Most of us are expert excuse-makers. There is no weight-loss goal, muscle-gain regimen, or core-strengthening routine that we can’t justify our way out of. We are great liars. We are even better at believing our own lies.
When it comes to physical fitness, we tend to believe our excuses for being out of shape are not just obstacles, but impassable walls. This just isn’t the case. One of the reasons we never get around to actually putting on the running shoes and getting out the door is that we focus on the physical work ahead and then give up. When we do this, we are tying our laces before we put on our shoes. We are not learning to fight the mental battle before we get to the physical one. Exercise that succeeds on the track or in the gym starts in the mental ring.
What are some of the final scores in these mental matches? No time to work out? You just lost the game 0–1. You will hit the gym next week? You just upped your losing streak to two. Too tired? You forfeit the match.
The important thing to understand is that losing the physical fitness game means losing the mental edge that will get you ahead in the professional world. The discipline and mental clarity that comes from keeping your body in shape cannot be gained any other way than through regular exercise.
The athlete is the perfect example of someone who unites the physical and mental into one. Athletes understand that the performance of the body and mind are linked, and that neglecting one will adversely affect the performance of the other. Athletes constantly combat the thoughts that are begging them to quit the painful climb to reach peak condition. They cannot succeed physically if they are not mentally tough. Athletes know that the body and the mind complement each other when trained well. They depend on it.
You might think that this kind of mind-and-body unity is a benefit enjoyed only by professional athletes, who have nothing but their physical conditioning to be concerned with. Not true. We can gain the same mental benefits from physical exercise that athletes do. Do not let yourself think athletes are some other type of human born for exercise. They weren’t born that way any more than CEOs were born with an executive gene.
The athlete is no superhuman, but the best ones carefully use mental focus to increase physical output. The opposite works just as well. You can use physical activity to increase mental strength. You are the product of physical behavior that has real mental outcomes. In your profession, I’m sure you have seen some succeed while others have failed, in the same way most athletes remain average while others excel. The difference between an average athlete and an excellent athlete is that the excellent athlete performs every day. The same is true for you. You cannot win on game day if you don’t win the other days as well.
Yes, you will sometimes lose. No matter how hard you work, you will sometimes fail. Even the most focused athlete cannot exceed his or her own potential. Some will train their whole lives and never break a record or win a gold medal. You are not in control of everything in your life, nor will you ever be. Recognizing this is a key step in getting mentally in shape. But an even more important key is knowing that while you can never control every variable, you can control your mind to stay committed to exercise. If you learn to do this, there will be few professional goals outside your reach.
Let’s look at an example of how body and mind interact. Try to remember one of your worst days at work. You felt like garbage and so you performed like it. You avoided looking people in the eye, maybe even staring at the floor on your way to and from lunch. In a meeting you wasted numerous chances to make yourself known. At one point during the day, you gave up completely and whittled away an hour by surfing the Internet. When it came time to go home, you realized the day was a complete waste. Whatever you did accomplish was half-baked and you took forever getting it done at all.
Now ask yourself, has it ever been impossible, except in the most tragic of circumstances, to consciously change your mood? Is it impossible to change your worst day into a passable or even great day? The answer is almost too obvious. You are in control of your mind, and with that control you are in charge of your mood. You decide how your day is.
What if you had begun that day with a vigorous run? Like all exercise, running has an instant positive effect on your mind and mood. Think of the times when you have felt a little down, tired, or insecure, and then have forced yourself to exercise, despite being incredibly unmotivated. After only a few minutes, you start to feel more positive, energized, and clearheaded. Afterward, when you’re in the shower, your feelings and mind-set are totally different from when you started your run. You have used your mental strength to exercise, and your exercise has altered your mental state. If you wake up with the feeling that today is going to be an off day, exercise. It will change you.
President Barack Obama once said that when he has to choose between sleeping an extra hour and going for a run, he always chooses to run. “I get positive, clearheaded, and find solutions when I run,” he says.
Physical fitness even influences body language. Studies show that if you’re slouching in your chair, you are less receptive to new knowledge than if you were sitting with a straight back while leaning forward. If you hold a pen between your fingers and lay your hands on the desk, the effect will be even stronger. The way in which you use your body sends signals to your brain. When your body is alert, the mind cannot simultaneously be slouching and sagging. If you sit upright and lean forward, a posture that indicates attentiveness, your body will signal your brain to pay attention because something important is going on.
If you shuffle around with short, hasty steps right before an important meeting or a competition, you will automatically become more nervous. Behaving nervously makes you nervous. Throughout the years, your brain has been taught to equate these exact motions with nervousness. But you don’t want to be nervous, and you can replace this feeling with something else. Starting with your body language may be a smart thing to do.
When I struggled during the last day of Hell Week for paratrooper admission trials, I forced a smile on my face. The brain associates the muscles used for smiling with something positive, and in a flash, you will feel a little lighter. You can try it next time you wake up feeling really exhausted.
Forcing yourself to breathe calmly and with your stomach can make you a little bit calmer, and this may be what it takes to do a good job. Your brain associates calm and deep breathing with relaxation. Breathe in deeply, and breathe out slowly. The importance of breathing is also recognized in the martial arts, yoga, and the military. Controlling your breath can determine how you feel. A Navy SEAL told me they use a technique where they divide the inhalation into three stages: halfway in, a quarter in, another quarter in. They breathe in through the mouth, inhaling 50 percent. They stop for a second, draw the breath farther down the lungs another 25 percent, stop for a second, and then breathe in the remaining 25 percent, finally exhaling slowly through the nose. The purpose is to shift the focus from chaos to calm, from the external (the act of shooting) to the internal (breathing).
