podcast, but we take a deeper dive into the material, we learn it, and you’ll learn how to apply it. And you get to ask questions. That’s the big thing. You get online coaching.

So most group coaching programs only share generic one size fits all content. And I want to help you with your individual issues. So you get a chance to ask your own questions and get them answered. And occasionally, you can get on a hot seat coaching call with me for some powerful one on one coaching.

You also get the supportive Facebook community of other runners just like you, it’s fun, supportive, safe, you can ask questions, you get to learn about how to build mental toughness, overcome failure, gain confidence, and so much more. And then everything we do in there is archived onto a Members Only website where you can go back and watch all the trainings. And I also have courses and things that are available there that you can’t find anywhere else.

I’ve got an awesome goal setting course out there right now. The best part about joining the Runner’s Edge is that it will not break your wallet. You get all this mindset training, you get the ever growing Video Course Library, you get live online coaching and a supportive community of runners all for only $26.2 per month. That’s less than $1 per day people.

It’s a subscription based program. And the longer you stay, the more valuable it becomes for you. Because I’m always gonna be adding new training, new videos, new coaching sessions, so you get to continue learning. As you go, there’s no contract, no commitment, you can cancel anytime.

So join the Runner’s Edge, ask your questions, get answers, jump on a hot seat coaching call with me, connect with other like minded runners and learn how to master the mindset of running so you can unleash that inner badass that I know is inside you. Just go to innerfiretribe.com/edge to sign up. All right, cool.

Onto today’s topic. Today, I want to talk about the incredible power of your mind. Here’s what I believe. I believe that the most powerful thing in the universe is the human mind. There is nothing that we know of in the universe that’s more powerful than our brains. Our brains can create something from nothing.

We can conjure up ideas and then make them happen. Our minds are amazing, our minds can make beautiful art just for the sake of having something beautiful to see, hear or feel. And our minds create feelings. They create emotions, deep, meaningful, powerful emotions that drive us to do all kinds of amazing things. Our minds are incredibly fast learners, and we get faster all the time.

Look at how far we’ve come in the last 100 years. So our brains have like evolved and they’re evolving even faster. Our minds are self aware. We can contemplate our own existence. We don’t know of anything else in the universe that does that. There’s nothing in the known universe that we know of that comes close to the power of your mind. It’s an amazing, amazing tool that we have.

And I was thinking about this because my son Colin and I were at the National Museum of the US Air Force last weekend. And we were checking out the SR 71 spy plane. Now this spy plane was the most sophisticated piece of machinery ever built at that time, they built it in the 1960s. And at the time, they did not have computers. So they used slide rules as their computer to build this amazing, amazing machine.

But we got to talk to pilots, engineers and the maintenance crew of the SR 71. The complexity of this machine is staggering. And the fact that human minds created all of that just blows me away, we’re standing there, you know, and looking into the cockpit of this thing and looking at the sophistication of the tools and all the gauges and everything in there.

And then looking at the complexity of like, the jet engines that make this thing go, like 2700 miles an hour or faster, the thing flies at like, over 80,000 feet is crazy. And it would take pictures at that high altitude, it would take pictures that you could tell the difference between a man and a woman between like a Ford and a Chevy. It’s crazy.

And all that just because all that was somebody’s idea in their mind at one point. They just had this idea, let’s build this thing. And then we, as humans, went and did that. It just, it blows me away. So I was just thinking like, oh, my gosh, our minds are so so powerful. So I hope you’re on board with this idea that your mind is the most powerful thing in the universe, then the question becomes, how are you using it? How are you using that mind of yours?

So most people use their mind to create all kinds of stress and anxiety and depression for themselves. Most people live their life in this place of dissatisfaction of, you know, this feeling of lack or unhappy with themselves. And most people don’t know how to change that. They don’t use their minds to create positive thoughts and positive emotions and positive outcomes. They constantly worry that things aren’t as they should be, you know, if I were only thinner. If only my husband would treat me better. If only I made more money, then I would be happy.

But then what happens? They get thinner, their husbands treat them better. Or they leave that relationship thinking there’s someone, quote unquote, better out there. Or they make more money. But then they’re still stuck in misery. They’re still full of fear and anxiety and worry, and depression. Because you know what, wherever you go, there you are.

But the truth is that you can be who you want to be today, right here, right? Now you can be happy. You can have abundance, you can feel good about yourself, you can have all the confidence that you need, all the motivation that you want, simply by tapping into the power, the incredible power of your mind.

But here’s what we do, we create all kinds of stress for ourselves with our minds, you know, we use our imaginations to create future worst case scenarios that cause us, like so much anxiety, some people have panic attacks, because they’re thinking about something that may happen in the future.

