Continuum Performance

BE ABOUT IT

Positive Self-Talk
Eric Belliveau • Dec 08, 2017

The topic I am going to address today can either be “heard” or just brushed off, that is up to you. And I am not just talking about what you are about to read but rather what you tell yourself. Have you given yourself a self-check lately and asked yourself how you are taking care of you? Sure maybe you schedule your workouts, appointments, go to work, make dinner, a pat on the back. But what is happening in between all of those? Often we fill our schedule’s so much that we forget to check in with our own thoughts and how we are speaking to ourselves throughout the day or week.

Fear, frustration, and failure are all overcome by faith, focus, forward motion, and follow-through

Let’s start with an easy example, when was the last time you were doing one of your least favorite exercises and you realized what was going on through your head. “I f*cking hate this,” “Whyyy Burpees,” or “I can’t do that.”

Why? Fear, Frustration, Failure. Because it shows a weakness, it’s hard, a little painful? It doesn’t matter what the reason, those thoughts are immediately registered and change your whole body composition and mindset. What if you simply changed your thought process? I used to hate (and I mean hate) pull ups. Those thoughts above were my go to when I was told to do them. Why? Well for me, because I SUCKED at them. No one wants to continually work on something when you know you can’t do it, plain and simple. For the longest time I resisted them. Then I decided to suck it up. I faced that frustration, changed my mindset, and turned it into a focus. I was not going to let myself continue to dread hearing the word “pulls ups” or go on saying I couldn’t do them. Being competitive with myself, I turned them into a challenge. I now look forward to practicing them and doing them because I know growth is on the other side. The improvement is worth the struggle. If you just continue to tell yourself you can’t do something, you’re right you won’t. When you leave a workout, work meeting, conversation, you name it, do you feel defeated or triumphant? If some days you jump to defeated, maybe consider you need failure in order to grow. Now that is something to be proud of.

Being tough needs to be a balanced act. If you are always beating yourself up, where will that leave you? Most likely it will prevent you from continuing on, trying harder, or even starting in the first place. Heck you’ll be a miserable person and no one will want to be around you. Once you start feeding your mind with productive thoughts it will spread to those around you. Think about how many people you run into or hold conversations with throughout the day. Often how we approach these conversations may set the tone for the day for whoever is engaged. How we receive them also leaves us feeling a certain way.

The same can apply the second you wake up. Tell yourself it’s not going to be a good day -guess what it’s not going to be. A coach gives you an exercise you struggle with and you take it personally, you’re the only one still taking that personally all day long. A friend gives you advice and you don’t consider it, you’re the one who still has the closed mindset. Stop yourself and think why are you reacting that way? If you turn all of those scenarios and thoughts into fuel rather than fear, you can completely change how you view them. Your coach is pushing you to because they believe in you. Your friend is trying to help you see all sides because they care. Even relating it back to Mike’s blog -why feel guilty for an entire week for eating a little bit more during the Holiday season when you can realize how lucky you are to even be able to have it? Just work harder in other areas. Same goes for if you constantly tell yourself you are not good at something, when you can simply realize how lucky you are to be able to be doing it.

When you take the time to move your thoughts in the forward motion, change will happen. You owe it to yourself to focus your energy in the right direction and follow-through to maintain it. Whether it be a personal goal you’ve been trying to achieve, a roadblock you’ve encountered, or simply a workout you’re working through try molding your outlook to a positive one. Turn your fear, frustration, and failure to success by changing your self-talk. Have some faith in yourself, you never know what you may be capable of.

The Meat Hangover

By Eric Belliveau • 07 Oct, 2020
When it comes to taking meat out of your diet, some people have the idea that they will only see positive changes immediately following this choice. While those positive changes are definitely part of the deal, so is an adjustment period for your body.

