To all my 1% athletes out there! I wanted to share with you all some of the things that I’ve been learning during my own athletic progression. Now I know I don’t currently play competitive sports anymore or do not belong to a professional team, but guess what, if you are always looking for ways to personally grow physically, mentally, or in other ways and are working towards it then you are an athlete.
Athletes are not just reserved for sports. Why? Because being an athlete is more than sports, it is a mindset that you carry with you in everything that you do. Because of this, you are always finding new ways to become a better version of yourself in every day and in every way.
With that said, I always take a big spoonful of my own medicine and the 1% athlete program is a huge part of that. My own personal 1% is currently focused on my physical being but has opened up a whole can of worms for me that I absolutely love. The program is intended to clear your mind going into it so that you can feel as though you are having a “fresh start” on the focus you’ve chosen. With my focus being on my physical fitness I broke it down into two main categories: Strength and Endurance (you can make as many as you want but I made it as simple and straight forward for myself).
I picked 8 strength and endurance exercises that I believe would give me a clear enough view of where I am. I will be sharing my progress and my exercises with you all as I keep going. For now, here are some of the things that I have experienced while on my 1% journey that are changing my everyday life.
1- Acceptance
Going into the program you must understand that you are clearing your mental state. What has happened in the past has led you to the place that you currently are, and you play a crucial part in everything in your life. When you can learn acceptance, you learn control. You learn that everything that you’ve done and will do is ultimately a reaction to all of your own decisions you’ve made. This causes a lightbulb to go off in many people who feel like they’ve been managing circumstances and are just trying to stay afloat. Truth is, you made all the holes in the boat that are leaking water and you can also fix them whenever you so choose to. It’s unbelievably freeing knowing that you control everything in your life and everything that happens is simply experience. What you choose to do with experience is completely up to you.
My experience with this was my baseline test. The thought that you are completing exercises simply to have a benchmark for what you can look back on and see how far you’ve come changes the mindset from “oh god, I’m out of shape” to “OK, here is where I am and I’m excited to move forward.” The ability to accept that whatever I could do at the time was perfectly fine and just a starting point changed how I viewed working out. It is no longer a means to just be active and burn calories, but a challenge to myself for discovering what I’m capable of doing every time I walk into the gym.
2- Fearlessness
Fearlessness is simply acting without any thought or expectation of how you are performing in line with your expected outcome. Being fearless means you get to simply be who you are and perform. With the 1% athlete mindset, this means that you are not putting time on how far you can progress and no expectation for how well things should go whenever you are in the gym. You have set goals for yourself, now it’s time to just work hard and notice when you pass milestones on your journey!
3 – Trusting the Process
The whole point of the program (and life in general) is trusting the process! You are doing this because you are choosing to free yourself from expectation and simply see what you are capable of. For me, trusting the process opened some amazing discoveries. While doing some baseline tests I began noticing that I have some old injuries, inflexibility, and rough form that occurred (which is OK) that became very evident. Part of my journey is to remove those inhibitors so that I can perform at my absolute best. I now have some miscellaneous tasks to do in-between my testing workouts so that I can give my body some much needed attention and love. I know that my journey will help make me stronger, fitter, and most of all healthier. However and whenever it happens DOES NOT MATTER to me because this is all about the long game.
A major key to trusting the process is knowing how to utilize a goal system for yourself. Creating Ideal, minimal, and middle goals for every workout gives you the ability to always win. When you have a bad day of doing anything it is because your expectations were not met. Pretty easy when you give yourself only one possible win condition, right? It’s time to play the game differently and create multiple goals that you could possibly hit that can create positive outcomes and change your odds for success. Some days I go into the gym and think that I might be able to jump 2% or even 3% on an exercise but I have to create more win conditions for myself so I can always notice and appreciate progress.
How will you find acceptance on your journey? Are there some expectations that you are holding yourself to that are unrealistic and could use some fine-tuning? What would your world look like if you began creating more win conditions for yourself so you could increase your personal chances of being successful?
Whether it’s life, business, or sports, I work with people to help uncover the true potential within them and help create the success formula for their life. If you or anyone you know feels stuck, hindered, or just losing in areas of their life, share this with them or have them reach out to me. It’s time to start learning how to win again and be the champions that we are.
Passionately Serving,
Keegan LaMar
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