Working On Yourself
The path of personal fitness is a journey that tends to meander the further you continue along. What inspires you to exercise in the beginning often isn’t what keeps you motivated years later.
This inspiration possibly could have come from a well known fitness influencer or a movie star that had an impressive physique that made a lasting impression.
While external motivators to exercise will vary for each person, they usually fail to keep us consistently pursuing long term goals with the ups and downs that we’ll encounter in life (see Why You Might Lose Motivation to Workout).
The media has a tendency to influence how the public look at themselves, which is why celebrity and fad diets are promoted with the release of every movie, book, or award show throughout the year.
The full disclosure of the program or the additional supplements that were taken to get the results in a short time frame are rarely discussed and misleads people.
Rather than researching what works for other individuals, trainees should be focused on their personal needs. An image of your body being the healthiest, strongest, and most attractive is a standard worthy to maintain for the rest of your living years.
This ideal would be different for each person, which is why this powerful image should be something that’s held in the individual’s mind as a personal goal.
Holding this favorable image is important for maintaining a personal uniqueness, self-motivation, and specification of what you truly want. The mental techniques to help achieve this is what’s needed.
How to Get the Image of the Body You Want
It can be quite intimidating to think of getting to a level that you’ve never reached before or attempting anything that you’re not familiar with for the first time. This is what stops a majority of people in their tracks from taking action or making an attempt.
If we could exercise our imagination to see ourselves in the desired reality of doing what we want, this could positively influence our attitude to take action. The practice of this mental activity on a regular basis is referred to as visualization, where imaging becomes a habitual routine towards personal success.
Visualization is a vital tool used by high performers in all professions to help achieve long term goals, outperform personal expectations, and to overcome obstacles that challenge even the most talented individuals.
Obstacles tend to stand in the way of bodybuilding with genetics being touted as reasons for poor muscle development or lagging muscle groups.
Visualization can take an individual much closer to their genetic potential by optimizing their resources. Information on how to achieve your goals comes to you without any effort whatsoever.
Your genetic potential was always there but held back by not taking a progressive approach towards your exercise training. Visualization will bring this knowledge to you as you imagine in your mind performing at your best.
This mental technique can do wonders to bring goals closer to reality, but visions do not always bring absolute positivity in your life.
People may not accept the image of this ideal physique, even when this goal comes into fruition. Criticism is usually received when you start getting results, which causes others to feel insecure about themselves.
The drastic change in your appearance projects an awareness that change is possible for the people in your life as well, yet they’re failing to take action to improve their physiques. Subconsciously these individuals feel uncomfortable emotions of guilt and redirect that energy with criticism.
Executing On Your New Body Image
Visualizing the body that we want requires us to get into specifics, since these will be the instructions that we will impress on the mind. The description of details within your image will manifest these fine points physically as you continue further along your journey.
You should have a clear picture of your body at your leanest with the amount of musculature that you desire. How do you feel about being this person?
Imagine what you will be doing while you have this new physique from a first person perspective.
Picture yourself in the gym or outdoors and the activities you’ll be performing. Visualize the maximum ideal weight you want to lift with this new physique.
Next, imagine your new body from a third person perspective, as if you’re a director filming a motion picture.
How do you appear as you’re casually walking down the street or from the glances people are giving you passing by? What kind of clothing are you wearing? How do these new clothes fit on your frame?
This mind movie is a regular exercise like your workout regiment that you perform daily to see the results you’re looking to achieve. This keeps you from being distracted by outside influences and greatly maintains focus for long periods of time.
The Wrap Up
Attaining the physique that you desire requires focusing on the priorities that means the most to you. Visualizing daily concentrates our attention towards goals to be accomplished for the long term, which eradicates irrelevant information or criticism that keep us distracted. Use this technique as a tool to aid your progress to obtain what you want for your physique and all other areas of your life.
