Sure, train your body but mindset is everything
Hi, I’m Luke. If you haven’t followed me for sometime, I’ve recently developed a passion for running and at 47 years old I’m using that vehicle to do hard things. And a big part of what I learned in that process is that mindset doesn’t just make a difference, mindset is everything!
The last 16 months or so have seen me complete two ultra-marathons with a third 100km event in the mountains of Bright, Victoria in March 2023. Plus lowering my half-marathon PB to around 1 hour 40 mins or under 5 minute kms for the race at my age and I’m really only just knowing what real running training is. I am happy but not satisfied with where I am at.
I’m one of the highest rated mindset coaches in Australia accordingly to Google but there is a difference between teaching what you know and believe in; and being able to practise what you preach and relate to what you believe on such a deep level because you’ve lived it, experienced it yourself, that you know what you’re talking to others about.
And if this experience has taught me something, it would be this.
Mindset is everything when it comes to doing hard things
Yes, I need to be physically capable of running the event and during the event you have moments where the body carries you forward and then the mind plays a key role but your mind is more likely to break and convince you to give up long before your body does.
Even at my last 60km event along the beaches and cliff tops in Portland (VIC), my body began to fail with a hamstring strain at the 30km mark due to me being overly ambitious on hill climbs (read the full recount of another ultra) but my mind remained strong. I kept telling myself that “my mind won’t break”. My mindset was everything then to get me through.
Luke Fenwick, Melbourne-based Life & Mindset Coach, running the Great Ocean Road Run Fest ultra marathon.
“The secret isn’t in your legs, but in your strength of mind. You need to go for a run when it is raining, windy, and snowing, when lightning sets trees on fire as you pass them, when snowflakes or hailstones strike your legs and body in the storm and make you weep, and in order to keep running, you have to wipe away the tears to see the stones, walls, or sky.”
— Kilian Jornet, greatest Ultra runner of all-time
But it doesn’t only apply to physical challenges like running an ultra marathon. Mindset is everything in everything else too!
Hate running? How does mindset apply to your life?
Knowing that mindset is everything can be a game changer in all areas of life, not just to push your body but to push your mind beyond its current limits.
See what I did there?
I deliberately chose the words “current limits”.
With the right mindset coaching and the right strategy in place you can quickly change a life of limitations and negative emotions to one of joy, opportunity and even abundance. Allowing you to break free, past your current limits, and reaching higher towards the best version of you.
So yes, you might not be a runner or much of a fitness person at all (that’s something to look at) but with the right mindset, one where you believe in yourself, you can make progress and harness your true potential… no one knows what you’re capable of.
How does mindset show your life?
Let’s see…
The time where you didn’t achieve all you could at work because your mindset and belief in your own ability was holding you back.
The time where your relationship failed because your mindset was saying “I’m not good enough”, eventually leading to them walking out the door.
The time you gave up on taking action because your mindset had you giving up before you even started.
Say it with me: my mindset is EVERYTHING!
Real world experience to help real world problems
My personal experience helps my clients when it comes to mindset coaching because I have both succeeded, and failed, because of my mindset.
Didn’t expect that statement? I bet you thought this was going to be all about me, being awesome and achieving everything because of my bulletproof mindset. Nope, that’s BS!
Early on in life and career, my mindset and belief in my ability to learn, grow and succeed were strong. This propelled me forward to achieve much in a career with stops at the world's largest luxury brand LVMH and in professional sports at Melbourne United to name a few. But my mind buckled and fell apart during my last corporate role because I focused on the wrong things. I didn’t follow a process, didn’t learn from the past and evolved in the future. My mindset was everything I needed then but I acted like it was nothing.
At the moment, my biggest challenge is my relationship with my kids and my mindset is everything here too. I need to keep working on it or those relationships won’t be all they could be either.
My experience at succeeding and failing because of mindset can help you to not make the same mistakes and ensure that you are learning and growing from your own mistakes. Often though, that emotion overrides our logic and how we navigate this with our mind will determine our success.
How to have a strong mindset
There are a few different parts to having a strong mindset. Start with these 4 strategies to help you build a strong mindset.
Have confidence and perspective
I shared this strategy to build unstoppable self confidence before, which leads to a better mindset relating to your ability to succeed.
