Hey there,
Here are 3 things I’ve learned and/or expanded on this week.
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Leave Your Phone Behind
This week I worked with someone who forgot his phone at home. At the beginning of the shift there was a conversation of how we were going to manage to move towards his place to pick it up. We weren’t able to make it happen. For 12 hours he didn’t have his phone.
How would you feel in this situation? Would you feel anxious, annoyed, or frustrated? Most of us would feel all three. Most of us would probably let it ruin our day and affect how we perform our job.
Leaving your phone behind might actually be a blessing in disguise. Not all the time of course.
When you leave your phone behind, several benefits reveal themselves.
You’ll have improved focus and productivity. Unless your personal cell phone is a significant part of your job, you’ll likely find that you get far less distracted and can focus more on the tasks at hand.
You’ll have enhanced social interactions. When you do have some free time, most of us bury our heads in our phones. When we do this we miss out on a ton of possible social interactions that are happening around us.
You’ll feel more relaxed and have greater mental clarity. At first you probably won’t. But after a few hours, the constant information overload that comes from staring at your phone all day will lead to a calmer mind.
You’ll have increased mindfulness. You’ll be more present in each moment. You’ll be able to feel, see, and hear the things around you better. You’ll also have a greater awareness of your internal sensations and feelings.
Leave your phone behind every once in a while. Try it on walks, out with friends and family, or even at work.
External Validation Vs. Internal Drive
We do a lot of things each day. Most things are routine and habitual. Some things are more spontaneous and in the moment.
What drives you to do the things you do? When was the last time you thought about it?
For most people the motivation behind their actions comes from a place of seeking external validation and approval from others. We grow up constantly trying to do this with our parents.
This can lead you to doing a lot of things that you really don’t want to be doing. There’s a mindset shift that you can make which will lead to you doing more things that you want to be doing and less things that you don’t. I’m not saying that you’ll ever be completely free of doing things you don’t feel like doing, because that’s almost certainly not possible.
You want to shift from seeking external validation and approval from others to more internal motivators that dictate the things you do.
Your internal drive is made up of a few different components including
- Your curiosity
- Your identity
- Your purpose
- Your passions
Make a list of the things you do each day, habitual or not. Do they fit within one of these components of internal drive or are you doing it just to seek some sort of validation or approval from others?
This isn’t to say that you should be a selfish person and not do things for others. Because serving others can be one of the most fulfilling aspects of your life. But your desire to serve others should be coming from an internally driven place.
You’ll get a more authentic and fulfilling experience in life if you stop letting your desire for external validation and approval from others dictate your actions.
More Growth From Leg Extension
For a long time I thought that leg extensions were just a trash exercise for growing your quads. I was getting amazing pumps, for sure. But I wasn’t getting any soreness and I felt like I wasn’t really seeing any growth after weeks of high volume training with them.
I’ve changed my mind significantly on the leg extension. With some good technique adjustments I’ve gone from almost no growth to a significant amount of growth.
Here are the 2 major technique adjustments I’ve made to get more growth from leg extensions:
- Put the seat all the way to the back. This allows for a greater amount of hip extension in the exercise. It seems that the more hip extension you can get, the more growth you’re going to get in the rectus femoris, which is the quadriceps muscle that crosses the hip joint. This is because it gives you a greater stimulus in a more stretched position for the muscle.
- Push past the deep painful burning sensation. In my last weekly journal I talked about fear of pain in the gym. The leg extension is probably the number one exercise that people stop way too short of failure on. I was definitely stopping way too short of failure on them in the past. If you stop when you start to feel the burn, you’re going to be cutting your gains short. You probably have many more reps in the tank once that painful burning sensation begins.
Peace friend,
Jamie
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