Does this sound familiar: "I went to the gym today and I feel great!" Day 2 when you wake up, "I'm tired but I can get up and go to the gym." Day 3, "I'm sore and want to stay in bed. I'm gonna skip today and recover". Then recovery spans a couple days. That little voice in your head is screaming at you, "Stay comfortable!"
When you have gone to the gym, you rely on motivation. You see someone's post on social media about how they are crushing it and seeing results. You want that too. So you decide to get up and go to the gym. That's great. Until the next day. That same motivation from that same person just isn't enough today. Why? Motivation is fleeting. It comes and goes and you really can't control it. I used to believe in motivation and thought it was the key to success. It's not. Motivation in micro doses is extremely helpful, don't mistake that. What is key your IDENTITY and your DISCIPLINE.
Whether your training and prepping for the NFL draft or lifting and running for your own health and fitness goals, you are an athlete, if you believe you are. This is where IDENTITY comes in.
See, our beliefs dictate our emotions. Our emotions drive our actions. Our actions are the only thing that contribute to our results. And in those results is our perceived reality. This is what is referred to as BEAR. I added the extra R after hearing a Shawn Stevenson episode. So the conclusion here is that your results and your perceived reality are the byproducts of the beliefs you have about yourself. If you do not believe you are an athlete or whatever term you want to use and embody that lifestyle, chances are your emotions will not be on par with your health and wellness goals. If you are not emotionally invested (big difference between emotional investment and micro-motivation), you will not take the necessary actions on a consistent basis.
Believing that you are indeed an athlete will do a few things. First, you will start to treat your entire day and life like an athlete. If you don't know what that looks like, you will seek out new information. What do the top athletes do? How do they take care of their bodies? What are their recovery strategies?
Second, you will inevitably find out how DISCIPLINED athletes are. Their entire day is rooted in their identity. They want to be at their best so they take care of their body and mind with intention. This has to be you in a micro sense if you want sustained success in the gym. This is now the lifestyle you have chosen. You'll find your adherence skyrocket when you embody this social identity.
Social identity theory, made famous by Henri Tajfel, states that those who invest themselves into a community or group feel a more connected sense of belonging along with a source of pride and self-esteem. While this is a very surface level examination of the social identity theory, you can see how if someone works to identify themselves as an athlete, how they will then become part of a like-minded group.
This group is easier to find than anytime in human history thanks to social media. You can communicate instantly with anyone who you find shares the same values and aspirations as you or what you want to embody. Mastermind groups exist for this exact reason. Masterminds leverage what the social identity theory proclaims and puts ourselves in a different environment than the one we are normally in.
It's truly incredible the mental shift you will begin to cultivate when you think of yourself as an athlete. I am not an athlete, I am an entrepreneur. However, for me to reach my entrepreneurial goals, I must be my best self physically and mentally. There's no other social identity class that is rooted in elite physical and mental condition than athletes. Therefore, if I am to become elite, I must identify with an athletic identity. This mental shift has allowed me to be so much more consistent. I no longer get up and say, "I have to go to the gym, this is apart of who I am. I'm training for energy, confidence, and a feeling of significance."