It goes like this, Clarity + Acceptance responsibility + Learning new skills + Practice + Discipline and repetition = Confidence.
CLARITY - This is about being crystal clear and truthful on the current state of play, no lying to yourself. Be clear on what you need to achieve going forward via visualisation.
ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY - Reflecting and owning the current state of play and your part in it, this will always help your mindset.
LEARNING OF NEW SKILLS - Whatever you discover you need to achieve comes with needing new skills to get you there. Map out your action plan to get them!
PRACTICE - Once you have those skills, put them in practice… grow, learn and build belief each time you achieve success or indeed fail.
DISCIPLINE AND REPETITION - Every time you stick with your path and don’t give up, you will progress forward and with that your confidence will grow. Yes, even if you make mistakes because this is all part of any good strategy.
There are other elements that you should focus on to help your mindset.
2. Be clear on your powerful reason why
You are doing something. Life gets hard, shit gets real and being 100% clear as to “why” you are looking to do something keeps your mindset strong and clear when the going gets tough. Tap into the internal motivators as fuel to drive you forward.
3. Do hard things
I believe in this. Never challenging yourself or doing things that are difficult will get you lazy. You will get soft and deep down inside your mind tells you that you just don’t have it in you to succeed when treading a difficult or new path. So, find the things that challenge you and go after it. Each and every time you accomplish, improve and learn, it will strengthen your mindset, this will then enable you to have positive and truthful belief in you.
Which brings me to…
4. Practise positive internal talk
Your mindset will never be all it can be without strong and truthful internal talk. Reflect over the next week or two about what the conversation in your mind is like: how do you talk to yourself? Is it positive or do you pull yourself down with negative talk? If it is, start to make the shift to really highlight success and improvement when it happens. The mind knows when we lie to ourselves, so stick to the truth.
Another part about mindset is perspective and, at times, we need to shift or change our perspective in order to improve our mindset and life in general.
Time and time again, I see where people feel they are the victims of life… a life and a world that is against them, thus it all feels heavy, dark and difficult.
If you can find ways to shift that perspective from “this is being forced upon me” and “the world is against me” to:
This is my choice.
I can grow and learn from this.
My destiny is in my hands.
This too shall pass.
I have, can and will succeed.
Then your mindset will improve. Why? Because your mindset is everything.
Can you train your mindset to be stronger?
Yes, you can and in fact, you should. But it takes practice and the secret is about priming.
Mindset coaching technique to start the day strong
We know that confidence and perspective are essential in mindset coaching. And we also know that harnessing your true potential by changing your mind is the key.
So, if mindset is everything, it can get you there before you get out of bed in the morning. Here’s a scenario:
When you wake up in the morning, you connect with the day ahead, think about what you’ll need to do and sometimes ruminate about what can go wrong or what has gone wrong in the past. You frequently connect with an old version of you, setting your path for the day on an old track.
Priming yourself when you wake up to connect to a strong and positive mindset, connect and picture the best version of you that day is a powerful way to shift your mindset from the old to the new you you want to be.
Over the next week, before you get out of bed, before you touch your phone, before you do anything. Picture the best version of you. What do you do, what do you say?
Shift your mindset towards this person, bring them into existence.
Set powerful intentions for the day, by coaching your mindset.
“Everybody comes to a point in their life when they want to quit. But it’s what you do at that moment that determines who you are.” – David Goggins
Your body will only take you so far; mindset is everything
Building a strong mindset by doing hard things and growing your confidence is a tried and true strategy that works over time. With everyone! You don’t have to run ultra marathons to test that, you can apply it in your daily life.
Don’t wait for motivation, changing your perspective can be a quick fix for shifting your mindset and should form part of your daily mindset coaching routine.
When you embrace the fact that your mindset is everything and that you have the power to change. You will begin to do just that.
Change your mind, change your actions.
Change your actions, change your direction.
Change your direction, change your living legacy.
Is your mindset not all it could be? Do you need to do hard things but feel like you need further help to be the best version of you?
Mindset coaching can help.
BOOK YOUR 30 MIN FREE ZOOM CALL
This initial video call is relaxed, it is for answering as many questions as you might have about how we can work together and focuses on providing you with an understanding about the mindset coaching techniques and strategies that will be used to help you. No pushy sales pitch, just more clarity for you about the methodology I use with my clients. Book now.
