Inside the Mind of a Champion

 

       “I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion”

                                                                                                                     ~ Billie Jean King

 Four characteristics of a Champion mindset

“It’s not the will to win that matters…everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”                                                                                    

                                                                                                     ~  Paul “Bear” Bryant

• Motivated

• Confident in abilities, training, preparation

• Manages pressure well

• Uses well-drilled techniques to prepare

1. Motivation

“Motivation will almost always beat mere talent” ~Norman Ralph Augustine

• Goals define an athlete

• Goals setting (SMART PRINCIPLE)

Specific:  Define your goal in exact language.  This is where you turn a dream into reality.  This is the mental space that you begin to populate with the tangible stuff, “I will score a touchdown every game”… “I will score a goal every game”…”I will lose 1 Ib. per week”.

Measurable:  Set forth your goals and their intermediate benchmarks in a way that can be actually measured, both at the end and at every step of the way.  The measurement could be increased speed, increased bench press, or increased muscle mass.

Achievable:  Is it possible to reach your goal within the set period, given the resources that you will need?   Don’t hope that something will show up…make sure you have the resources, or at least access to the resources to make the goal achievable.   An unachievable goal will only lead to frustration…that will turn you off on the whole goal-setting process.

Realistic:  Is your goal based on reality, or is it a fantasy?  An unrealistic goal is unlikely to be met and can only lead to your disappointment. If it’s realistic, you can form a mental picture of your goal.  Once you have that mental picture, a picture you can really be a part of, your goal will have a real life.  A week after starting your program, I don’t suggest that your goal setting include “I will increase my bench by 20 pounds the first week”…or… “Im going to lose 30 lbs. in the first month”.

Timed:  It is crucial to place a time limit for achieving a goal… otherwise, it remains a dream. Timed goals lend themselves to personal journals and recorded performance records.  Think of hospital fundraising campaigns, which are often accompanied by a big bar chart right by the entrance.  Every week or month, or whatever period is appropriate, you can gauge the progress.

2. Self-confidence origins: 

“Self Confidence is the strength of the belief in your abilities to execute”  

• Global (your abilities and team)

• Task specific (ability, footwork, hit the goal)

• Experience (building on practice and past games)

• Modelling “Blueprint” (model a player…a role model)

3. Anxiety Management

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength”

                                                                                                 ~Charles Spurgeon

Anxiety can undermine all performance. (In business, athletics, and personal goals)

- Relaxation techniques:

- Breathing

- Stretching

- Music

- Meditation

4. Self – Talk:

“Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t, you’re right”

Observation….

• Imagery…. (Visualize, Focus, Important cues)

• Self talk…. (Motivational ….”come on, you can do this”)

• Relaxation (ex. Calm, breath, relax)

Conclusion:

The Mind of Champion is developed. 

When things go badly for you (as they will), remember, you have a choice! You can shut down if you want...or… you can rise above with your newly acquired visualization techniques.  By changing the old paradigm of doubt, negativity, and lack of confidence…. into the motivated, focused, confident mindset that refuses to fail…creates the pathway to think and perform like a champion!

“There's always the motivation of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a champion needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond winning”

                                                                                                                                 ~Pat Riley

 

 

 

 

 

Superhuman Habits

(Book by Tynan)               

                      

                                 "At first you create your habits, and then your habits create you”

 

1 What is a Habit?

A habit is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur unconsciously.

In the American Journal of Psychology it is defined in this way:

"A habit, from the standpoint of psychology, is a more or less fixed way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience.”

Will power is finite…you only have a certain amount. So we have to use our limited amount of will power to create new habits.

Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form because the behavioral patterns we repeat are imprinted in our neural pathways, but it is possible to form new habits through repetition.

2. Don’t miss a day!

Consistency…set up habits to do daily.

If you miss a day…then set up “the habit” as the most important thing to do the next day.

What if you miss two days?  DON’T MISS TWO DAYS!

Set boundaries. There are certain things you will not allow.

3. Use your mistakes.

“Perfection is not reality”

No bodies perfect.  Don’t tell yourself, “I am bad at this”….that becomes a mindset.

Say, “I AM BETTER THAN THIS!”

“Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t, you’re right”  ~ Henry Ford

 4. Focus on the Process.

If you want to stress yourself out when it comes to weight loss, hop on the scales every day. Measure your progress by the results you’re getting….go ahead…make the results as short term as you can. Be all about immediate results.

