3 Highly Successful, Awesome, Amazing, Super-duper successful, highly proven Mental Habits you SHOULDN’T do!
Do I have your attention? Did you say you have some great mental habits that you are suggesting that we DON’T do? Is this a typo? Is that Hygge Wool Hat a little too tight? What gives?
Truthfully, there are many mental habits that we have all leaned into one way another that have helped us push through a work, academic, or fitness obstacle, and other mental habits that have helped us develop habits that have brought about positive accomplishments and routines. Certain mindsets and habits work really well, until they become the very thing that gets in your way. Awareness and a little wisdom as it relates to sorting out when to rely on these habits and when to leave them by the wayside can be the very thing that puts you on the path to the next-level performance and well-being. Knowing when to pivot and how to adapt can help you as you aspire to greatness.
Routines
Routines are indeed effective, the research is clear and our experience has shown this to be true time and time again. Having a routine helps us automate decisions, save our willpower energy, helps us stay motivated (mood follows action after all!), and helps us kind of slip into that task at hand. If you always have that power smoothie for breakfast, you just make it! No need to think about what to make. If you always work out in the morning, you just do it, and most likely feel better afterwards even if you weren't too inspired when you got started.
Yet, there is a pitfall in becoming overly attached to your routine. If for whatever reason you can't stick to it, you are traveling for work or vacation, your protein powder is out of stock, they are out of your favorite brew at your coffee shop, it’s snowing, it's raining, whatever- you won’t know what to do?!?!What are you going to do now? ADAPT! I love the saying “the first rule of routines is to develop one and stick with it. The second rule is to cultivate the capacity to easily let go of it.”
Grit
All out dedication, persistence, tenacity and perseverance are all assets that can decidedly make a difference as habits of successful people. We look to individuals that can just GRIND, and when the going gets tough, these people get going!! However, if we rely too heavily on grit, we often don’t see the other options, approaches or paths that may be more fruitful, and overall a better fit. Perhaps with a little less reliance on grit, we open ourselves up to a wider range of possibilities?! Something to think about next time you find yourself working hard, but not making much progress. Is more grit needed? Or is it time to pivot?
Tracking Metrics and Measurements
There are so many different wearable measurement devices that are available in the market when it comes to fitness. Power meters for cycling, and even running, pitching radars, heart rate monitors, sleep trackers, and in the WIN program we are using Fitbits and Apple watches that do many of these things. When it comes to work, there are endless data points that are tracked and become the primary focus when running a business. After all, as the saying goes “what you can track, you can improve”. We are capable in a matter of seconds , for example to know our heart rate, how fast we are running, what the temperature is, the time, calories burned, the elevation details, and even the latest stock price by just looking down at our fancy wearable if we wanted! That is a lot of data!
But perhaps, if you are relying on these real-time measurement tools you may run into a couple of problems. 1) What happens if they stop working? 2) Sometimes they can prevent you from realizing a real breakthrough.
The first point is self-explanatory. And that has happened to me personally as an athlete, and to many friends and athletes I have coached-- almost always in a race situation. Many cyclists train with a device called a power meter which tracks the power or output with each pedal stroke. Athletes will watch their displays working very hard to work in a certain power range in training and on race day. Call it bad luck, but as great as technology is, sometimes it just doesn't work for whatever reason, or certainly user error can be the culprit. So now what? Measurement and tracking are a great habit, until they prevent you from listening to your own mind-body system. These metrics really should be secondary as the purest and most accurate indicator is how you feel- at least once you have practice doing so and actually listen to those indicators. One more simple example that I have personally encountered is asking an athlete “how do you feel?” And the answer is “hold on, let me check my watch (or app, or other device)”. >facepalm< Measurement and tracking are fantastic tools while you learn to listen, but you have to be willing to leave these tools behind, at least occasionally, once you have.
One last point on tracking devices possibly standing in the way of your next breakthrough. Lets say its race day, and you are primed to have the best day ever, but your Garmin watch is telling you are going too fast. You run the risk of pulling back on the pace and getting in the way of your big day. On the flip side, you may be feeling BLAH, then regardless of what the tracker says it might be wise to slow down or stop altogether, risking injury or burn-out.
In the end, each of these mental strategies or habits have their time and place. In fact, they have a very reliable time and place! Yet the realistic possibility exists that there are some times and places they do NOT. Wisdom and often experience, help us determine when those times are, and that a modified or changed approach is needed as we aspire to achieve what inspires us most.