Picture: Netflix
Dreaming of achieving a goal helps to give shape to one's desires, but these thoughts must then be made concrete. You have to roll up your sleeves, work hard, improve your skills and get what you want. You can't be in the right place, at the right time, if you're at home daydreaming about what you would like to be or achieve.
I recently watched the Netflix documentary about one of my favourite actors, Arnold Schwarzenegger. I loved it! It was very interesting and it sparked several thoughts in me that I would like to share with you today.
<<When you visualize something really clearly, you believe that you 100% can get there.>>
A. Schwarzenegger.
Regardless of whether you like the character or not, an important message comes out of this documentary: "To be successful, you need to have a vision, but it is not enough".
Dreaming of achiving a goal helps to give shape to one's desires, but these thoughts must then be made concrete. You have to roll up your sleeves, work hard, improve your skills and get what you want. You can't be in the right place, at the right time, if you're at home daydreaming about what you would like to be or achieve.
These thoughts are not new to me, I thought about this several times in the past, but hearing someone like Arnold saying he had the same thoughts as me stimulated awareness and a sense of acceptance in me, like "ah ok, so I'm not obsessed, there is someone else who thinks so”.
Certainly our goals were (and are) different. Mines probably extend on a smaller scale, but like him I feel I have given a lot to the realisation of my projects and I still have a lot to do.
Another similarity is that once I reached my goal and enjoyed that moment, I found myself asking "and now what?" So I have always gone beyond, looking for new challenges, new stimuli.
Focus on the goal
I think that what all those who embark on a path to achieve a goal have in common is the focus, the attention (which often turns into obsession) that one must have on the goal and the hard work one must do to achieve it. Work that can take years and a great deal of patience. However, this is not all, it takes determination. Things almost never go as planned, the unexpected is always around the corner, so it takes determination to face it and overcome it.
<<Why didn't you give up?>>
<<Well, because my vision didn't talk about giving up.>> A. Schwarzenegger
However, I am aware that it is not the same for everyone and what I and others consider “hard work” for some may be too much, and excessive focus may just be a distraction from things that are important to them such as friends, family or work.
So what's going on? Who can tell if enough has been done to achieve a goal? What if we realise that that goal wasn't as important as we thought?
I think it is well-known that with "ifs" and "buts" you get nowhere, this is just wasted energy thinking and imagining non-existent things that distract your focus from what should instead be the only goal. These are distractions. In the documentary, Arnold goes much further, saying that when he wanted to become the number one bodybuilder in the world, his feelings were also distractions, waste of time that took energy away from training, from his project.
For me it is unthinkable to remove feelings both in private life and in work. How could I relate to my clients and manage their mental health without putting myself in their shoes and absorbing their emotions? It takes empathy, understanding and a lot of strength to support those who come to me for help after an injury or chronic pain. These people have a goal and are determined to achieve it.
I would but...
Sometimes, however, there are people who, when I explain them what it needs to be done to achieve the results they want, they look surprise and say things like: "oh no, I don't want to exercise three times a week", "Can you just give me a manual treatment for my back pain? I don't want to exercise", "I want to lose weight, but the workout should last no more than 30 minutes and I don't like doing cardio or exercises like lunges and squats".
Here we enter a barbed wire, because people start to put "conditions". It means that you set a goal, but you want to achieve it only "under certain conditions".
Attention! Setting conditions is different from tailoring a strength and conditioning plan to the needs of the individual. Adaptation requires planning to make the journey successful, while conditions are like potholes along the way that are likely to slow you down or even prevent you from reaching your goal.
The problem is that you cannot set conditions before obtaining results. To recover from an injury, fight chronic pain, or improve your health, you have to work hard and take responsibility. No excuses. No "ifs", no "buts". Give your all, achieve your goal and when you have achieved it, excel in what you do. Only then can you set conditions.
<<No matter how long it takes, do it! Do it now!>> A. Schwarzenegger
When the pain that afflicted you has disappeared for a few months, it means that you are stronger and your mobility has improved, you will then understand by yourself how many training sessions you will need per week.
When you've lost weight, all you need to do is maintenance. You won't need to follow low-calorie diets and too intense workouts.
Once your chronic condition has stabilised, you'll know how to manage flare-ups and the impact on your quality of life will be less, because you'll be able to leverage knowledge and experience you didn't have when you started your journey.
Mindset
The key to achieving these goals is in the mindset.
Mindset is the approach that an individual has towards life, towards everyday events. Many of these are unpredictable, they catch you off guard and there is nothing you can do to avoid them, but you can decide how to react. Bad things happen to everyone, but the bright side is that there is always a choice: you can decide to take matters into your own hands and look for solutions, or wallow in self-pity hoping that, over time, things will change by themselves. A strong mindset, oriented towards a positive and decisive approach, is what is needed to achieve a goal.
<<The only thing that no one can take away from you is your mind.>> A. Schwarzenegger
Unfortunately not everyone has a strong mindset by default, but luckily some work can be done to develop it and improve it. You can do it by your own, but sometimes people need help, a guide, someone who can show them how to get where they want.
If you're really sure that you want to improve the quality of your life, contact me and I'll show you how to achieve your goal.
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