The SEALs rehearse it again and again during training with a lot of emphasis (“Mind your breathing! In-in-in!”). After a while, calm settles in. If you only focus on the danger, on the external threat, you forget that you can actually use this technique to take optimal action. If you are being shot at, it’s natural to be stressed and scared, and to hyperventilate. A soldier cannot always change his circumstances, but he can do something to alter his own attitude. That’s why he starts to focus on his breathing. This will lead the soldier to move his focus from the danger of being shot at to automatically doing the things he has rehearsed: placing the gunstock on the shoulder, his right hand on the grip, and pulling the trigger. What the Navy SEALs hope to achieve with this breathing technique is to enter into the necessary mental state to solve the physical situation.
But how do stress and other anxiety-producing emotions arise in the first place? The answer is not as obvious as you might think. The American psychologist and philosopher William James has argued in his now-famous theory that we don’t run away from a bear because we’re afraid of it, but rather the other way around: we are afraid because we run away from the bear. It’s not actually as strange as it may sound, and James’s theory has since found a lot of support from the field of modern neurological science. James wanted to find out about the relation between cause and effect when it comes to human emotions. Does the external factor (the bear) cause the emotion (fear), and then the ensuing reaction (running away)? Or does the reaction (running away) create the emotion (fear)?
According to James’s theory, emotion is caused by a series of events beginning with a stimulus in the nervous system, before its manifestation as a conscious experience (joy, anger, fear, etc.). This led James to ask himself the question about the bear. Because emotions are almost always accompanied by bodily reactions (heart pounding, hands sweating, etc.), couldn’t it just as well be that this bodily reaction is the cause of the emotion, and not the other way around? We think that we cry because we are sad, but couldn’t it be that we are sad because we are crying? Or, at least, that these two factors are working together?
James’s theories are still subject to a lot of research. What’s interesting in this context, though, is the idea that bodily reactions are able to cause emotions, or at least that the body and emotions can amplify one another. Bearing this in mind, you will also be able to exploit it and thus be able to manipulate the way you feel.
A downcast gaze is a prime example of feelings of inferiority. A deep voice is perceived as more assuring and more authoritative than a higher one. If you know the first sentence in your speech or presentation by heart, and you are able to deliver it in a deep, controlled voice while holding a steady gaze and a good posture, it will immediately reduce any feelings of tension you may have to begin with.
The same thing can be said about the clothes you wear. If you feel attractive, it will influence your posture and your entire attitude. If you are conscious of this, you can dress the way you would like to feel.
Attention to detail is important in achieving a successful mind-set. The Special Forces take this to the extreme, because they know that details can be the difference between survival and death. It’s the same with sports and business. The details decide the difference between the best and the second best. It’s not a coincidence that antiterror units all over the world dress in black. It’s not only for tactical reasons—it also looks tough. It’s a lot more frightening when someone comes at you dressed all in black than in shocking pink. They dress with courage and an aggressive attitude.
Put another way, using a refrain you often hear in sports, “Look good, feel good, play good.” If you’re in the best shape of your life, and you’re putting great food into your body, and you’re getting the rest you need, and you’re impeccably dressed—if you do all these things, I promise you that the positive results will follow from your mental state. Here are the specific steps to get you there.
Exercise every day. You must work out for a minimum of one hour each day during Hell Week. At least two of these exercise sessions should be extremely vigorous, enough to cause sweat and heavy breathing. If you aren’t regularly active, you should get clearance from your doctor before taking on this rigorous regimen. It’s a good idea to ask them what a safe heart rate is for your condition and then use a heart-rate monitor to make sure you’re staying within it.
Increase your activity. In addition to regular exercise, you should lead an overall more active life during Hell Week. If possible, walk or ride your bike to work, instead of driving or relying on mass transportation. Walk briskly or even take a light jog between meetings or when going for a cup of coffee.
Master your mode. Mode is a state that allows you to trust your training and to act in the way you do in training—to act instinctively. If you are in danger, it is natural to feel scared, maybe even to panic. But that feeling is not going to make you safe from what you fear. You therefore need to override the natural feeling and change it into another. Below is the advice I give corporate managers who are about to deliver important presentations, or to artists who are about to go onstage. As part of your Hell Week preparation, practice these techniques so that you can implement them when the main event arrives.
• Breathe deeply and feel calmer.
• Square your shoulders. You will feel a little safer.
• Walk at a brisk, confident stride, and you will feel more sure of yourself.
• Smile to feel more positive and happier.
• Sit or stand with your body leaning forward to feel more alert.
• Stand with your feet set wide apart to feel tougher and more powerful.
Eat well. A healthy diet is essential to peak performance. Before the start of Hell Week, stock up on healthy foods, including fruits and vegetables, nuts and whole grains, and yogurt. You should eat smaller meals more frequently throughout the day, preferably five small meals a day, two of which should be snacks. Forget the junk food and forgo alcohol. You won’t have to deny yourself these indulgences forever, but during Hell Week only the best food and drink should enter your body.
Dress for success. I’m not what you’d call a clotheshorse, but I still wear a suit to work almost every day. I can feel my mindset start to shift as I put on my executive uniform. It has an effect on me: shaving thoroughly, putting on a freshly ironed shirt, bending the collar of my shirt over the tie, or fine-tuning the crease in my pants. I want you to prepare for this kind of personal presentation before Hell Week. When you dress professionally, it doesn’t feel natural to surf the web and gossip with coworkers. Smart attire is a reminder that you’re in work mode. It communicates to colleagues, clients, and yourself that you’re someone who pays attention to detail, to doing things properly, and that you’re reliable.