Five Fitness Worldviews: How to Stay Rational When You’re Frustrated
We like to think that we are rational, but we are not. Many factors affect your decision-making ability, including your emotional state. Here’s how to use the best of those senses to make better decisions and achieve your fitness goals.
Like many others, I have found that my fitness motivation is unpredictable at best. I could start as disciplined as Bruce Lee, only to have my iron turned into a puddle of “feed me all” in minutes. And I know that I am not alone.
Through anecdotal observations with my clients, I have found this to be quite common. This has something to do with what I call “fitness thinking”: five different states of thought that can cause you to act irrationally and neglect your goals.
The danger of relying on motivation
Relying on motivation to be successful in fitness is like betting that your favorite Game of Thrones character will be at the end of the season: it probably won’t work in your favor.
Think of someone making a typical New Year’s decision. They really want to get well, and they can’t wait to go to the gym every day and eat organic salads for the rest of their lives . By no means does this highly motivated person consider himself irrational, even if his failure history suggests otherwise.
When the march comes and they fail – probably because of a poor balance of effort and results – they rationalize their failures. Perhaps they were hindered by their work, or they decided to “accept themselves as they are,” and so on.
This happens to all of us all the time. Some people may identify with the fact that they are dieting, rationalizing their way of losing weight, and then justifying cutting their McDonald’s intake by thousands of calories at 3 a.m. When it comes to fitness decisions, we consider ourselves rational regardless of our emotional state. This, paradoxically, means that we are not rational at all.
Five states of thinking about fitness
Based on what I have seen from my clients, I have created a model of five fitness worldviews, which are determined by two main factors:
- Your level of motivation
- Your energy level
These conditions can last from a few minutes to several days. Sometimes they are just as spontaneous and appear without rhyme and without reason. They are:
“Objective” state
Energy: Normal Motivation: Normal In this state, you are objectively rational. You absolutely understand the trade-offs associated with fitness decisions (will I join my co-workers for an unplanned happy hour or just go home?) And make decisions that optimize both your fitness progress and your emotional and mental satisfaction. Ideally, we would stay in this state forever … but we all know that this does not happen.
“Deterministic” state
Energy: High Motivation: High In this state, almost nothing can interfere with the achievement of your fitness goals. You will do your best to stick to your diet and exercise program, and nothing can stop you. This is a good time to make sure you pick out the smallest details of your fitness regimen, because let’s face it: the logistics have to be dealt with. This way, you can also maximize your productivity while in this state. Ride it while you can.
State “squandering”
Energy: medium to high. Motivation: low. In this state, you can’t bring yourself to go to the gym or cook healthy meals, but your energy levels are still high, often leading to overeating or bingeing. In a state of waste, progress can be undone easily. Ironically, this condition often occurs after ongoing progress, where you feel like partying away from some of them is justified. When (or if!) You do get to the gym, you still want to be productive, but the original focus and drive you started with are gone. As a result, you will likely spend some time switching programs or coming up with them as you go.
“Sluggish” state
Energy: Low Motivation: Low Desire to exercise and diet is low. If the condition is short-lived, you can do your best to explain why you shouldn’t be on the regimen for the next few hours or days. If it’s a longer fight, you may be disappointed in your progress and want to give it up altogether. You may feel the need for a snack or a drink, but for a completely different reason than when you are in a state of “waste”. The justification that comes up is not rationalizing your progress, but justifying failure.
“Passive” state
Energy: Low Motivation: Medium to High You have a desire to make the right decisions, but doing them is a challenge. This is often caused by non-fitness friction. For example, you absolutely want to go to the gym for a workout, but you don’t feel like dealing with traffic or rush hour crowds. Or perhaps you would be totally sticking to your diet, but you can’t because of the upcoming three parties at the office. You may have adhered to the regimen for a while at this stage and even succeeded, but there is an element of burnout even if you want to keep going. This can last for a while at the end of the diet, or it can occur spontaneously when you need to make a fitness-related decision, especially at the end of the day.
How to get better and make better decisions
Unfortunately, moving between states is not easy. They are associated with feelings that are difficult to change instantly. However, you can control what you do with them.
If you follow your desires when you are not in an objective or determined state, you are putting yourself in disaster because your decisions are irrational. Here’s what to do instead:
- Catch yourself when you are in a different state. It takes a lot of mental energy. It is not easy to admit that you are not thinking rationally, but it gets easier with practice. You can catch yourself in a different state, using a totem or thinking after the fact, when you know that the decisions you made were not truly objective.
- Tell us how you would think in an “objective” state. It takes a little effort. You cannot automatically think in the objective state, but you can objectively and consciously think about what you would think if you were in the objective state. Imagine that you are a coach who gives yourself advice and then follows it. If you face this dilemma frequently (for example, overeating after a few drinks), you can write a note in the future when you are in the objective state, and then read it when you find yourself in that state.
Confronting the default mindset is not easy, but it gets easier. Remember, humans are not made to be rational. Funny creatures – yes, but objective ones – no. Understand this by forgiving yourself for being human and you will be fine.
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