Training, illness and the power of the mind

It's a long title I'll admit, but sometimes a description is easier and more straight forward than clever wordplay.

Having returned from the UK on Sunday with a cold (not man flu) that had me hacking up my lungs, I am now on the mend. I dipped my toe back into fitness training last Friday using a simple calisthenics program devised by Frank Medrano. If you haven't heard of him or seen his YouTube videos then just google him, it's impressive stuff. Sadly the flight made my cold a lot worse, so I got some antibiotics from the doctor to help move it along. It is steadily improving with me able to complete strength training yesterday and today. My breathing is still a struggle though, so I'll be avoiding cardio for a little longer so as not to make things worse. Next week marathon training begins in earnest so I need to make sure I am 100% before starting down that road!

The reason that I filled you in on my illness and training was to link into a focus of mine over the last few months. It is a tool that I have included in the latter stages of my book Grumpy Man because it is so powerful and yet so simple. It is quite simply about taking action. My greatest weakness (and often greatest attribute) is that I am a thinker, a daydreamer. I have always been this way and am not concerned about it at all, because I know that I can work on it through taking action.

Whether it is thinking and planning before returning to fitness after time off, or just day to day I can always have a beneficial effect on my mind, but taking the simplest path, by JUST DOING IT. Yes it is great to have a plan and be prepared, but not if it throws up barriers to you doing the work. We can talk all day about what is the best training routine or the best diet until the cows come home, but we won't get anywhere if we don't take that first step. Take my training routine for example. I don't need my gym to complete it, it is made up of simple bodyweight exercises that require no equipment. It is so easy for me to do that I don't need to think about it, worry about my technique or concern myself with the rest periods. I can JUST DO IT.

This approach is something I can apply to all of my life. By keeping the actions stupidly simple I can collect small wins, which not only help me mentally, but also break down larger goals and problems. Too often in the past I haven't started tasks because I think too much about the whole rather than just taking the first small steps of action.

My strongest habit is thinking, which leads me down paths that are often unnecessary and destructive. Having worked my way out of depression using many different tools it is now action which gives me the greatest results. It is a minnow of a habit when compared to the whale of thinking, but given enough practice and patience it will grow to be a strength of mine. If that means I take less on, but get more done then so be it. We all have to live life intelligently if we want to get the most out of it and strangely that sometimes means not thinking too hard, but just getting shit done.

Tom :)