How You Can Use Your Physiology To Rapidly Increase Your Confidence and Resilience
Forget about body beautiful and do this instead
Last week I was listening to the Daily Stoic podcast with Ryan Holiday. Great podcast btw, by I’d recommend checking it out. One of his guests was Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business.
Scott, who is an ex-athlete, was talking about how physical health is vital for business as well as life. He explained how physical fitness is a huge influencer on our mental performance and durability. But what I liked most is what he said after this,
“I want the confidence knowing that, if I walk in a room and shit got real, I could take everyone out.
Don’t quote me on his exact words, but he said something to the effect of,
having the confidence of knowing you are the strongest, fastest, most endured person in the room is a game-changing for an empowered mindset
Yet the unfortunate truth is, as a living organisms we deteriorate over time. The muscle becomes weak and atrophy’s causing more strain and stress on the joints.
This unnecessary strain leads to arthritic issues and loss of bone density. It’s thought that after the age of 30, muscle deteriorates (sarcopenia) at around 3–5% per decade. With most men losing upwards of 30% in a lifetime.
This decrease in muscle tissue contributes to a rapid decline in metabolism. So not only does age make us weaker, with a piss poor handshake, it also makes us fatter. This sucks for your health, energy and performance.
This might seem insignificant to someone hitting 30 but the truth is people are wasting away. Day by day, month by month, year by year. It’s like a silent killer. Only with more pain and suffering.
The incapacity to play with your kids. To get up and hit a random 5K run for the hell of it or even feel vital and confident doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a long drawn-out process that gnaws away at your self-esteem. Until the day you realise, “what the hell happened to me?”
The reason people like Scott knows he is the strongest in the room is an obvious fact. Most people neglect their health and unappreciated the gift of physical presence. I’m not talking about body image here.
How you look per se doesn’t necessarily determine your strength or physical wellness. Presence is different. Presence is like energy. You can feel a person’s physical strength by walking into a room. And as I mentioned before, a handshake.
Despite COVID now inflicting the fear for people to never shake hands again, there’s much to be said from a handshake. My grandad would say a lot is said from the firmness of a handshake
He would say a strong hand demonstrates confidence and assurance. Weak hand insecurity and uncertainty.
Thing is, if you’re holding on to barbells and pull-ups bars three to four times per week. My grandad would have been impressed with your strong hand.
I can tell within about five seconds of meeting someone if they take care of their health or not. Call it intuition or sixth sense because it’s not by how they look, instead of the radiation of their energy. It’s almost like built-in confidence that’s impossible to fake. It just kind of shines through.
Another giveaway is how someone holds themselves. Drooped and rounded shoulders are obvious signs of a deteriorating and unconfident posture.
Someone who takes care of their physical self earns the confidence to stand tall and strong. It’s not about tiny waists, ripped abs-tasic or dancing pecs. Quite the opposite. Through my years of coaching, I’ve discovered something quite fascinating.
Those who focus on body image, don’t access the same level of confidence as someone focused on performance.
In most cases, the body image chasers decrease self-esteem. The body beautiful mindset creates more internal insecurities than it solves. Image obsession overthrows their focus on performance. I can vouch for this because I used to be one of those people.
Performance is the key to confidence.
Performance athletes possess an incomparable mindset to the general population. I’ve had the privilege of training athletes for some years.
Their resilience is like nothing I have ever seen in anyone else. Their threshold for pain is off the charts and most own this “never die” attitude. It’s quite remarkable.
Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside of them, a desire, a dream, a vision. — Muhammad Ali
What I find most fascinating, especially in young athletes, has nothing to do with training per se. Their focus in the gym isn’t about growing huge glutes, or training a resilient mindset. Their intention is to get better and improve their performance. Everything else is a byproduct.
They’ve discovered what their bodies are truly capable of doing and are driven to push the boundaries. They have figured out what most people haven’t and sadly never will.
What they have uncovered is the potential of their physical abilities. Through movement, strength, and endurance.
The side effect of this is confidence and resilience. To physically push the boundaries of their physiology strengthens the mind instinctively. United with their vision of success is a powerful combination. These guys look forward and want to challenged every single day.
Take time to research any high-level business professional or entrepreneur. Some of their major connections (or friends) are high level or ex-pro athletes. People who were at the top of their game.
This could be coincidental of course. But I’d like to hedge my bets on the fact a good athlete has all the hallmarks of a high performing human. Brain and body.
The qualities of a successful entrepreneur are akin to that of a pro athlete. It makes sense why there’s a natural connection between the two.
Both have sussed out that the brain and body working together is the key to success. Training the body is training the mind. An athlete knows when their muscles start to burn, and the brain says “we need to stop” it’s time to push and not to quit.
The best way to override a doubtful mind is to push your physiology past what you think is possible. Think about it. Your brain says “no you’re going to die” yet you ignore it and do it anyway. Who’s the boss now?
“I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability” — Bruce Jenner
The physical presence of a person is a clear sign of what’s going on in their mind. It has an integral contribution to happiness as well as success. Think of it being like self-respect.
By taking care of your physical health is you saying “I come first”. That you are grateful for the miracle of life, and your health is a gift and not something you take for granted. The truth is when you respect yourself it’s almost impossible for others not to respect you.
If you’re thinking you need to be a world-class athlete, don’t worry you don’t. Physical performance is about using your body for its intended purpose. To challenge your abilities.
Challenge your physiology daily
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, but because we do not dare, things are difficult — Seneca
The Stoics were big on challenging their physiology on a daily basis. Marcus Aurelius was fond of boxing and wrestling. Seneca would often take swims in frigid waters. And many stoics were advocates for lifting weights.
Activities outside your comfort zone develop courage. The things that trigger the fight or flight response. Do it or don’t. It’s these activities you want in your everyday life.
Have you ever stood underneath a cold shower? Before turning it on a multitude of reasons why you shouldn’t do it enter your mind.
Jump in cold water, lift weights and take part in short intervals of intense heart challenging exercise. Include them in your routine. Because when things are about to get uncomfortable, we are experts at making excuses. Conditioned to pull the plug as we’re about to experience discomfort. Discomfort is where the good stuff happens.
Daily challenges to your physiology condition you to move away from the excuses and do it anyway. Priming your mind to bury that little voice that says, “it’s too early”, it’s too cold”, “I’ll do it tomorrow”.
Then when things get tasty in life you’re primed and ready to push through. You’re ready to act regardless of how you feel in the moment.
Thanks for reading : )
Keir Spoon
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