And it causes a physiological response in their body. And that response is just to the thoughts in their head, the thoughts that they are thinking. Think about the implications of this for a moment. You know, how much money do we spend every year on anti anxiety medication or antidepressants like, so I looked it up. It’s something like $17 billion globally. And in the US, there’s something like 42 million people on antidepressants, 42 million people, that’s like 13% of our population is taking medication, because of stress and anxiety that they bring on themselves.

Okay, now, I fully understand that, you know, depression and anxiety, some of these things are diagnosed conditions, and some people do need to be on medication, I totally get that. But the vast majority of people, I would, I would guess, are on those medications, simply because they can’t change their thinking.

Not crazy. But what if you could use your thoughts? What if you could use your imagination to create inner peace? Joy, love, happiness and abundance in your life. How do you think that would change how you experience the world and your daily life? I think it would be pretty amazing.

Unfortunately, most people are living, you know, in the past, they’re living their past over and over and over again. So the way most people live their life, as they get up in the morning, they brush their teeth the same way, they eat the same breakfast, they drink the same coffee, drive the same way to work at the same job, do the same stuff day after day after day, they come home, eat the same dinner, go to bed at the same time, then do it all over again tomorrow.

And while they’re doing all of that pre-programmed stuff, they keep thinking the same thoughts over and over again, the same thoughts, they’ve been thinking for decades, they feel the same feelings they felt. And they respond to situations in the same way. They’ve been programming their minds for years and years, and reinforcing those programs every day, day after day.

And then they wonder why they aren’t happy, they don’t feel fulfilled, their life isn’t changing, nothing’s getting better. It’s like choosing to live the movie Groundhog Day, every day of your life. You’re thinking the same thoughts, you’ve always thought you’re feeling the same feelings, you’re doing all the same things, you’re living your familiar past, over and over and over again.

And we all do this to some extent, okay? No one is immune to this. And I’ll tell you why here, there’s something going on in your brain. And I’m going to get a little nerdy and talk about some neurons and neural pathways and stuff like that here. But it’s, it’s cool when you know this, okay, maybe you already know this. And that’s awesome.

But here’s what’s happening inside your brain, okay? Our brains are really, really good at creating habits, creating routines, our brains are very, very powerful. They actually use very, very little energy. So our brains do everything they do. You know, all the processing that our brains do, they only use about .07 volts of electricity.

Just to put that into context, a one AA battery is 20 times more powerful from an electrical standpoint than our brains. Okay, because our brains use so little energy, they’ve evolved to be incredibly efficient. So whenever you learn something new, your brain has to use a lot of energy to learn that new thing.

So let’s say when you’re first learning to tie your shoes, as a little kid, you know, that’s very, it’s a, it’s a hard thing to learn how to do, you know, it takes time, it takes energy, it takes a lot of mental energy to do that. Or when you learn how to drive a car, right, you got to learn, you got to remember 27 different things when you’re learning how to drive a car.

But over time, your brain gets better and better at that new task. And then it gets to a point where you can do it so well, you can do it almost unconsciously. Your subconscious mind is actually, you know, kind of running the show at that point.

So like, do you have to think about tying your shoes now? No, you just do it. You probably can’t even explain to somebody how to do it. Because it’s such a subconscious thing for you now, or driving a car. You know, do you ever like find yourself driving? And then you like, totally zone out? You’re like, Whoa, I don’t even remember the last 10 minutes? How did I get here?

That’s because your brain is on autopilot, okay. Your subconscious is kind of running the show, you don’t have to consciously think about driving a car anymore, or tying your shoes. And what’s happening in your brain is this, your brain uses neurons to communicate signals to different parts of your body. So to tie your shoes, there’s a bunch of neurons that all have to fire in a certain sequence, right.

And they tell your hands to grab a lace in this hand, grab a license and pull them tight, the right goes over the left, blah, blah, blah. The same for driving, there’s a bunch of complicated steps that your brain has to do in order to, quote unquote, what we call drive a car.

Now, we can just like get in and drive because most of the stuff we’re doing is subconscious. Okay, all these little steps, all these neurons have to fire in sequence or whatever they require firing precisely at the right time in a certain sequence every single time you want to drive a car, right? Well, your brain wants to be as efficient as possible.

So what it does is it strings all of those neurons together. It puts them all together and creates something called a neural pathway. So neural pathways are like superhighways made up of neurons in your brain that all work together to accomplish a task, subconsciously, we have something like 100 billion neurons in our brains, as in a staggering number.