That is the quickest path to giving up. You’re not going to see the results as fast as you think you should be seeing them, and it’s not working, so you give up.

Focus on the Process.  Here are some things to ask yourself….

~ Am I doing what I said I was going to do to lose weight?

~ Am I preparing my food ahead of time?

~ Am I Exercising?

~ Is my “new habit” still a priority?

~ Am I staying within my boundaries?

~ Am I using my mistakes to learn new lessons?

~ Have I continued to focus on the process?

The outcome of our success will be a natural by-product of the process.

Make a commitment to the practice…the process.

5. Negative Habits

Identify my negative habits.

~ Staying up too late.

~ Wasting time. (Not planning)

~ Eating out

~ Too much time on the internet.

~ Procrastination.

Notice the triggers that moves us…replace the negative habits with positive habits.

Notice the consequences, so that we can see the value to change.


"The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating - in work, in play, in love.  The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation.  To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life."
 
   

 

                                  

 

 

 

The Diet Circle

                        “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

                                                                                                       ~ George Santayana

 

The Devil’s Circle by Stephen Batchelor

"A man lost in a desert can trudge for hours through the sands until he sees ahead of him an unmistakable line of foot prints leading to the horizon. But his joy on finding a trail turns to despair when he realizes the tracks are his own. Since one limb was a few millimeters longer than the other or habit or injury inclined him to step fractionally further with one leg, he consistently veered to the right or left. Without a path or landmark to guide him, he traced a vast circle while convinced he was walking in a straight line.”

This describes life’s tendency to repeat itself…

“Like someone lost in a desert, I feel compelled to struggle ahead, unaware that a devil’s circle will only bring me back to where I began. Through the years, I return again and again to the same stock obsessions. I flick through the tomb of my achievements in the blink of an eye only to feel that nothing has really happened. I am still the anxious and puzzled child who set out on the journey.”

How many times has this occurred in our efforts to lose weight?

“No matter what experience has taught us in the past, we insist on making the same mistakes again and again. A devil's circle is addictive. It raises you to dizzy heights of rapture only to bring you crashing down into thoughts of despair. Yet I do not hesitate to start the diabolic cycle again. I find it hard to resist the urge to go through the familiar and comforting motions of habit, even when I know that the end result will be the anxious craving to repeat the experience again.”

A path leads into unknown territory, whereas a circle goes over the same ground again and again. The enticing avenues that a devil’s circle offers are not paths at all.

“New paths are not familiar and secure. The new patterns we will create are not as stable or predictable as they once appeared. In the devil's circle, not only does the devil block the way to freedom, he tricks one into following paths that appear promising, but lead only to frustration and disillusion.”

Batchelor concludes… "In the end, we humans are the only adequate metaphor for the Devil"

Wal-Mart Wisdom

                                     "Claim truth where you find it” ~ Rob Bell                                                                                                                       

 Anyone who’s close to me knows that I take great pride in my psychological journey toward calming myself in emotional situations. The process of behavioral change has almost become addicting….

Change one thing about myself…. and then proceed on to another. 

But….even through all my Philosophy, Buddha, Tolle, and endless psychology readings, my ugly monster will occasionally reappear.

Especially at Wal-Mart!

To make a long story short…I went in to Wal-Mart last Sunday at 5:00 pm, only to come out at 7:00 pm.

Now you’re problem thinking, “two hours….that’s normal”….and in most cases that’s true…but for me, that was for a bag of Dog Food and one container of coffee.

The rest of the time was spent waiting 25 minutes at the sporting goods area…20 minutes at the jewelry department…and 25 min in the 20 items or less line…only to have the lane closed when I reached the checker.

"I’m sorry sir…It’s my lunch break”

At this point, there were not enough positive affirmations in the self-help world that could sooth the rumblings of my childhood beast.

I took a deep breath… and then proceeded toward the checker lines from hell.

There was a lady in front of me with Planet of the Apes’ tattoos all up and down her arm (of course Cesar was prominently displayed at the top).

In front of her was a small child of about 10 years old (this is sarcasm) jumping up and down in a buggy. His mom was frantically feeding him a package of sugary skittles to calm to down.

You guessed right…it didn’t work.

Amongst all this chaos, I couldn’t help but notice the checker. She was a small sweet looking lady with an extremely peaceful look on her face.

