Mindset is arguably one of the key aspects of how we live our life. Our mindset can control how we approach every situation, our emotions towards it, and most importantly, how to act after it, to deal with the outcome, whether desirable or not.
The power to adapt
Mindset is closely linked to health and wellbeing. A bad/unhealthy mindset can lead to a lot of wrong decisions and can take you on an unintended, uncontrolled route through life. The good thing about mindset, however, is that it can adapt.
You are not stuck in your thinking, you can adapt and develop based on the situation and what you learn.
Mindset and fitness
Mindset is also closely linked to fitness. For example, if you have a ‘healthy mindset’ you are able to reach your goals as they will constantly be attainable. A lot of the time, when performing workouts and trying to achieve fitness goals, it comes down to mindset and how to overcome the fear in your mind more than anything else – and once that is achieved, achieving new levels in workouts, lifting, running or whatever psort you choose to do can become a lot easier.
Overcoming obstacles
There are many factors that can affect your mindset from a health perspective and impact your lifestyle. Let’s look at some of the most common and how to overcome them.
Injuries
Injuries are a painful occurrence. I can tell you that from personal experience. Following a football injury, I’m now out of action for 3-4 months with a ligament sprain, and a minor ACL tear. Injuries can impact mindset and motivation massively.
When you are injured, you’re limited to only doing certain movements (depending on the injury/where it is) and this can seriously impact your mindset. For example, if you’re like me and your escape from general life is the gym, having an injury can hinder your gym performance and going to a gym can even worsen your injury. This means, while you’re injured, you have to do something to keep your mind occupied, otherwise an unhealthy mindset can occur.
Motivation is also impacted as a result of injuries, for example: knowing I can’t do what I usually would in the gym, I’ve let my exercise regime slip because the range of exercises I can do is limited. It’s something that doesn’t happen to everyone, but it definitely does lower motivation to complete other activities.
Diet
What you eat can dramatically affect your mindset. It’s like a feedback loop – if you eat unhealthily then it can create a negative mindset, and if you have a negative mindset, you tend to eat unhealthily.
Eating healthily allows you to create a healthy lifestyle around you. Timing (as discussed in an earlier article) is a key factor here as well. If you time when you eat, and eat all the correct nutrients, then it allows your mind and body to be in a constant state of growth.
If you eat unhealthily (junk food, takeaways, etc.) then it can create an unhealthy lifestyle of eating at all hours, and putting on unnecessary weight. This can then affect motivation.
If you see results fading due to bad habits, then either you are more motivated to get the gains back or you completely let yourself fall off – and this is where mindset comes in.
When you have a strong and ‘healthy’ mindset, you will not allow yourself to fall off for too long as the consequences will be too much (severe weight gain, unhealthy lifestyle).
Sleep/Rest
This is something I have written about in a previous article. Sleep and rest is a a significant factor to a healthy mindset.
If you’re lacking in sleep and feel tired every day, it will affect your mindset to the point where you are drained or lazy in your activities and you will not perform efficiently. This can then result in a dip in motivation because you are too tired to want to train, or to eat well – creating a similar feedback loop to eating unhealthily. Add to that the fact that when you lack sleep, as discussed earlier, your body craves junk food as a result of tiredness. It’s a dangerous, downward spiral that you certainly want to avoid.
Rest, or lack of, works in a similar way. If you’re not taking adequate rest then it can lead to a lack of motivation and also cause injury.
Whether you are interested in physical, mental or spiritual development, sleep is imperative to a healthy mindset. Without enough sleep, you tend to experience more negative thoughts and emotions and feel increasingly demotivated.
The final word
Mindset has a huge impact on general life, as well as physical fitness and health. To ensure you lead a good/happy life, focus on creating a healthy mindset with healthy habits and that will allow you to achieve more.
Want to talk to me about a personalised approach to your fitness? Drop me a line via Linkedin