But those 100 billion neurons can connect in so many different ways that can create over 100 trillion neural connections in our brains. This is like, blows my mind, literally. It’s like mind blowing 100 trillion neural connections can be happening in our brains. Anyway, so our brains are really good about taking these pathway, taking these connections and creating pathways. So these are like, well worn ski slopes, things move very quickly down these neural pathways.

Again, the brain wants to be as efficient as possible. So it uses the path of least resistance. So neural pathways are where a lot of our habits occur. And these can be good habits or bad habits. But if you think the same thoughts or react the same way over and over again, you create very efficient neural pathways in your brain for those thoughts and feelings.

Okay, so every time your husband leaves his clothes on the floor, you react by internalizing it, you get a little angry, maybe a little resentful about it, you might choose to believe that it means he doesn’t care about you. Okay? That may happen a couple of times, but then it keeps happening over and over again, your brain will start to react more and more efficiently.

And then you’ll start to see more evidence that he doesn’t care about you and everything he does. And again, your brain will race down those net neural pathways from seeing the clothes on the floor to feeling angry, immediately. It just happens without you even thinking about it. It’s instantaneous. You know what I’m talking about? You’ve felt this way before, maybe not this exact situation. But we’ve all reacted in what we think is an instant reaction to something somebody’s doing, okay.

So, this is a problem, though, because this is where the efficiency of your brain can start to become a problem. Because it’s reacting so fast to situations in your life. Those thoughts come so fast, you create the feeling so fast, you can’t stop it, right? You’ve gotten so good at creating the habit of feeling angry, or maybe it’s unloved for you, or you feel hurt or, or depressed, whatever emotional state you’re in, you know, you created that state.

And it can become a habit. And it’s this habit that you’ve created. And you think, well, that’s just the way it is. You know, for example of the person who gets mad when her husband leaves the clothes on the floor, it almost seems as though the clothes on the floor are causing you to feel angry. But you know, that’s not true. It’s not the clothes on the floor. The clothes on the floor aren’t beaming magical anger beams into you, okay?

It’s your thoughts about the clothes on the floor. It’s the story you’ve been telling yourself for years about what the clothes on the floor means. That’s the real cause of your emotional state. And it’s not true. It’s just a story you’ve been telling yourself over and over and over again, so many times that your brain has created new, very efficient superhighways of neural pathways to make sure you feel those feelings very quickly and very strongly. Okay.

So this is what’s going on in our brains. And we all do this, our brains are very efficient, and it’s okay. You know, it’s not a bad thing, okay. But sometimes, we keep thinking the we keep living in our past and we keep thinking these same negative thoughts over and over and over again, and we don’t know what to do to get out of them. And your life basically becomes a series of habits that you have created.

Every thought that you think every emotion you feel, you know, all habits that you’ve been working on your whole life. So I think this is good news, because it means that if you’ve created these habits, that means you can create new habits right, you can break the old habits and create new habits you can start using better thoughts, you can start taking control of your feelings.

And you can start managing your mind to begin working for you instead of against you. You know, for me, I’m no longer operating on autopilot. I’m flying this plane now. And it’s an incredibly powerful way to live your life, honestly. But here’s the thing, changing your mental habits, like creating new neural pathways, takes a little bit of work, and most people won’t do it.

And it hasn’t been that long that we have figured out that we can actually create new neural pathways for a long time. I think people thought that the brain was static, and that you couldn’t really change the brain very much. But new studies have come out in the last couple of decades, really.

And they’ve seen that they’ve dubbed this thing, neural plasticity, neuroplasticity. And why do I have a problem saying that word? Anyway, it’s the fact that your brain is, you know, has plasticity and it can change and grow and create new thoughts and new pathways and new connections, like you can change your brain, you can do it, and you do it by thinking new thoughts and feeling new feelings. But here’s the thing, it takes a little bit of work to do this, and most people just won’t do it. They won’t do it.

Think about all those well worn ski slopes of habits in your brain, all those neural pathways that are so smooth and super fast, they’re so fast and efficient, your brain just keeps choosing those same things over and over and over again. And to create a new neural pathway means like, it’s like hacking a new trail through a dense jungle, you’ve got to hack away at that for some time, and it’s uncomfortable. Your brain doesn’t like uncomfortable. We don’t like being uncomfortable. And it takes a little bit of time.

So what happens is, most people start working on new thoughts, you know, maybe they start living their life in a new way. And it gets hard. And it doesn’t feel good, and it’s uncomfortable. And so they quit. It’s like that person who wants to lose weight. So they join a gym, and then they say, I’m gonna go to the gym and workout every single day, I’m gonna lose so much weight, and they go a couple of times, and then it’s hard.

