Feed the Lion, Starve the Monster

Where does your mind go when left to its own devices? What negative thought patterns have you developed over the course of your training/life? These negative thought patterns represent the Monster inside of you. In its purest form, the Monster is the ‘you’ that keeps you from reaching your full potential. It’s the ‘you’ that tells you that you’re too tired to keep going, that a certain weight is too heavy, that you need a break, that you need more time before starting your next rep, etc. Unlearning these negative thought patterns and putting the Monster to rest are critical to achieving peak performance.
Why?
There is growing scientific evidence supporting the idea that these negative thought patterns inhibit peak performance. Thinking “I’m so tired” can increase your perceived effort (perceived effort is a measure of the amount of effort our minds believe we are giving at any given moment); If there is any truth to the expression “90% of all performance is mental,” then managing our perceived effort is where that 90% happens. More often, exhaustion, it is believed, occurs not because our bodies reach some physical limit, but because our minds reach a maximum perceived effort (we no longer believe we can continue or are no longer willing to tolerate more pain); this is science, not just simple motivation. You can’t keep training your body while ignoring your mind’s contribution to overall fitness.
When training, remember that your mind will believe it has reached a point of exhaustion long before your body does. Recognize this and push past your perceived max effort. Let your mind be your strongest asset. Recognize, however, that this starts long before your workout begins. Acknowledge that the ‘pain’ will come—if it never does, then you didn’t push enough; the goal isn’t to avoid it, but to embrace it—to understand that you can handle it and keep going in spite of it. This is the Lion inside of you.
The Monster holds you back. The Lion pushes you forward. Feed the Lion, starve the Monster.