“I’m no good at this,” he cried [CBA 1/3]

💪💪💪 We’re on a mission to help one million people RISE by 2030 💪💪💪

📚📚📚 Reading Time: 2 minutes 📚📚📚

👂👂👂 Listen on podcast via myrise.co.uk/podcast 👂👂👂

💡💡💡

If you’re a frustrated yo-yo dieter and gym disliker who would like to lose 20lbs in 8 weeks while developing lasting healthy habits without having to do boring exercise you hate and give up food you love, then email contact@myrise.co.uk with ‘RISE’ and we’ll send you the information for our online 20lbs weight loss challenges.

💡💡💡

Parents of children born in the last twenty years will probably recognise that line.

From Zog.

By Julia Donaldson.

Which covers our ‘eponymous hero’ (what an expression that is) as he attempts to learn new skills in each school year.

Flying, roaring, breathing fire, capturing princesses, fighting knights and the like.

Each time it goes a bit wrong for him.

He crashes into a tree, gets a sore throat, sets his wing tip alight and so on.

“I’m no good at this,” he cries at one point.

He gets there though.

Keeps going.

Practices himself better.

Until he wins the Golden Star.

Because, whilst he found it challenging, he knew he’d get better with practice.

And we all need that.

If we just feel we “can’t do” something, it’s very easy to stop trying to do it.

The C of CBA.

Competence.

We go through four stages of this.

Unconscious incompetence.

We’re barely even aware of something.

We wouldn’t be any good at it.

But we haven’t really tried.

Next stage is Conscious Incompetence.

We’re trying it and it’s hard.

Frustrating.

Dispiriting.

We think “this isn’t for me”.

“I’m not cut out for this”.

We rarely consciously “give up” (as most FitPros would describe it)…………

But it falls by the wayside as seemingly more pressing things get dealt with.

Changes to eating, exercise, meditation and so on.

Frustrating.

And, all of a sudden, we realise it’s been weeks since we’ve done anything.

Get annoyed with our self.

And think we “need to start again”.

The next stage is Conscious Competence.

We get pretty good at it.

But we still have to try.

To think about it.

There’s a degree of effort.

Beyond that Unconscious Competence.

It’s just a habit.

Barely needs any thought.

We all have different things we’re at each level of.

We’re Consciously Competent at lots of things – watching our favourite TV programme, brushing out teeth, driving a car, certain tasks at work.

Where we often struggle with the olde health and fitness type stuff……….

Is we get stuck in that Conscious Incompetence bit.

We don’t feel we’re getting any better.

Frustrating.

So we stop.

But there’s good news.

That bit where it’s most frustrating………..

Lonely………..

Our “head is melting”………..

Where is feels the hardest………..

Where we think “I’m not cut out for this”………..

“I’m not good enough”……….

“This is not for me”…………..

That’s where the magic is happening.

The most progress.

Studies have been done on brain activity when in this stage.

When the brain lays down new neural connections, it produces myelin to create a ‘sheath’ around neurons.

Some studies show that at that most frustrating point, where it feels the hardest and we want to stop………..

Myelin can be being produced as much as ten times faster.

And that’s a powerful thing to remember.

Next time you feel like that.

You’re actually making the most relative progress you ever will.

You’re on the verge of a breakthrough.

You’re part way through the hardest bit.

You might as well keep going and finish it off.

Allow it to get easier.

Stopping will only mean you have to do this bit again next time (and the time after and so on).

What really helps is to have a measure of that ‘competence’.

A way to know we’re getting better.

We don’t mind not being great at something as much if we can see we’re improving.

We can stay motivated when we see improvement.

So, what would that look like?

Some measure of exercise performance?

How many / how long / how quickly we recover from some sort of exercise?

A simple self assessment of 1-10 of energy levels, mood and the like to show changes over time?

Wearable tech?

Something so there is a cold hard, facts to show us how our competence is improving.

Without that we’re just left with how we “feel” about something.

And it quickly falls apart.

Have a way to measure competence.

Remember the most frustrating bit is the best bit.

And that side of motivation should come.

Much love,

Jon ‘William Simmonite’ Hall

P.S. Tricky middle name there – anyone?