Every action. Every statement. Every thought. They’re all inputs.
We’re all just a million hits of a hammer; you better believe the attitude of the artist makes a difference.
Think of your body as a super computer: every waking moment it is gathering data, deciphering meaning, and formulating responses. It’s constantly evaluating potential threats to its existence like hunger, injuries
, enemies, and environment. It’s measuring temperature, calculating distances, and adjusting for balance.But for all the external stimuli your body is asked to process on a daily basis, what it’s registering from the inside can be ten times as important. You see, your body also keeps careful track of your subconscious. Your emotions, attitude, and inadvertent thoughts provide the backdrop on which every other input is analyzed. If you’re in a bad mood, it will feel like the world is stacked against you. You hit every red light, your boss is 3 feet up your ass, and your kids don’t appreciate anything you do. If you’re in a good mood, you might notice the Lamborghini across the intersection, the quirky tie your boss is wearing, and how your kids have their mother’s eyes. The same reality exists in both scenarios, but the interpretation of it is drastically different. Multiply that experiment by a lifetime and you can imagine the divergence. We’re all just a million hits of a hammer; you better believe the attitude of the artist makes a difference.
How does this affect fitness?
If you keep telling yourself you’re old, tired, and sick, that’s what you’re going to be. What you think, you’ll soon say out loud. And what you say out loud, you’ll eventually carry out in practice. Because your brain is largely influenced by habit and repetition, the thoughts you replicate most will wind up ingrained in your subconscious.
Your body will sense them even when you don’t — like the high electric whine of a TV on mute or the color of the walls in your bedroom. Your self-image essentially becomes the product of background noise.
The tricky part is you don’t get to keep it to yourself. Remember, everyone else is a super computer too — the signals you send out are being constantly gathered, deciphered, and responded to. If you’re sending out hurt, they’re going to see hurt. If you’re sending out old, they’re going to see old. They’re going to see old, process that information, and act accordingly. Wait, it gets worse. The feedback you get from your peers is an input in itself. The way they treat you is an indicator to your brain of who and what you are. So if everyones looking at you like you’ve got one foot in the grave, your body processes that data and responds, “See, I knew I was old.” This is the formation of your identity in a nutshell. Thought begetting action, action begetting thought. A cycle of computation and response that begins and ends with your own subconscious opinion of yourself.
Exhibit A: The guy who tells you how sore you’re going to feel once you hit 30. He’s the same guy that’s going to tell you how sore you’ll feel when you hit 40. And how you’ll probably die from knee pain at 50.
- “If you think 25 is rough, wait til you’re my age… I’d kill to be 25 again.”
- “Enjoy your 30’s while they last, it’s all downhill from there.”
- “I’m too old for that shit. When I was your age, though…”
Rather than acknowledge that they’re choosing to put their health and wellness at risk, they find external reasons to excuse this behavior, thus absolving themselves of the responsibility.
This guy pisses me off. What possible benefit does he gain from repeatedly pointing out how horrible it is to be old? I get why he’s doing it — by explaining the difficulties of age to someone younger, he makes it impossible for them to pass judgment on his current physical condition — but what I don’t get is why he thinks by doing so he absolves himself from the universal need to not be a lazy piece of shit. (And yes, it is a universal need.) Because, despite what his cupboard full of Captain Crunch and Pepsi Cola are indicating, his body doesn’t like being fat. In fact, it dislikes being fat a lot more than it dislikes being old. Problem is, he’s been telling himself and everybody else how old he is since before he can remember and he can’t find his way back. That’s how they know him. That’s how he knows himself. Tell yourself you’re young and you’ll start feeling younger. Feel like you’re young and you’ll start acting younger. Act like you’re young, and who’s to say you’re not?
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