Always the negative waves Moriarty

When I was a kid, war movies were king. Especially at Christmas. One of which was Kelly’s Heroes. It followed a tried and tested formula:

• An all star cast 
• A crazy plot
• Insurmountable odds
• The good guy’s triumph in the end

One of the pivotal characters was a tanker called Oddball, played by Donald Sutherland, who has a crew of shall we say, interesting individuals. Of these was a seemingly pessimistic member called Moriarty, who consistently moaned, to which Oddball delivered his main line of the film, “Always with the Negative waves Moriarty”!

This got me thinking about how we view exercise as a part of our daily lives.

Negative Waves

Most of us will be aware by now that exercise can have an extremely beneficial effect on our mental, physical and emotional well being. Active NZ’s 2017 main report opined ‘The more time spent participating in sport and active recreation, the more favourably young people and adults score on health and wellbeing indicators’.

So we know we need to get involved. No negative waves there Moriarty.

We know we should be getting in at least 30-45mins a day of exercise in one form or another.

The issues come when this exercise we partake in becomes a negative influence on us.

The problem is, for many of us (myself included), we don’t want to be told to slow down, to go lighter, to perform a less difficult movement. 

We get involved emotionally when we should be looking at things objectively.

We think we know ourselves better than anyone else, that thrashing ourselves into a pool of sweat on the floor is the only way we can get what we need from exercise.

Then we get told otherwise, and we’re like Oddball to Moriarty – we think our coaching influence is being unduly negative, that they’re trying to ruin our workout, that they become the bearer of the negative waves!

Stress Is Stress

The problem with us thrashing ourselves as an outlet from the stress in our lives is that the exercise just becomes another stressor on us.

The human body does not know the difference between a stressful day at work and a really difficult training session – Jason Brown. To read more about the source of this quote, click here.

The more we pile stress on top of ourselves, the more we suffer.

You’re not going to outrun stress, just as you’re not going to outrun a bad nutritional intake.

Balance

What we need in life is often the thing furthest from our mind.

I was reminded of this when talking to my mentor this past week.

Funnily enough, just like we’ve discussed with exercise, I was bemoaning to my mentor the lack of progress I’d made with some business-related issues. His response was simple and yet telling,

“The business who performs consistently over time wins” – Josh Martin.

Funnily enough, if you came to me and said that you were frustrated about your lack of weight loss, I’d say exactly the same thing!

Perspective

You don’t need to thrash yourself every day.

You don’t need to thrash yourself every workout.

If you’re fortunate enough to have a coach, mentor, or friend who cares enough to tell you so

Don’t be Oddball!

Be thankful for their influence in your life

Take things a little easier on yourself and see how successful you become in the longterm.

If you don’t have such an influence, or you feel you need more of such in your life, click here to arrange a time to chat with me

Cheers

Paul