And they feel terrible because everything hurts and it’s hard work. And then they’ll just say screw up one day and go back to living their very comfortable, but very unhappy and very unfulfilling life. And just a little sidebar, by the way, exercise has been proven to be not a very effective way to lose weight. It’s not very effective weight loss.

Honestly, it’s great for a lot of things. Exercise is extremely important for our heart health, for our happiness levels, for you know, relieving stress, and everyone should exercise. But when it comes to losing weight, it’s not that effective. I know a lot of runners who struggle to lose weight, even though they’re always training for something, they’re always training for a marathon or something like that. And they always say that they’re struggling with their weight.

There’s a much better way to lose weight based on changing the way you think and feel about food. And I’m actually going to be sharing more about that in upcoming episodes. So stay tuned for that. That’d be cool. Anyway though,little sidebar, we’re talking about creating a habit here, okay, and creating new habits and how uncomfortable it is, you know, it takes getting through that uncomfortable period, maybe being very uncomfortable for a while if you’re want to create some new neural pathways, okay, but you can do it, I know you can do it.

You just have to embrace that uncomfortable. You know, and Ironman, they say embrace the suck, because you know what, at some point that race is going to suck, you got to embrace that. Because what’s on the other side of that is amazing. You just know that it’s gonna suck for a while before it gets better and it will get better. So how do you do this?

Well, you’ve got to practice new thoughts, okay, it takes a while for those new neural pathways to emerge. So you got to practice thinking the thoughts that you want to think so what thoughts should you be thinking well, what thoughts will create the emotional state you want to be in? You know, how can you change your thinking, to create better feelings?

You know, if our thoughts create our emotions, what emotions do you want to feel and what thoughts might help you to create that emotional state that you want? That positive, resourceful, emotional state? You know, write down those thoughts right? Write down those things that you want to believe about yourself about others. And then read that read that a few times a day. This is how you start to train your mind, okay? And then visualize the person that you want to be, who do you want to be, you know, maybe hold that vision in your mind for 10 minutes a day, in like a meditation.

You know, this is one of the most powerful things I do with my coaching clients, I help them figure out who they want to be. And then we start creating mental habits that get them there. And it’s not just about sitting and visualizing, we’re talking about things like I use NLP, neuro linguistic programming techniques to show them how to actually reprogram their subconscious mind to release those old habits.

And you can release some of these old things like, instantaneously, it’s awesome. And then what we do is we install new programs that help them become the person they want to be. Okay. And if you want to take a really deep dive down the rabbit hole on this topic, this topic of like, neurons and neural pathways and neuroplasticity, Dr. Joe Dispenza, has an amazing book called Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. He gets deep into the science behind all this, and I’m really into this kind of thing. And if you’re into it, it’d be a great book for you to check out. It is very dense and really, really awesome. It’s like, life changing stuff here.

But you can do this, you can change your habits, you don’t have to keep living your emotional past, you can start creating a future from a new state of mind. You know, you can, your mind is the most amazing, most powerful thing in the universe. Start harnessing that power to get better results in your life. Cool.

One quick note, before I wrap up here. I started this podcast with the intention of interviewing runners because I wanted to talk to them about how they’ve used the power of mindset to help them accomplish amazing things. And my intention was to do mostly interviews, and then the occasional teaching episode like I’m doing today.

Well, I’ve received so much positive feedback on these teaching episodes that I’ve decided to flip things around. So I’m going to do mostly teaching episodes like this, with the occasional interviews sprinkled in here or there. Is that cool with you? Drop me a message and let me know if this works for you.

And while you’re at it, I would love it if you would leave a review on iTunes. Let me know what you think of the show. Just go down there, go to the podcast app on your iPhone or whatever, scroll down and just hit those stars. However many you feel is appropriate, five’s a good number, whatever, but whatever. And then write a little review and tell me what you think of the show because it does help me to make things better.

If you have comments or questions you can always reach out to me at hello@innerfiretribe.com. I’d love to hear what you think of this topic or anything really. And honestly, I hope you all have an amazing day. Much love to each and every one of you.

Did you know that most runners fail to reach their goals? It’s not because of lack of training, lack of desire, whether it’s running faster or running farther, I believe most runners just haven’t developed the mental toughness they need to get them across the finish line. That’s why I created a step by step training called How to Build Mental Toughness and Become A Badass Runner. I want to show you how to train your mind so you can tough it out when the going gets tough. And the best part, this comprehensive training is yours absolutely free. To get it right now just go to innerfiretribe.com/badass and get started today.