August 10, 2023

Inner work vs Outer Work

Realistically, the method that I use to get into incredible fit and help others do the same- is the HARDEST method.

You're going to read a million posts I've put out in the past saying "it's actually the easiest method."

And I'm going to say it's the easiest a million times in the future.

So fair warning that if you just stop reading here, you're going to have to paint me as a clickbait hypocrite.

In some things, sure I'm a hypocrite.

But when it comes to my method for achieving the best possible state of mental and phyisical fitness, the way I do things is indeed both the hardest AND the easiest.
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You are constantly battling between valuing inner and outer work.

I say battling because UNTIL you realize that it's a balance, it's inevitably a battle.

Most people starting to commit to a fitness transformation fall into one of two catagories:

1. You're ready to get working out. You're ready to start working on your diet...

As you get into the challenge though, you find that inner resistance starts to be the main thing holding you back. You might be procrastinating... you might not!

But you're not seeing results, and the inner conversation is making it very difficult to keep going. You know you need to be taking action, but you're not sure how to overcome the struggle of self-doubt and procrastination.

You don't know where it's coming from, and you can't intentionally use your willpower to get passed it.

2. You're tapped in. You're an epathetic person, not just to others but you're trying to exercise that compassion on yourself.

This means that you're considerate of whether working out is "really self love today, because I'm feeling low." You're considerate of whether cutting calories is "really self love today, because I need to give myself some comfort."

What I'm trying to summarize here is that there's a sense that you need to listen to your inner child.... so much so that it's often stopping you from simply taking action.

Put plainly, one type of person finds it really difficult to get past the inner conversation and take the necessary action.

....While one person doesn't know how to navigate the inner conversation once it starts to critique the action being taken.

Both are right. Both are experiencing a self-imposed limitation that comes as a result of single-mindedness.

What you have to understand is that both inner capacity for self-dialogue and outer capacity for taking action are equally important.

If you can value your inner voice/higher self/inner child etc,
you're going to have a massive advantage when it comes to analyzing your sense of inadqueancy or lack of self worth.

If you can focus on outer-world action and commit to taking consistent daily moves, you're guaranteed to make tangible progress. Point blank. Full stop.

If you're missing one, you're inevitably going to drag to a screeching halt.

The balance of both of these forces is required. There is no way to reach your goals without both. You MUST prioritize learning to do these things both consistently and eventually masterfully.
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If you are an inner-valueing "tapped in, tuned in, turned on" person.... you have to practice accepting that the work is unavoidable.

You will have to be taking daily action, even if you don't feel like it. The voice within asking you to hyper-analyze what's self-love and what's destructive will have to take a back seat to the gears of change that act only objectively.

Ironically, this voice will also find peace in the mindless monotony of taking action. These things WILL switch from a chore, to a meditation. From fear, to the pillars of consistency you can rely on when everything else can change in an instant.
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If you are an action taker but struggle to have comfortable conversations with yourself, you need to create a system for doing the inner work thats objective.

A method for acknowledging inner limitation, and then addressing it with a an objective process.

This is a very deep, very nuanced concept overall and so I'm going to give you 2 pieces of advice.

1. The most basic way to start to do this is witha belief re-writing strategy.

Start to practice acknowledging the limiting inner conversation.

There's nothing to do here other than deliberately tell yourself "huh, loooks like I'm feeling lazy/depressed/anxious/unworthy etc."

Start by practicing putting a label on how you're feeling. There's no wrong way to do this. You just have to start practicing.

Then, you want to get as clear on this as possible. Again, just practice defining it to the best of your ability with as much detail as possible.

Example: "I really want to skip the gym today. I feel like I'm not making any progress, and going to sweat and be in pain doesn't really feel beneficial. It feels like all this work is useless because it just hurts and I'm not going anywhere. Thinking about going to the gym is making me feel like shit today."

This can be with anything that pertains to your goals. Here's one that has to do with this process specifically:

"I feel like acknowledging these feelings just makes me feel shitty about myself. The more I write this stuff down, the more I feel like I'm opening up a can of worms that's showing me just how insecure I really am."

And heads up, the first few months of any skill really do tend to suck.... so this feeling probably will come up for you. It's completely normal.

Once you've created these sort of "negative affirmations," you want to start to rewrite them.

Re-write "I want to skip the gym today" as "I'm going to set the intention to let go of how I feel and show up to the gym regardless."

That next part of "I'm not making progress" becomes "I know that the process of phyiscal transformation tends to be slow, so I'm not going to gauge how I LOOK as a measure of success, but instead take pride in being consistent."

The deeper you go, the better you'll get. And you'll notice just writing this, just reading it.... you automatically feel better.

You can also simplify the affirmation to be more believable, if it helps.

For example, If "I am supremely jacked and strong and all the girls love me" isn't something you can just hammer into your brain.... take it a few notches down until it's something you can comfortably read to yourself.

"I am putting in the work, and based on what I know about other people's fitness journeys, the consistent commitment to making progress is going to get me to some awesome results."

So on so forth.

This is subconscous reprogramming 101. It just takes practice.

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There are infinite strategies, and there are a lot of tools I can hook you up with to help you make more and more progress. For now, if you start to practice this you'll be building a powerful relationship with your inner voice that will inevitably lead you to the tools and systems you need to succeed.

And if you want guidance, click here to schedule a consult with me. First one is always free.