Becoming a pro bodybuilder or fitness athlete is a question of body strength and the power of will. Transforming your mind and body – often demands a fundamental change in mindset.
Learn how to boost your mind in six steps:
1. Know your way
Before starting your journey, you’ve got to know where you’re going. Though this may be self-evident, answering the question “what do you want?” is difficult for most people. One reason may be that the question forces you to come to terms with yourself: where are you today, and what does it take to get you where you want to be? What do you wish to achieve with your body and workout?
Those daily goals of lifting and dieting will become a lot easier when you’re sure of your dreams.
2. The power of the crowd – surround yourself with positive people
Surrounding yourself with people who offer encouragement means that you won’t need to rely solely on your internal motivation.
If you exercise by yourself, try to spend time with other bodybuilders and athletes who take things just as seriously: having others holding you accountable can inspire you to be better.
Discover the best workout and diet recommendations from the world-famous Pro bodybuilders by visiting our blog about bodybuilding and muscle mass gain!
3. Know your limitations – and embrace them
The trick to making everything else in your routine seem a little easier is aggressively tackling the stuff you hate the most. Hating leg day? Do double average volume on squats! Can’t stand cardio? Run a mile on the treadmill. By pushing yourself to do the complex stuff, you effectively make all the other parts of your routine easier because you are freeing up your mental energy for different tasks.
4. When the going gets tough – you keep going
Exercising hard and maintaining a diet becomes easier the longer we do it. Like any other habit, they are tough to start but tougher to break. Consider your momentum the next time you think about skipping a workout or having a cheat meal. Is it worth it? You won’t just suffer the consequences of that one wrong decision, and you will make it easier to slip up in the future.
5. Baby steps and 7-mile steps
Building and shaping your body – one of the worst things you can do becomes complacent. It’s OK to take a break now and again. Even pro athletes need downtime for “maintenance”, but keep focusing on new goals if you want to make steady progress. Having short and long-term goals will keep you moving forward. Let’s say you do 245 squats at five reps. Make it a short-term plan to do 260 in five reps. But don’t stop there! Keep hitting and updating your short-term goals, but always have that long-term motivation to keep you going.
6. Learn how to love your failures
As dedicated and motivated as you are, this might be tough, but you should know that you will fail, and probably more than once before you reach your ultimate potential. Even if you have the utmost control over your diet and training, you will have setbacks like bad workouts, low energy, injuries, and stress. Don’t see this as an excuse to be undisciplined, but an understanding that you’ll have to keep in the game for the long term. Every setback will seem like the world’s end if you’re not prepared for the occasional failure.
Ultimately, this will be challenging, but acquiring the right mindset will get you half the way.
