Treadmills, Devils, Work & Patience

As of today, I’m 20 lbs. down since I started my rucking journey in May of this year… from 202 to 182 lbs. My mission of losing 2 lbs. per week has been a complete success and yet there are still days in which I look in the mirror and all I can do is want for more. I want more fat loss around my stomach and pecs, I want more strength to climb harder bouldering routes, I want blah blah blah.

In behavioral psychology this is known as the Hedonic Treadmill or Hedonic Adaptation. This is described as the tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes. In other words, we can achieve some of our greatest wins in life and still somehow be just as happy as we were before we reached our goals. The trick here is to recognize that you are on the Treadmill and to do something about it.

OC – The Devil on My Shoulder

Negative thoughts do their best to crowd my mind with self-deprecating phrases like “all that work and you’re still flabby and fat” and “people are going to see you with your shirt off an ask if you’ve made any progress at all.” These are the words of Old Chris who from this point forward I will refer to as “OC.” OC is the little fat kid they called “Titty Boy” who turned to food as an emotional outlet. He was powerless to the words of others, never ever stood up for himself, and blindly followed misguided leaders. OC is the devil on my shoulder when I’m on the Treadmill and we wage battles with each other on a daily basis. My sole mission in life is to never let OC win more that 1 battle each week.

Going to battle with the Devil takes two things: patience and work. You must have the patience to know that with each victorious battle you are a step closer to winning the war and you must religiously put in the work to fortify your mind. Everything in life is a mental game and your mind is the bedrock of your soul.

Patience & Work

“What can I immediately control in this situation?”

US Navy Seals Saying

The speed of life feels as though it doubles daily which, in turn, causes patience to become one of our most scarce resources. We focus on the ideal version of everything, wishing for future gains in all aspects of our lives while neglecting the great power which resides in reflection. Deliberate reflection even once per week has proven to change the entire outlook of my life. Now adays I reflect on a daily basis to ensure that I have clearly reconciled the man I am today with the man I was before. Each week, you must allocate a least 1 hour to reflecting on “yesterday’s you” with a simple tool I call When in Doubt, Zoom Out. Answer questions like, “How have I grown?” “What progress have I made toward my goals?” “Do I have a clear purpose and am I moving toward it?” “Am I measuring my success?” “Where have I failed and how can I take ownership of those failures?” This could and likely should be a difficult hour because you are being 100% honest with yourself and if you’re honest… you’ll find areas in which you could have done better. Once you’ve nailed this down at the weekly level, work on it daily. This is how I knife OC and stuff his negativity down the toilet.

When the Devil starts talking his mess, I immediately get to work by putting myself in the hurt locker. The hurt locker is a place of discomfort both mentally and physically. By putting myself there I’ve done two things; 1. regained control and ownership of the situation and 2. taken tangible action to redefine the narrative. For me, this could mean turning a light workout day into a multi-hour suffer fest or putting myself in an embarrassing situation to face my fear head on. I do this in the moment, that very moment, and nearly every moment ole OC comes knocking.

If it makes my stomach turn, there’s much to learn

I’m not going to ask you to take small steps. Hell no. I want you to leap as though your life depends on it, land rough, and look back at how far you’ve come. That gap between the first step and your hard landing is what I call “the work” and those of us willing to suffer through it have the ability suffer through seemingly insurmountable odds.

But as with most things, you’ll only understand by experiencing it yourself.