75 Hard Challenge – Day 35

I’m about halfway through the 75 Hard Challenge, so I thought I’d share my progress and thoughts on the program so far. For those of you who haven’t heard about Andy Frisella’s 75 day plan for getting strong. I wrote a bit about the intensity of the program and an overview in a blog post a few days ago. If you’re interested in learning what it’s all about, check that one out first.

So, now to the progress. 35 days into this and I have a lot of adjectives to describe how I feel. Here’s a general list:

Amazing
Proud
Influential
Big
Improved
Achy
Fit
Better

As I mentioned in my original post, it’s definitely not easy and there are a lot of aches and pains that accompany this program. But, those aches and pains are indicators of growth and that’s exactly the goal when you start 75 Hard. I’ll get down into the detail of those adjectives I’ve described above in my progress update below, but one question I have for you is – if you could consistently do something for 75 days knowing that at the end of it there’s a 100% guarantee of even a slight improvement in your mental and physical health, would you do it? I’ll let you think about that for a few minutes.

Physical Progress on 75 Hard

According to a lot of articles out there, working out twice a day is not always the best for your body. And I agree! You have to listen to what’s going on with your muscles and you need time to recover. It’s proven that during recovery is actually when your body is doing the most growing. But, don’t for one moment think that it means you can’t be active more than once a day.

Sometimes low-impact, easy activity is better than nothing. Also, with the right alternation of muscle groups, you can workout pretty much every day twice without working out the same muscle group too soon.

Physically, I think I may be in the best shape I’ve been since high school. I am more of an athlete than I ever was and I’m leaning into that belief. Part of this program is that it reprograms you to think differently about what you’re doing to and for your body. Eating has become a science. Working out has become a career.

When I say I feel amazing – I mean I feel clear of mind, focused, energized, more capable and stronger than ever. When I say I feel proud – I feel like I am confident and able to showcase the hard work I’ve put into my body. Sure, I’m achy, this is super tough. I have to refuel and think about vitamins and foods that are going to help me replenish and rebuild. These are all ways that in just 35 days I’ve experienced complete transformation. And I say transformation because honestly, I never had this will power before. I’m consciously noticing my body changing, my fat melting, my muscles becoming more visible, and my eating habits becoming more of unconscious decisions.

Mental Progress on 75 Hard

What’s even better about the impact that 75 hard has on our bodies is that it truly impacts our brains. I crave the motivation and the hype I get from reading and improving my mentality. Each day I wake up ready to read my identity statements, watch inspirational videos and get motivated to improve.

I’m currently reading Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill. (Side note: one of the requirements of 75 Hard is to read at least 10 pages a day.) Hill expresses one way that people are capable of achieving more money and more success that is probably the number one thing I’ve struggled with my whole life – belief.

What’s amazing with 75 Hard is that I’ve really changed my mentality to accept what is mine. I have cast aside any negative self talk and replaced it all with positive self talk. This positive self talk has led me to finally figuring out how to believe – really believe. I’m not talking about the type of “wishful thinking” belief that most people go around claiming to have. I’m talking about “deep down, I’ve got a fire within me, this is an unshakable truth” kind of belief.

It’s been 35 days and I SWEAR, I’ve affirmed and manifested a completely new life. I undoubtedly look back at my life just last month and think to myself how drastically different it is compared to this moment. I do plan to go deeper into this topic in the coming weeks, but I will leave it at this.

When I say I feel influential – I mean I feel like I have the power to change the world. When I say I feel big – I mean I feel like I am the greatest, no one can knock me down. When I say I feel better – I mean I feel like I’ve reached a wonderful place in my life where I am improving every day.

The progress I’m making on 75 Hard is just that. It’s progress. Isn’t that what we’re all after? Wouldn’t just some progress every day make you feel good about your life?

Motivation Programming

What is the difference between a motivation program and motivation programming? As I dive deeper into the world of positive psychology, motivation, identity creation and the concepts that drive us as humans to achieve our ultimate goals, I have focused on a few terms at a time to break down and discover. Today, I simply wanted to learn a little bit more about motivation and its uses.

Defining Motivation

Wikipedia probably has the best explanation of the term motivation.

“Motivation is a driving factor for actions, willingness, and goals. These needs, wants or desires may be acquired through influence of culture, society, lifestyle, or may be generally innate.”

So through this definition we have ourselves two versions of driving factors that influence our lives – intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations. Intrinsic is something we desire internally. Extrinsic is something that externally rewards us. You can tell if it’s an intrinsic motivation or an extrinsic motivation by asking yourself from where the desire stems and what you’re getting in return.