Throughout this whole process….. Kids jumping…..mothers with the wrong coupons….money change needed…. she never broke her smile.

I finally arrived at her station with my one bag of dog food and my one container of coffee and said, “Whew….I don’t know how you do it!”

She replied, “Do what?”…..she seemed very confused by my statement.

I replied, “Work in all this chaos”

She returned to her sweet little peaceful smile and replied, “It only affects you if you allow it”.

All I could say was thank you.

This “Aha” moment was a great reminder that real peace is being able to accept what is. Acceptance simply means recognizing your “ugly monster” voice and rejecting it.

Acknowledging that the only person we can change is ourselves enables us to do this.

There is a lot of negative energy and craziness in this world, but we can all learn to live with inner peace.  If your intention is strong and consistent… it will happen.

Outwardly, nothing changes… peace comes from within.

 

The Four Noble Truths of Buddha

~ Anguish…Life is Pain

~ Acknowledge…Acceptance

~ Cessation…Stop

~ New Path…Peace

 

 

 

Juvenile Sea Squirt

 "The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore, so it eats it!"

                                                                                                                          ~ Daniel Dennett

 

How often have we seen people wandering through the sea of life searching for meaning….searching for a suitable place to cling to and make a home for life.  For this task, he/she has a rudimentary need waiting to be satisfied. When these people find this place, they dig in so deep that discerning thought is no longer required. At that point, critical reflection and rational dialogue dies within them while they live….or should I say, while they exist?

Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny

Ok…I know you’re wondering….. “What the heck?”

If you will, give me 227 words to explain.
I know we’re all pattern seeking creatures, but there is something that happens to me every time I listen to people speak, or any time I read a book.  I can’t help but see words/stories in metaphors.

An example….Someone said the other day, “we’re never there”…I immediately thought, “That’s because we’re always here…right here…right now.”

So where am I going with this?

I’ve recently been reading about bugs and parasites. Every sentence I read brings forth a new perspective about human behavior.  There are certain behaviors in other species that appear to be recapitulated (brief summary) in humans.

So this is where the title comes from. Let’s look at the definition….

Ontogeny - The origin and development of an individual organism from embryo to adult.

Recapitulates - To give a brief summary of something….to reiterate.

Phylogeny - the evolutionary history of a kind of organism.

( By the way, this theory has been disproven)

The easiest explanation for this hypothesis is that in developing from embryo to adult, animals go through stages resembling or representing successive stages in the evolution of their remote ancestors.

I would like to share 3 stories of different species behaviors (juvenile sea squirt, moth, and parasite) that appear to be recapitulated in humans.

Thanks for listening to my pattern seeking mind!

 

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

                                             

                   "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge”

                                                                                                                      ~Darwin

 “The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes.

 Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell University conclude, "The miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others".

 Reasoning errors aside, we know that people often acquire their beliefs about the world for reasons that are more emotional and social rather than intellectual discernment. Wishful thinking, self-serving bias, in-group loyalties, and self-deception can lead to enormous departures from the norm of rationality.

Most beliefs are evaluated against a background of other beliefs and often in the context of an ideology that a person shares with others. Consequently, people are rarely as open to revising their views as reason would seem to dictate.

On this front, the internet has simultaneously enabled two opposing influences on belief…On one hand it has reduced intellectual isolation by making it more difficult for people to remain ignorant of the diversity of opinions on any given subject. But, it has allowed bad ideals to multiply… as anyone with a computer and too much time on his hands can broadcast his misguided beliefs and often enough find an audience.   

So while knowledge is increasingly open-source, ignorance is too (The irony of knowledge).

It is also true that the less competent a person is in a given domain, the more he will tend to overestimate his abilities. This often produces an ugly fusion of confidence and ignorance that is very difficult to correct for. 

Conversely, those who are more knowledgeable about a subject tend to be acutely aware of the greater expertise of others. This creates a rather disjointed dialogue in public discourse…one that is generally on display whenever an exercise physiologist speaks with appropriate cautiousness about controversies in his field, or about the limits of his own understanding…while his opponents (TV fitness experts, medical weight loss experts, internet weight loss gurus, and celebrities who have lost weight) will often make wildly unjustified assertions about which diet plan or exercise program can be inserted into the space provided.

Thus… one often finds people with no scientific nutritional training speaking with apparent certainty about the nutritional implications of specific diets and weight loss products.

