The Subtle Art of Giving a F*ck
Oh wow Joplin giving an antithetical take on something everyone highly regards what a surprise. * commence eye roll *
Gonna just start out by saying I haven’t read the book but given the cliff notes of what I googled, it is basically:
“that individuals should seek to find meaning through what they find to be important and only engage in values that they can control. Values (such as popularity) that are not under a person's control, are, according to the book, 'bad values'.”
So to preface I’m not talking about that, it’s a clickbait title if you haven’t guessed by now. What I want to discuss is something that may or may not have been popularized by powerlifting, or maybe just the competitive fitness world in general, but a better phrase here would be “TRY TRYING”
How many of you, and I am by no means excluded from this group, give yourself at best the bare minimum to get by in a day? And how low is your bar for the bare minimum? Is it counting macros, 1 gal of water, and 5000 steps? Or is it something more like: eat when I’m hungry, first meal at noon, smash a white monster and go get a main lift done. Your results are the average of your efforts within each day, week, month. If your bar is so low that it’s considered most other people’s failure, your bar ain’t high enough, try trying.
Preparation (30-45 min)
Are you planning to succeed? How are you planning to succeed? Do you have a scheduled routine? When you wake up what’s the first, second, and third thing you do? From what I have gathered from living with or being around extremely high level athletes for extended periods of time is that preparation is basically numero uno in how your day, your sessions, and your results will be derived from.
Take a shower, make your bed, take your morning supplements.
Prep your beef and rice (or night before), have breakfast and WATER.
10 min walk and get some sunlight.
Leave for or begin work.
Do you have the food available to you that you need, do you have any items that detract from your goals (cutting) in the pantry, do you have a plan B if you need to adjust on the fly?
Action
Here’s where scheduling and accountability to your planning is important. I am personally someone that chronically undereats, I generally do not have an appetite but I have usually have the hunger that I could eat a 5 course meal 3 times a day if I needed to, thank you generalized anxiety disorder. So what I do is set alarms for each meal 1 2 3 4 5 - 8am, 11am, pre + intra workout, post, 7pm + dessert. Each meal is about 700-1000 calories and basically just meat/protein and carbs with incidental fats or butter. I prep some ground beef twice a week and usually have a fresh steak for dinner with jasmine rice in the rice cooker going all day (work from home).
Following through on the food you brought to work instead of having what’s available at the office.
Nailing the timing of your meals and supplement timing.
Being emotionally present for your session.
Music being loud af and triggers your sympathetic response, get stimulated, and flow effortlessly with intention through each set and movement with your head down and eyes forward.
Reflection
Look back on your days, weeks, and months. If this was your athlete would you be pounding your head into the wall in frustration over their self sabotage? Would you think that they even care? Be real with yourself, it’s literally just you judging you. Sure you’ll face some embarrassment for a second, but you’re the only one that’s expected to care about you, no one is coming to save you.
Journal. I write letters addressed to people including myself saying what I wish I could say as if it were my last day on earth with no consequences. Let the words and accountability flow, process and resolve your love, anger, and contentment with the world around you. This is going to pay dividends down the line in two ways. If you’re in a worse spot down the way and you look back on the good times this should give you hope that you are capable and worthy of feeling good and enacting good behaviors. If you’re in a better spot down the line you get to look back on how far you’ve come and feel appreciation for your hard work.
Take note of your progress in this time. Note how you feel, note you results, your general motivation to keep it up. You don’t get to rewind life so take advantage of the moments you have now.