Motivation is something we use every single day. We may not even realize that most of the actions we take are just results of motivations pulling and pushing us in different directions. The greatest thing about motivation though is that you can use it to your advantage when you realize how to manipulate it on your own accord.

Using Motivation

You wake up any given day and you have to “motivate” yourself to get moving. Maybe it’s the idea of getting a paycheck at the end of the week that motivates you or the desire to get that next promotion. Some people are motivated by the desire to want change for their family. Others are motivated to seek a better physical condition whether that’s internally or externally. Whatever these motivations are, they usually are inherent in our actions. We sort of let the motivations unconsciously take us through each action.

Unsurprisingly, due to our need for immediacy and value, we expect motivation to just work when we really need it. Otherwise, there isn’t a single thought we put around what is motivating us to do one thing over another.

This reminds me a lot of people who talk about praying only in situations when they need God. They say they are regretful that they neglect their relationship with God most days, only reaching out to Him when needed. Motivation is very similar. We tend to forget that we need motivation to accomplish our goals. So, we only rely on it when we think we really need it.

Needing Motivation

When I looked up “motivation program” in my web browser, I found a really interesting search results page. Every single item on the first page related to “Employee Motivation”. Why do we only think about motivation when it comes to work – work in the physical sense or work in the mental sense – athletes and employees?

And, it’s interesting to me that you can find countless articles about how employers can alter your actions by influencing your motivations. Think Google’s incentives to give all employees a reason to stay at work for longer hours. Think about maybe some of the benefits and incentives your employer gives you to stick around.

So, instead of letting others externally influence our motivations to do what they want, I thought about why we really need motivation in each day – to accomplish what WE want. The reality is, you can’t get where you need to go if you don’t get the motivation. That’s what your employer knows and they’re using it to their advantage!

Let’s then reframe this idea and think about “Motivation Programming”. Motivation programming is the new way to go about achieving your goals and accomplishing more in your day. It’s all about seeking the right motivation each day and programming your brain to crave it, seek it and follow it.

Daily Motivation Programming

Any new habit or routine is going to be difficult at first. You’re going to despise it for a little while and will even find yourself annoyed at the whole thing and ready to give up. However, you have to fight through it. Again, I’ll preach that our brains are constantly trying to get us to go back to what’s comfortable. Constantly deceiving us, our brains are tricky things, focused only on getting immediate satisfaction.

To get into a new frame of mind, try waking up every day and watching a motivational video or listening to a motivational podcast. Do this for a week straight and see how you feel. Do it when you don’t want to, then keep on going. Here are few great options to get started:

Ben Lionel Scott’s Weekly Motivation on Spotify

The Motivate App on the Apple App Store.

Motiversity on YouTube

Morning Affirmations to Change Your Day

I have a secret to share, the secret to claiming life’s gifts and achieving the rewards of each day… morning affirmations! I know I know, you’ve heard it before. You’ve tried them. You make an effort to get them done, but you can’t seem to stick to the routine or convince yourself they are true.

But that’s the thing about successfully finding your path to freedom and joy, it’s hard work. It’s telling yourself that even if you don’t want to, you will. Your desire to change must be stronger than your deceitful identity. See, your old “self” will always try to convince you that it’s not worth it. You will sabotage yourself over and over again, until you decide your stronger than your own self. Usually, it’s our own mind that is our biggest enemy, yet we don’t stay vigilant against it.

So, make it this easy for yourself. Decide today that you are going only focus so much on yourself that you have no time to focus on what other people are doing. There are no external competitor’s for the foreseeable future, only your internal self.

Copy and paste these affirmations into your notes on your phone or somewhere you can find easily each morning and read them. it only take a few minutes to rewire your brain.

10 Affirmations to Read Each Day

I AM grateful I AM happy.
I AM grateful I AM loved.
I AM grateful I AM optimistic.
I AM grateful I AM strong physically and mentally.
I AM grateful I AM committed to my friends, family and partner.
I AM grateful I AM disciplined to work hard.
I AM grateful I AM joyful and kind to others.
I AM grateful I AM learning and curious.
I AM grateful I AM welcoming money and wealth into my life.
I AM grateful I AM a representation of the hard work I put in every day.

These are very simple, but very powerful statements. If you’re feeling a little adventurous or maybe like you have other statements you would like to affirm in your life, then adapt these and change them to fit your needs.

You should be asking yourself the right questions to ensure you’re living life to the standards that you intend.

