The Devil Starts at 40%

I am a big fan of workout videos with great teachers. The reason I like them is because we all need mentors and variety when it comes to exercise and it is important, in my opinion, we seek them and their workouts out. These creations can be works of art in my opinion. Intentionally, they are a well thought out, precise combination of body movements, and motivations with an end goal in mind. My latest exercise mentor is Hannah Eden for a program called FYR 2.0 on bodybuilding.com. Great exercise mentor’s always have some amazing things to say that can be generalized to life in general because exercise, indeed any pursuit for change, has analogies and lessons to daily life.

I am near 2 weeks into her 8 week program and she said something that I loved. I can’t quote her exactly but it went something like this, when your mind starts telling you to stop, you are only about 40% of the way to your max ability. I think if you ponder this, for new pursuits we have really wanted in the past, the timing of that negative inner voice truly is around 40%. As you get more acquainted with the new activity, that increases in my experience, but as to our max capability, very few of us can say we get there without that negative inner voice speaking.

That first inner negative voice, that little devil on your shoulder from cartoons, the ancient “yetzer hara” (negative inclination) of ancient hebraic teachings, all tend to start early in new pursuits. On top of that you have the natural resistance of change in life. It’s no wonder then the difficulty people have making changes, as we have on top of our negative inner voice the natural resistance that comes with life in a physical world.

So, what’s the lesson here? I think it is a great reminder of 2 very important things. 1. On all new pursuits, your negative inner voice is lying to you when it comes to telling you what your ability or capability or endurance is.
2. Finding yourself a mentor can help you to raise that limit and learn to embrace and even enjoy the natural resistance that comes

Now it’s time for me to do my workout . . .