So, the question becomes…  “What should I believe, and why should I believe it?”

Believe a proposition because it is well supported by theory and evidence…believe it because it has been experimentally verified…believe it because a generation of smart people have tried their best to falsify it and failed…believe it because it is true.

This is the normal cognition as well as the basis of any scientific mission statement. As far as our understanding of nutrition is concerned…there are no “true” nutritional facts without scientific verification.

 

“We must pursue knowledge without any interference of our emotions. Only then will true knowledge manifest itself in reality”.

                                                                        What the bleep do we know?

 

                                                                                                                         

The Power of Habit

“It’s not who you are that holds you back; it’s who you think you’re not.”

                                                                                      ~Dr. Hanoch McCarty


I have just finished reading “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg. In his thought provoking book, Duhigg skillfully displays the uniquely human interaction between conscious decisions and sub-conscious habits that define us as individuals.
Duhigg referred to the basic structure of our habits as “The Habit Loop.” 

“The Habit Loop” is comprised of three components… 

~ Cue (emotional stimuli…stress, anxiety, etc.)

~Routine (the movement/ behavior that follows the cue)

~Reward (What are the payoff/consequences?)

(This is also known as the ABC’s of behavioral modification)

Think about the chain reactions of our nutritional habits…In the presence of stimuli (stress) which has accompanied a movement (food) will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement. In other words, what you do in the presence of stress will tend to be repeated if the situation recurs.

So this three step process should be easy to change… right? … Just observe the cue that elicits the undesirable act…preform another act in the presences of that cue.

While I agree with Duhigg on all of his assertions (I do them), unfortunately, it’s just not that easy. The first step is the willingness to acknowledge the cue.

“You cannot change what you do not acknowledge” ~ Dr. Phil  

~What happens if we don’t want to recognize the cue?

~What if recognizing the cue means taking responsibility for our actions?

~What if acknowledging ourselves exposes our weaknesses?

~What if becoming aware of this stimulus presents uncomfortable memories?

Oprah Winfrey once said… “The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free”

As we look within our own world, we scrutinize most things…the price of a car…the best flat screen TV’s…the most economical plan for our I-phones. But when it comes to our habits, we carefully avoid/repress examining the emotions that brings forth the cues of our behavior.

To keep cues at bay, we frantically struggle to fill every moment of our day with some form of diversion…work, computers, television, movies, radio, sports, food, alcohol, drugs, parties. Perhaps we distract ourselves because looking at our lives confronts us with our lack of meaning, our disappointments, our loneliness, and the unbelievably briefness of our time here on this planet.

Pascal may have been right when he observed … “if our condition were truly happy we should not need to divert ourselves from thinking about it…the sole cause of our unhappiness is that we do not know how to sit quietly in our room.”

Maybe the reason we find it difficult to sit quietly and examine the cues that create our behavior, is because doing so makes us anxious?

But only until we examine our lives, we can do little to make it less unhappy and more fulfilling.

"Know thyself… The unexamined life is not worth living” ~ Socrates    

It is my hope that by discussing these issues/cues, we can bring awareness to that which incapacitates our ability to confront and overcome the obstacles that prevent us from living a full healthy life.

Habits aren’t our destiny…but our destiny will be determined by the habits we create.

"You are searching for the magic key that will unlock the door to the source of power; and yet you have the key in your own hands, and you may use it the moment you learn to control your thoughts."                                                                                                                     ~Napoleon Hill

Wake up America...The Dangers of Yoga

There have been some recent articles that have come out regarding the dangers of Yoga. ( i.e. bulging disk, shoulders etc.) That is not what this Blog is about. I think there are far more things to be concerned with that lie just beneath the surface J

Recently an acquaintance posted an article on facebook concerning the dangers of yoga, and I have to admit, my ignorance blinded me from the facts.

When faced with questions concerning the nature of reality and existence, many people turn to yoga for answers. A "Yoga program" is supposed to be a repository of some kind of knowledge/information, or state of being, which is desirable in the sense that it makes possible a higher, or fuller, or more authentic life than that which we normally live. We go to Yogis to learn about the so-called "meaning" of life, or to participate in rituals which we suppose will have some effect on the way we exist in the cosmos.