What am I willing to do today to reach my goals?
Who am I going to influence and impact with positivity?
How am I going to change the world and lives around me?

When you start to think about life in this way, it’s amazing what you can accomplish!

Identity – Discovery, Decisions, Determination

When it comes to your identity, you’ve probably heard of “identity theft” or “identity crisis” and you may have felt scared or anxious when thinking about these topics. What most people are scared to lose, they rarely stop to think about how it’s created and protected. I’m not talking about identity theft protection or ensuring your personal information isn’t leaked online, sure that’s important to us and we are triggered by the idea of losing our identity to the dangers of the world. Rather, I’m talking about the identity that forms your habits, thoughts and actions. This is the identity that someone couldn’t steal from us because it’s uniquely ours.

Identity is what drives your decision making. I talk a lot about conscious choices in this blog. Whether you’re making big life decisions or small daily choices, when you walk through life making them consciously you are honoring your identity. You’re saying in those moments that you know exactly who you are and what you stand for. You take action based on that understanding of yourself. But, what happens when you want to change? When you go from being a tv watcher to a gym goer, or you go from being a casual drinker to a sober friend. These are identity changes that we struggle to embrace and stick with.

See, I used to think I was lost. You may have also found yourself in this situation – wondering who you are, what your purpose is, and why you’re living this path. I used to question everything about my life, until recently when I listened to an amazing motivational video called Recreating your Identity.

Recreating Your Identity

In this video, the speaker talks about comfortability. He suggests that we all believe we are a certain person or on a certain life path because we are programmed to believe it is right for us and that we just need to embrace it and fall victim to it. He says that we look for change and we look for opportunities to grow, but our identity can actually get in our way. He says “your identity is going to literally go out of its way to deceive you, so that you go back to your old identity.” Isn’t it crazy to think our own self can get in the way of reaching a new potential. We’re tough beings…

But, he then goes on to talk about how we can recreate our identity, recreate who we are.

Consider the choice to be sober from drugs and alcohol. Consciously, I’ve not had alcohol in 30 days. But, a big part of my life has previously been to hang out with friends and family and enjoy a couple of drinks. We drink and dance, making a party out of any situation when we can be together. While I love that time with my family, drinking doesn’t need to be part of the equation to still be fun. However, I’ve sought comfortability in that. It’s familiar to me. Not participating scares me because it’s different.

But, as I learn to build my identity and become authentic and genuine to myself, this identity I create is just another conscious choice. In this motivational video that I watched, the speaker talks about going through four phases of transformation. These are:

Inception – the excitement stage: “ignorance on fire” you are so pumped up you are going on pure excitement
Deception – the moment of truth stage: “consciously incompetent” you may quit because you realize how hard it is to change
Transformation – the summit stage: “consciously competent” you are aware you’re getting results and you’ve made it through the hardest parts to see that things are actually working
Identity – the new you: “your new self” you have developed a whole new person and your new actions are now unconscious choices that you make every day

I like to think I’m in the Transformation stage of my new identity. With consistency and patience, I’m starting to make choices that are more in line with my new character and way of living. My new identity is just around the corner. I’m not sure how long the Transformation stage will need to last to finally be in that “unconscious competent” stage, but the key here is that you must make it through the Deception to get closer to change.

During those stages the conscious choices we make, as hard as they may be, are the most vital to creating lasting change. Today my mantra is to believe in my new identity and to consciously reinforce the actions and choices that make me who I AM.

Watch the full Recreate Your Identity video here, shared by No Limits.

What changes are you making to your identity? Leave a comment or find me on Instagram at IntentlyAmy.

How Affirmations Work

It’s difficult to see the science behind how affirmations work when you’re just starting out. In fact, most people – myself included when I first began – find it silly to express themselves in this way and rarely catch on to the magic for a prolonged period of time. If you’re like me, when you hear the word affirmations you probably think of that video of the little girl in her bathroom yelling into her mirror “I CAN DO ANYTHING GREAT!” I mean who wouldn’t, it’s adorable!

Want to jump in and get started with affirmations? Go to the end of this post for a daily affirmation tool you can use each day.

But, affirmations aren’t really like this….

Yesterday, I wrote an article about an interesting question I ask myself to realign my path toward the goals I want to achieve. The question is “what remarkably stupid things am I doing today that will ruin my life?” It helps me to see not the tasks I should be doing, but rather helps me evaluate the tasks I should not be doing. As I went on my day and began to think more about how this question leads me on my path, an empowering thought came to me.