We're Trying

By Eric Belliveau • 23 Sep, 2020
We were all thrown on this crazy ride together. Emotions were running high but so were patience, empathy, inclusion, and respect. Most of us could rally behind the #WeAreInThisTogether manta. We wanted to do right by each other - donate to charities, lend a hand, check-in on one another. Do our part. As the days turn to weeks and the weeks into months these dispositions decayed rapidly. I know that this Quarantine order has been going on for a long time. I know that a great number of us do not agree on the why. I know an even greater number of us are “over it”. I am painfully aware of the difference of opinions surrounding the pandemic. It is impossible to NOT be aware of this. This leads us all to frustration, anger, resentment, and the feeling that you are not being heard. Very real and very human emotions! It is okay to feel this way. I am not only writing this from the perspective of a fellow struggling human. I do find myself struggling with everything I mentioned above. Not just daily but multiple times a day. My ability to focus has been challenged by my worry. My ability to create time for myself and focus on self-care has been derailed for fear of other things becoming more pressing. I work on this every day. I am not only writing this from the perspective of one of the business owners who were never given a playbook for this. For weeks on end I thought WTF happened to the business and how would our model need to change and remain viable, how each business owner had to either weather a period in which we were completely shut down or allowed to operate under capacity restrictions, etc. The unknown of what the timeline would bring and whether we would be able to continue our dreams or make an extremely difficult decision of not continuing. This still haunts every one of us daily. I AM very much writing this as a service provider! I am writing this as an impassioned human who genuinely loves what I do for a living. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to have built a career surrounding something I get excited about every day. I am making a stand for all of us that make their living in the service industry. To the receptionist, hostess, waiter, cook, dry cleaner, teacher, technician, barista, utility worker, automobile service technician… It is truly impossible to be inclusive of everyone here.  No one human mentioned above asked for this ‘situation’ we are in. We are sure as hell trying to provide a level of normalcy, service, care, and happiness to the lives in which we choose to serve. With added restrictions, added expense decreased capacity and the fear of being fined or shut down for doing it incorrectly, everyday.

The Meat Hangover

By Eric Belliveau • 07 Oct, 2020
When it comes to taking meat out of your diet, some people have the idea that they will only see positive changes immediately following this choice. While those positive changes are definitely part of the deal, so is an adjustment period for your body.

We're Trying

By Eric Belliveau • 23 Sep, 2020
We were all thrown on this crazy ride together. Emotions were running high but so were patience, empathy, inclusion, and respect. Most of us could rally behind the #WeAreInThisTogether manta. We wanted to do right by each other - donate to charities, lend a hand, check-in on one another. Do our part. As the days turn to weeks and the weeks into months these dispositions decayed rapidly. I know that this Quarantine order has been going on for a long time. I know that a great number of us do not agree on the why. I know an even greater number of us are “over it”. I am painfully aware of the difference of opinions surrounding the pandemic. It is impossible to NOT be aware of this. This leads us all to frustration, anger, resentment, and the feeling that you are not being heard. Very real and very human emotions! It is okay to feel this way. I am not only writing this from the perspective of a fellow struggling human. I do find myself struggling with everything I mentioned above. Not just daily but multiple times a day. My ability to focus has been challenged by my worry. My ability to create time for myself and focus on self-care has been derailed for fear of other things becoming more pressing. I work on this every day. I am not only writing this from the perspective of one of the business owners who were never given a playbook for this. For weeks on end I thought WTF happened to the business and how would our model need to change and remain viable, how each business owner had to either weather a period in which we were completely shut down or allowed to operate under capacity restrictions, etc. The unknown of what the timeline would bring and whether we would be able to continue our dreams or make an extremely difficult decision of not continuing. This still haunts every one of us daily. I AM very much writing this as a service provider! I am writing this as an impassioned human who genuinely loves what I do for a living. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to have built a career surrounding something I get excited about every day. I am making a stand for all of us that make their living in the service industry. To the receptionist, hostess, waiter, cook, dry cleaner, teacher, technician, barista, utility worker, automobile service technician… It is truly impossible to be inclusive of everyone here.  No one human mentioned above asked for this ‘situation’ we are in. We are sure as hell trying to provide a level of normalcy, service, care, and happiness to the lives in which we choose to serve. With added restrictions, added expense decreased capacity and the fear of being fined or shut down for doing it incorrectly, everyday.
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