The assumption present in this way of thinking is twofold… first, it is implied that there is something that we do not know, yet need to know, in order to live our lives rightly, and second that communion with the “Yoga life”, the desire for which attracts people to yoga in the first place, is not our natural state, but needs to be attained, and even more importantly, needs the intermediary presence of another person (yogi guru), a belief system (any yoga program) or certain sacred/magical rites in order to exist at all.

This “covert yogi maneuvering” is the Devil in disguise.

This Blog message is a wakeup call for this great country that we are so blessed to live in. I am so tired of all of these twenty-four hour news stations trying to mislead us about the world we live in today. They (FOX, CNN, MSNBC, ESPN 2) continually imply that our greatest problems we face are the budget deficient, unemployment, education and slow 40 yard dash times at the NFL combine. They will even go so far as to making wild claims about Americans (college students…TCU) having a drug problem. These outlandish claims are nothing more than a smokescreen to hind the real threat…Yoga.

That’s right…Yoga.

Let me ask you a question…Do you think it is a coincidence that Yoga has grown in popularity at the same time that Obama came into office?  

I have done my own research from a non-biased perspective of the “coincidences’” of Obama and Yoga.

~They both were born outside of America

~Yoga ends with a…Obama ends with a

~They’re both sneaky and have a hidden agenda

~Yoga is done in a dark room…Obama has dark skin

~They both make you sweat                                                              

So…do you think all of these similarities are a Coincidence?

Take a look at some of these other so called “coincidences”…

~Downward dog…doggy style

~In Spanish, Yo means I…ga means gay…translation…I gay

~Take the Y and move it to the back of yoga…ogay

~Have you ever heard a yoga instructor say anything bad about a gay person? (I don’t think so)

~Obama is for gay marriage…yogis don’t say anything bad about gays…again…coincidence?

~People who take yoga wear Lotus symbols on all of their cloths…this is the sub-conscious anchoring of a belief system.

Yogis (and Obama) want you to relax your mind so that evil can slip in and take you over. You don’t have to believe me…H. G. Bohn in his 1855 “Hand-book of Proverbs” proposed… “An idle mind is the Devils workshop.”

Adding to my frustration is all of these happy facebook quotes saying, “Come in and relax with our yoga family” … “a calm mind leads to a calm body” … and the worst… “Relax your mind and open your heart.” (Why do you think they want you to “open your heart”?)

Do you people not get it? If you can’t see what’s right in front of you, you’re either in serious denial or you’re just repressing the truth. (I know these are the same…It’s a joke)

Ok there it is…I’ve laid it all out. You can continue to be apathetic toward yoga and Obama, or you can speak out for this great country of freedom.

If I may quote Gandhi…“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not taking anymore”  

Peace

(I’m not sure if any of these facts are true…but they do support my position)

Hiding Things from Myself

        “Lying to ourselves is more ingrained than lying to others.” -Fyodor Dostoyevsky
             


It’s funny sometimes how the most enlightening words can come from such innocent moments.

Kim and I were watching TV this past weekend when a shout came from the back room…

“Mom…have you seen my shoes?”

(Konnor had misplaced his shoes again)

Kim responded…. “No.”

“Dad…have you seen my shoes?”

I responded… “No.” Then I asked, “Why would mom or I know where your shoes are? You were the last to wear them”

Konnor yelled out, “found them”… “They were behind my door”

Konnor came walking through the living room and said, “Sometimes I feel like I’m trying to hide things from myself.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all be so insightful?

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

                                    

                                                "What a man can be, he must be”

                                                                                ~ Abraham Maslow

My last Blog focused on the anatomy of the mind. (Id, Ego, Super-ego…Brain stem, limbic system, and Neo cortex)

Now you may be wondering… “Why is he (Kelly) focusing on all this Id, ego, and psychological crap?”… “I just want to know how to eat right and how to exercise.”

(I have had several gym comments and emails complaining about my lack of nutritional/exercise input)

I have mentioned before that personal awareness precedes personal transformation. The overwhelming reason most of us fail is because we are ignorant of the hard wired biological drives and the psychological conditioning that is working against our efforts. Discussing food and exercise is pointless without understanding the traits that make us do what we do.

“We have met the enemy and he is us”

(Please be patient and continue to read my blog…I do have a plan, and eventually I will get to the nutrition and exercise information…When we are ready.)

Have you ever heard the phrase, “You have to know where you are before you can know where your going?”

I would like to proceed in our “Health” journey by fusing neural anatomy with our psychological needs. 