“If I’ve been this blessed to experience so much of the world, so much giving, so much growth and success already in my life, then what God has in store for me next is just going to be unfathomably amazing…”

Like…. WOW. And, I don’t say this to rub into anyone’s face that things are going well for me and that I have success and happiness just flowing endlessly. The reality is that my life is probably just as ordinary as others. A lot of people are probably much more blessed than I am. But, I am profoundly grateful for all that I have. That thought I had proved to me that I really do believe that abundance and joy are not just coming for me, but they already are here. The belief I have is like a fire in me that no one can put out.

This is how affirmations work. Affirmations rework your brain to cause fierce optimism and positivity. I love that word fierce to describe the outcome of affirmations. It means “furiously eager or intense.” Can you stop fierce? I don’t think so. You can try, but it would take a lot of effort. And, so affirmations every day – simple positive phrases that you can listen to and say each day work to make you believe what maybe you didn’t know you could believe in before.

If you don’t believe that this could work for you, I challenge you to just try it.

An Easy Daily Affirmation

Each morning for the next week, wake up and say this to yourself:

I love myself.
I am grateful I am strong and confident.
I am grateful I am blessed and successful.

After 7 days, leave me a comment or DM me on Instagram @IntentlyAmy and tell me how you feel. If you’re not fiercely believing these statements and feeling their impact then keep going.

Change Your Perspective: Ask Not What Should I Do, But What Shouldn’t I Do

The best question you can ask yourself today is “what remarkably stupid things am I doing today to ruin my life?” Is that dramatic enough for you? Ruin is BIG word, but really we don’t fully understand the impact of our decisions until they’ve slapped us in the face. As I reflect on this question, it’s actually really simple for me to see that a simple change in my perspective can completely change myself.

This whole internal conversation was spurned by a consideration I had about what the difference is between perception and perspective. Perception is your interpretation of a situation. Whereas perspective is your view on a situation. Perspective is guided by your beliefs and attitudes and isn’t what you take away but rather what you bring to the table.

Consider what it takes to get motivated to accomplish your goals. Let’s use fitness as an example. You see that super fit, healthy image of a person that makes you feel a lot of different emotions. Perhaps, you see that image or person and think to yourself how badly you wish you could look that way. Maybe it evokes want, or guilt, or shame. Maybe it inspires you to go for a run or hit the gym. But, rarely are we thinking about that positive image when we’re in a compromising situation that we know will keep us from hitting our goals.

Instead, during those moments when we’re tempted by a donut or a big, unhealthy pizza that we know will just sabotage our diet, our will power crumbles. I don’t about you, but I don’t just carry magical motivation cues everywhere I go. Finding motivation in a time of what feels like crisis isn’t really my go-to. But, what if we were motivated by what we don’t want and our perspective is just skewed.

What if we saw these unhealthy habits and our view on it wasn’t that it was a delicious meal guaranteed to deliver a hit of endorphins and make my tastebuds explode with flavors? What if we thought instead that the pizza or donut is going to RUIN MY LIFE. How? Well, first it will clog my arteries or inject me huge increase in glucose levels. Then, I may get diabetes or start to gain fat around my belly that eventually causes a heart attack. That could lead to me in the hospital or maybe even premature death.

Ok, this is a very extreme example that doesn’t happen that fast usually, but let us for a moment think about how our brains are wired to think about the foods we eat in those moments. Shifting your perspective and asking yourself simply how you’re contributing to negativity or life-ruining consequences could save you from the rollercoaster of pleasure-seeking decisions that actually in the end do not provide you with any true value.

Sticking with the fitness example, now imagine looking at that desirable image of what you wish you looked like and thinking to yourself that it’s not too far off from reality. Your perspective shifts and now you’re not thinking about all the hard things you have to do to achieve that – lift weights, workout, eat healthy, but rather you are looking through a new lens of what you shouldn’t do. Suddenly, you’re making better decisions by recognizing that donuts are actually not all that good, pizza is kind of greasy and makes you feel bloated, sitting down all day makes you feel more tired, drinking a soda gets you all jittery and then makes you crash.

You simply asked yourself – what remarkably stupid things am I doing today that could ruin my life? Suddenly those things seem silly and unimportant. The best takeaway I had from reading that question to myself is that sometimes it’s just too hard to resist temptations thinking about the ways that I could make better decisions. But, when I look at it in terms of what stupid decisions I’m making and their consequences, it can be very eye opening and inspiring.

If you’re interested in exploring more on “changing your perspective”, check out this powerful other example.

I hope this helps you too! Share your thoughts in the comments or drop me a DM on Instagram @IntentlyAmy.