Mind Readings: Mental and Physical Strength

In today's episode of Mind Readings, let's talk about the differences between physical and mental strength. I'll explain what I mean. Um I've been running, I mean I took up running in the first year of the pandemic because I needed something to do. Um and it wasn't safe to, you know, go to the martial arts school that I train at. Um at that point we didn't know when a vaccine was gonna arrive.

And I feel I needed something to um to improve both my physical and mental health. So I took up running. And it had not been the first time I tried running, but it's has been the longest time they've stuck with it. And for about the last now year, uh I've managed to crank out at least uh five K every week, uh five kilometers every Sunday, um almost without exception, couple in a couple of weekends like Christmas, um, where obviously it didn't happen. And when a friend asked me how I manage to to stay disciplined, part of its habit, right, just being in the habit of doing that thing every Sunday, that's what I do.

Uh I make time for it. Uh and I it feels weird and wrong when I don't do that. But more than anything, what I've realized, especially over the last six months or so, is that there's a really big gap between physical strength and mental strength. And what I mean by this is some weeks when I'm out running, I feel good, like I mentally feel good. Um and the run is tiring, it's always tiring.

But it doesn't feel like a struggle. Right. Just chugging along, you know, the the kilometers are ticking by and eventually done, and always happy that I'm done. But I get the run done. Other weeks, I feel like I've got cinder blocks on my feet.

I feel like even after the first kilometer that I've I'm struggling to breathe. I'm not. I'm struggling to breathe. And there's a voice in my head saying, Oh, would it be so bad if I just you know shortened this week's run or uh you know do something different or just give up? And the answer I always give that voice is yes, it would be that bad.

Don't do that. Um always meet the minimum, right? Always do at least 5k. Maybe you know, some weeks I can do up to eight, other weeks it's 5.01 and I'm done. But there's that minimum.

And what that got me thinking about is how much that mental state, that feeling determines the outcome and how easy the outcome is, right? Physically, I know I can run between eight and nine kilometers in a single go, right? I'm physically strong enough to do that. And so the difference from week to week, uh, from run to run isn't a question of physical strength. Most of the time, there's some times when it is, like if I got really poor sleep the foot previous night, my body's just not in as good a shape to do a longer run.

But most of the time it's mental strength. Most of the time it is do I feel like I'm strong? Do I feel like I'm able to do the thing? To put one foot and foot in front of another, to match the pace of the music that I'm listening to, to you know, make sure I'm I'm running at a consistent pace. And the the runs that are the hardest for me are always the ones where I'm not mentally strong that run.

When I start out that way, and maybe sometimes I don't even finish that way, where it's like, okay, I got it done barely. Um it was you know, not my shining moments. And that's really important because when we think about our work and the things that we're working on in our lives, whether it's health or uh whether it's financial prosperity or a happy home or whatever, you know, whatever your priorities are. If we recognize that our mental and emotional strength is what dictates our outcomes for the most part, for the most part, it becomes more straightforward to figure out where when we're not going to do well, right? If you know going into a run, I feel emotionally run down and tired, um, you know how that run's gonna go.

You still do it, you still get it done, but you know how it's gonna go. On the other hand, if you uh start a run, you know, feeling filled with gratitude and happiness, and it's great weather out, and you're excited, you're eager, you know how that run's gonna go too. Right? Even if it's more physically taxing, mentally you don't have that drag, that you know, iron around your ankle, that's mentally slowing you down. Now, the next logical question is how do you build up your mental strength to match your physical strength?

Most of the time it involves just struggling through, right? Finding some way, anyway, to keep putting one foot in front of the other, even when you don't want to, and when you really, really, really don't want to. Because like physical strength, mental strength comes from putting strain on yourself. Getting that run done no matter what. Um, pushing yourself a little bit more each time.

Okay, I did five point five kilometers last week. Can I do 5.6 this week? Can I squeeze out just a little bit more? And that's how you build mental strength. And like physical strength, mental strength atrophies if you don't use it.

Right. I notice if I skip a week of a run. Um, I haven't skipped two weeks yet, but I'm sure that'll feel that even more. But I can tell if I've missed a a long run uh the following week. It is that much harder to find that groove.

It takes longer. I was I remember I went um home for the holidays to visit my folks. And of course, being the holidays, you kind of relax and have fun, enjoy yourself. Um, eat and drink an awful lot, and boy, that next run. I could tell that I overindulged and and I paid a price for it.

Your mental strength comes from subjecting yourself to more and more strain proportional to what you've been doing. Again, just like a workout, right? You don't go from five kilometers to your next one being 20. Not if you want to keep running. Right.

You don't go from this, you know, some mental strain to uh catastrophe if you can avoid it. Um it just doesn't make sense. You work up to it. The same as with anything, same as like in the martial arts. You don't go from white belt to black belt, you go from white belt to you know uh blue belt to red belt to uh green belt and so on and so forth.

So the next time that you feel like you're struggling, ask yourself whether it is a capability struggle, physical strength, or a mental struggle. And if it's a mental struggle, ask yourself why, and then see what you can do to just push yourself a little bit more, just a little bit more, keep going, set yourself a minimum and then to keep pushing just a little bit more, no matter what it is. It doesn't have to be physical exercise, it can be dealing with a difficult coworker, right? Can I listen to this person just a little bit more before I decide, you know what, I'm gonna punch them in the face, right? Um, or you know, pretend the mute button on my Zoom calls doesn't work.

Building up to that tolerance. Now, I will also caution that you shouldn't put yourself in um dangerous situations, at least not without proper training and preparation, right? Just like I wouldn't suggest you run a marathon, just put your shoes on and run a marathon tomorrow if you've never run before. Um, so please don't mistake putting mental strain on yourself to build strength with putting yourself in dangerous situations, they're not the same thing, and you should not do the latter unless you have no choice. So give that some thought.

And thank you for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon. If you like this video, go ahead and hit that subscribe button.