John Gardner on failure:
"Everyone fails. [The professional boxer and world heavyweight champion] Joe Louis said 'Everyone has to figure to get beat some time.' The question isn't did you fail, but did you pick yourself up and move ahead?
"And there is one other little question: Did you collaborate in your own defeat? A lot of people do. Learn not to."
This either speaks to you or it doesn't but most people are complicit in their own failure. Perhaps it's a failure of getting out of your own damn way?
Having visited with a sports psychologist this week I'm left with the intriguing thought that a lot of us are failing at this on an epic scale, yours truly included.
Searching for the perfect workout routine, the ideal meal plan with all the right macros and calories. Did we consume our protein and carbs during the optimal post workout window?
All of this mental effort devoted to making decisions that have no bearing on the outcome of any routine or meal plan you're currently on.
Better questions.
Did you eat the choc croissant on the train on your way to work or perhaps you skipped it for a week (Credit to Ian for this one)
Did you walk from the train station (thereby increasing your step count) to work or did you get another bus?
Success in fitness isn't buried deep within the elite complex minutia of macro manipulation or timed feedings it's simply grounded in the mundane everyday decisions you make... well everyday.
It's tiring making all of these decisions on the hoof though and that's why it pays to have a plan. Envisage potential obstacles and plan to surmount them.
Working away from your office or home? Phone ahead to the Hotel and find out what the lunch offering is. Informed decisions prior to their confrontation at the last minute can help with the decision fatigue you'll undoubtedly encounter if you're doing focused work.
Moving on...
The image above is something I came across that resonated and without meaning to sound sexist I believe strongly that guys have as much difficulty naming their emotions as they do describing shades of paint colours.
It may be useful to understand why your feeling a certain way or it may be entirely useless but I thought it may help some of you gain some clarity