I think the best place is to begin with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

Abraham Harold Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American professor of psychology who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs. He stressed the importance of focusing on the positive qualities in people, as opposed to treating them as a 'bag of symptoms.”  ---Wikipedia

Maslow, unlike other psychologist, studied what he called “exemplary people” such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass rather than mentally ill or neurotic people, writing that… "The study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy."

Maslow studied the healthiest 1% of the college student population. Maslow's theory was proposed in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality.

Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs.

I personally believe that Maslow’s proposal is one of the most effective tools for understanding where you are in your level of psychological health. If you will be open, honest, and willing to learn…you will have the best possible chance for success when the

time comes for you to “take action” and move up the ladder in your hierarchy of needs.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

~ Physiological Needs

These include the most basic needs that are vital to survival, such as the need for water, air, food and sleep. Maslow believed that these needs are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy because all needs become secondary until these physiological needs are met.

~ Security Needs

People want to control and to have order in their lives, so this need for safety and security contributes largely to behaviors.

Some of the basic security and safety needs include: Financial security, heath and wellness, and safety against accidents and injury. Together, the safety and psychological levels of the hierarchy make up what is often referred to as the basic needs.

(Again these “basic needs” resemble the “id” that Freud referred to)

~ Social Needs

These include needs for belonging, love and affection. Maslow considered these needs to be less basic than physiological and security needs. Relationships such as friendships, romantic relationships and families help fulfill this need for companionship and acceptance, as does involvement in social, community or religious groups.

~ Esteem Needs

After the first three needs have been satisfied, esteem needs becomes increasingly important. These include the need for things that reflect on self-esteem, personal worth, social recognition and accomplishment.

(The security needs, social needs and esteem needs are limbic driven ego attachments)

~ Self-actualizing Needs

(Moving into the superego…The Neo-cortex)

This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Self-actualizing people are self-aware, concerned with personal growth, less concerned with the opinions of others and interested fulfilling their potential.

(Philosophy fans may recognize a similar theme from Nietzsche’s definition of Uberman…  (Supermen) “People who experiment with life and are constantly in the process of becoming something other (better) than what they once were.”)

Self-actualization people (supermen) are located at the peak of Maslow’s hierarchy… he described this high-level need in the following way.

"What a man can be, he must be.”

Maslow…“This need we may call self-actualization…It refers to the desire for self-fulfillment, namely, to the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming."

~ Characteristics of Self-Actualized People

Maslow also identified some of the key characteristics of self-actualized people:

~Acceptance and Realism: Self-actualized people have realistic perceptions of themselves, others and the world around them.

~Problem-centering: Self-actualized individuals are concerned with solving problems outside of themselves, including helping others and finding solutions to problems in the external world. These people are often motivated by a sense of personal responsibility and ethics.

~Spontaneity: Self-actualized people are spontaneous in their internal thoughts and outward behavior. While they can conform to rules and social expectations, they also tend to be open and unconventional.

~Autonomy and Solitude: Another characteristic of self-actualized people is the need for independence and privacy. While they enjoy the company of others, these individuals need time to focus on developing their own individual potential.

~ Continued Freshness of Appreciation: Self-actualized people tend to view the world with a continual sense of appreciation, wonder and awe. Even simple experiences continue to be a source of inspiration and pleasure.

~ Peak Experiences: Individuals who are self-actualized often have what Maslow termed peak experiences, or moments of intense joy, wonder, awe and ecstasy. “After these experiences, people feel inspired, strengthened, renewed or transformed.^”

Conclusion:

Personal transformation demands an awareness of one’s psychological health within our hierarchy of needs.

Transformation includes…

~ Acknowledging “Who I am”

~ Recognizing my place within “my” hierarchy of needs

~ Emphatically state how I want my life to move forward

Always remember that our physical health is a reflection of our emotional health. If you are seeking the “Holy Grail” of fitness…look no further. You truly posse’s power that you never dreamed of, and can use those powers the moment you become aware of your internal drives/urges and the external attachments they are paired with. There are no limitations in what you can accomplish except the limitations of your own personal awareness. 

"Here in your mind you have complete privacy. Here there's no difference between what is and what could be."  ~ Chuck Palahniuk

“That a man can change himself… and master his own destiny is the conclusion of every mind that is wide-awake to the power of right thought”.

                                                                        Christian D. Larson