Ditch Your Old Belief Systems

When I was a senior in High School, I pulled through McDonald's on the way to catch the bus to my first lacrosse game of the season.

After scoring a hat-trick (three goals) that evening, I quickly decided to make two double cheeseburgers my go-to pre-game meal.

For the rest of the season before every game, I pulled through McDonald's.

Later, about halfway through the season, I started taking fish oil after a friend told me his coach recommended it to him.

Just weeks into taking ONE fish oil pill per day (maybe 15-20 calories), I felt like I was getting fatter so I gave up the fish oil.

Rationale controls everything.

You can rationalize any decision in your life if you try hard enough.

I had rationalized Mcdonald's w

as “okay” for me, after having one good performance when the truth was I had a good performance because I was good at lacrosse. NOT because I ate double cheeseburgers.

Then later, I actually started doing something good for myself (for once), and I rationalized myself out of this good decision because I associated the timing of fish oil with my gaining weight when the real problem was: I was gaining weight because I was eating fast food almost every day and justifying it to myself.

I was unhealthy.

And the more unhealthy I felt...

...the more unhealthy I thought.

And the more unhealthy I thought...

...the more unhealthy I acted.

Which made me feel even more unhealthy.

Do you see where I’m going?

This is called a “positive” feedback loop. A loop that only feeds itself: perpetuating RAPID CHANGE.

The biggest downside to this new loop in my life: I was changing in the wrong direction.

If I was going to get myself turned around, I had to figure out a way to interrupt this feedback loop.

I had to figure out a way to overcome my current feelings and belief systems.

This is where our mantra comes in, “Healthy people make healthy decisions.”

And as I just pointed out, the opposite is true also, “Unhealthy people make unhealthy decisions.”

Fat guys will always be fat guys.

And weak girls will always be weak girls.

UNLESS their belief systems are interrupted.

As long as you believe “you are who you are” RIGHT NOW and you’re trying to change, you will always fail (chances are, you already have).

You’ve tried and tried and every time you fight as hard as you can, you still end up failing.

And you fail because you are trying to succeed by acting 'out of character.' And eventually, your character wins and you stay the same.

What we need to do is change your character instead of your actions.

The easiest way to do this is to separate yourself for a moment.

Try this: Think of yourself as an actual “character.” Like one in a movie or a book.

Based on your life lived, how would you describe your character? How would the audience describe your character?

Let’s get a little more specific.

How would the audience describe your character's health?

Will power?

Self-control?

Decision making?

Let’s use 18-year-old me as an example.

The audience would probably say something like this,

“He’s a smart, talented kid who is more i

nsecure than he needs to be, has more friends than he thinks he has and believes he’s fatter than he really is."

"He won’t really ever try as hard as he can because if he gave anything his all and came up short, he would become a failure."

"He believes, as long as he doesn’t ever fully try, he can protect his ego by convincing himself he only failed/lost because he, ‘Didn’t really try.’"

What would the audience say about you the character in your story?

Does the audience’s opinion match your ow

n feelings toward your character?

I’m betting your personal, biased description of yourself is worse than the audience’s unbiased description. Am I right?

Now, what would happen if you, hypothetically, rearranged your character’s character?

What kinds of decisions would your character make differently if he/she were truly healthy?

Physically healthy, mentally healthy, emotionally healthy?

How would your character represent him/herself?

Could you ever be this new version of yourself?

What if you could?

What if you could, for once in your life, give up the negative emotions you’ve carried for so long?

What if you could ditch all the thought processes that have only ever held you back?

What if you really could just become the better version of yourself, right now?

I believe you can.

I believe starting RIGHT NOW you can make new decisions.

You can BE a healthy person.

What you still need to understand, though, is the results of this change will take time.

You’ve spent your whole life being one person. And this state of being had led to its own results.

All you have to do now is stay new long enough to reap the rewards. And you CAN do it.

Now, to some of you, this may just seem like semantics. Like

small details having very little influence on actual, real-world results.

But, I disagree wholeheartedly.

You didn't come this far just to cop out on actually believing in yourself for once.

Push past putting your toe in the water, testing to see if it’s warm enough to swim.

Dive headfirst into self-belief.

Don’t be like 18-year-old me: never wanting to take the risk for fear of failing.

Instead understand: that real failure is constantly appeasing your emotions.

The real failure is never telling your fear, your insecurity, or you

r doubt to go SHOVE IT.

Stop living your life to mitigate emotional risk.

Emotional risk is what makes life worth living.

The first kiss, the championship game, the heartbreak.

You’ve survived it all before. And you're more resilient for it.

So take another risk: Believe in yourself again. Believe in change.

Then start acting out of your NEW belief system.

Start acting out of the NEW you.

And the results will be outstanding.