Are you really being real with yourself and your weight?
At a training event for weight loss, when the topic of Body Mass Index came up, one associate made a startling announcement.
She exclaimed, “I don’t think the body mass index is correct, because at my height it says I’m obese, and that’s just not right.”
As we looked on, the entire room became silent — her blind spot was very evident to everyone around her.
Why do we underestimate our body size?
The mind is a tricky instrument. There are professional bodybuilders who look in the mirror and still see that skinny kid they used to be from high school. Similarly, there are obese people who feel that as long as they are healthy, their weight is acceptable.
Self-deception is a powerful tool for protection
I remember reading a book in college called Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconcious Mind, which argued that there exists both synergistic and competing compartments within the brain.
Consider this: we are bombarded by billions of bytes of information per second, yet our reality is clear and comprehensible. How? Behind the scenes, our brains filter the information that it deems “important” and sends that information to our conscious mind.
Your conscious mind contains only the reality that you are currently aware of. You know your name, your birthday, whether or not you are hungry or thirsty — this is easy information. Yet, we all have blind spots — information that we don’t even realize is missing from our reality.
This may be explained as a self-defense mechanism because sometimes, the truth does hurt. Cold, hard realities can destroy an already sensitive self esteem.
Does it make sense to free ourselves from this?
Awareness of Yourself will help you become a high achiever
How many epiphanies does it take to realize that a particular lifestyle is unhealthy and needs to change?
Self-Awareness is the ultimate personal power. It is a matter of relationships. Understanding your own needs and desires helps you relate to others in positive ways, but more importantly helps your own relationship to yourself.
When it comes to fitness, we all have to negotiate with ourselves. Do you really want that pizza?
The difference between people who fail and those who succeed are the ones who can successfully negotiate with their inner self and consistently win.
Self-awareness is a bountiful resource, it is a life power, and it is so richly and so organically you.
No one can take your self awareness away from you, they can only contribute if you choose to let them.
So choose to accept this gift
At Ellison Fitness, we believe emotional intelligence is the key revolution in leadership. As a Personal Trainer, I do not wish to develop a following, but instead to cultivate and empower each person’s inner leadership.
The self-awareness, the negotiating power, and the success comes not from external sources, but from the most important being to ever exist: You.