2 Powerful Ways Your Mindset Determines Your Health and Fitness Results
Are you mentally strong or weak? Mindset matters.
It can be argued that your mental strength and capabilities can far outweigh your physical strength and capabilities. It’s your mind that tells you whether or not you can or can’t do something. Mindset matters.
Henry Ford said:
“Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.”
Two of the most simple yet profoundly powerful phrases exist in the human language: I can, or I can’t.
If you believe you can do something, you will. This is breathing life into your goals. It’s forming your mind and preparing your body for what lies ahead.
If you think and believe you can’t do something, you won’t. This is breathing death to your goals. With this outlook, you’ve already made up your mind that whatever you want isn’t going to happen. Even when you try to do the very thing you said you couldn’t, you struggle more because you have yourself convinced it’s difficult. This mindset creates more work.
If I were to continually tell myself that CrossFit is impossible or too hard, I would probably never make progress and most likely struggle to finish a workout. This is how and why most people quit something before they gain any traction. I don’t think this way.
Rather, I tell myself and those around me that I love doing CrossFit (which I do), it’s a perfect stress relief for me and that I’m going to grow and transform both my body and mind. I tell myself it’s fun and challenging (which it is). The more I do CrossFit, the more I love it.
The mind truly is the most powerful part of the human body. It’s your personal supercomputer. How you program it determines your reality.
Simply put: your input determines your output.
“As a man thinks in his heart, so he is” — Proverbs 23:7
This is no different when it comes to your fitness and health goals. And it doesn’t matter what kind of sport you do nor at what performance level. This thought process spans the fitness continuum.
This article will discuss two ways that the power of your mind has a direct and lasting impact on your health and fitness results.
#1 — The I CAN outlook
The “I can” mindset keeps you going, keeps you growing, and keeps you learning. It keeps you grounded and motivated, even on days you want to curl up on the couch instead of doing your workout. But you muster up the energy and tell yourself “I can” because sitting on the couch will get you nowhere, except where you don’t want to be.
You probably have a growth mindset and are mentally strong.
Having the “I can” outlook is where elite athletes are born. It’s what distinguishes the mediocre fitness level from the amazing fitness level. High-performing and professional athletes keep trying, keep growing, and keep persevering.
If you want to be ‘just okay’ with your results, that’s all fine and well. Only you can decide and determine what kind of results you want to have.
But if you want to grow and transform your body, it’s not going to be found with a mindset that sees-saws back and forth from “I can” to “I can’t”. This mindset creates confusion.
With the “I can” mindset, you continually think and act towards your future health and fitness goals. You look for the small wins and know that with each workout you’re improving and making progress.
This is mental toughness and a facet of a growth mindset. The “I can” mindset will catapult your fitness results, whether it’s weight loss, muscle gain, or just an overall feeling of radiant health.
The “I can” mindset brings breakthroughs and noteworthy results.
“I can” brings transformations.
Nobody ever said this was easy. But it’s worth it.
A simple affirmation to use daily that can help: “I can and I will.”
#2 — The I CAN’T outlook
The inner dialogue with the “I can’t” mindset might sound like this:
- “It’s not working”
- “It’s too hard and frustrating”
- “Nothing is changing. I don’t see any results”
- “I can’t keep up with everyone else”
- “Everyone else is so much better at this than I am”
- “This isn’t as easy as I thought it would be”
This is a mental weakness and facet of a fixed mindset. You believe you can’t and therefore you don’t. If you don’t think you have the capability to change or make a change, then you’ll most likely stay stuck and keep spinning your wheels.
In her book, Mindset, Dr. Carol Dwect states:
“The fixed mindset limits achievement. Important achievement requires a clear focus, all-out effort, and a bottomless trunk full of strategies. Plus allies in learning. This is what the growth mindset gives people, and that’s why it helps their abilities grow and bear fruit.” (p.67)
This is where most people give up and make a myriad of excuses as to why this or that didn’t work for them. They tell everyone else of the lackluster progress, as a form of validation, and they move on to the next new thing.
Then when they try something different, and still have the “I can’t” outlook, sadly that next new thing will most likely fail as well.
And so the vicious cycle begins.
SMART Mindset
“With the right mindset and the right teaching, people are capable of a lot more than we think.” — Dr. Carol Dweck
Most people want to make some sort of health change, most likely so they can feel better. They dive head first into something new without gaining or learning all the right information first. When the new endeavor becomes overwhelming or too much, they stop and walk away.
But if you want to get better health and fitness results, the good news is that you CAN go from the “I can’t” mindset to “I can”. It’s a mental shift that can be made.
You do this by setting SMART goals.
SMART is a mnemonic acronym for:
- Specific — define exactly what you want
- Measurable — how you’ll track your progress so you can see changes
- Action — Setting things into motion (not remaining stagnant or stuck)
- Relevant (or Realistic) — Is your goal too big and is it relevant to what you want to achieve?
- Time-bound — Set a deadline (“I’m going to drop my 1st five pounds in 2 weeks from today”)
These are baby steps you can take to make a health and fitness goal(s) more achievable. It helps to transfer an “I can’t” mindset into “I can.”
It also helps when you feel stuck in that dreaded plateau. Nobody likes hitting a fitness plateau! It’s extremely frustrating.
Re-evaluate where you’re at, and set a new SMART goal.
Once you take action and can see some of the results you want, your mindset begins to make a massive shift.
You CAN do this!
Key Takeaways
- Two of the most simple yet profoundly powerful phrases exist in the human language: I can, or I can’t.
- The mind truly is the most powerful part of the human body. It’s your personal supercomputer. How you program it determines your reality.
- Your input determines your output.
- The “I can” mindset keeps you going, keeps you growing, and keeps you learning.
- “I can” outlook brings transformation and great achievements.
- “I can’t” is a form of mental weakness, and a way of making excuses not to do or finish something.
- “I can’t” begins a vicious cycle of starting a new goal but usually being unable to complete it.
- SMART goals are one way of getting from the “I can’t” mindset to the “I can” mindset.
- Setting SMART goals within a big goal creates an action plan to get the big goal done. You see and celebrate your victories along the way of your health and fitness journey.
Thank you for reading! I hope you learned something new today!
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