Mental liquidity.
🧠 Plus: Stupid bravery, breaking free from the herd and YouTube for self-improvement.
Hey — It’s Dean.
Welcome to the 134th consecutive edition of the newsletter.
This is also my 1353rd day in a row showing up to try and complete all 10 of my daily essential habits.
By repeating this “perfect” day 1353 times, I have managed to create something pretty remarkable for myself.
It’s never too late to make today Day 1 so you can create something remarkable for yourself 100, 1000 and 10,000 days from now.
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Here are 5 things over the past week that had a profound impact on how I think, eat, train and live.
Steal shamelessly so they can do the same for you.
1/ Insight I had.
“Controlling your behaviour is hard. Controlling your behaviour in response to the behaviour of those around you is even harder.”
Last week I was invited to attend a Toronto Raptors NBA basketball game. It started at 7:30pm. My eating for that day was already complete so I knew I would not be having anything at the game.
But once there, I was surprised how overwhelmed I was with the sights and smells of the pizza, popcorn, cheese nachos and beer that surrounded me.
I’m not going to lie. I wanted to indulge.
But I didn’t.
How did I do that?
I made a deal with myself.
I would wait until I got home and then make myself something highly nutritious but really enjoyable like scrambled eggs in grass fed butter.
And that did the trick.
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Takeaway → We are hardwired to follow the herd so it takes great effort and disciplined thought to outthink that desire to follow along. One effective strategy to help with this is making a deal with yourself to help encourage the kind of behaviour you seek.
2/ A story about conquering fear.
This story comes from a wonderful book called “The Unthinkable: Who survives when disaster strikes — and why” by Amanda Ripley.
Here’s the story.
Charles Hume, a police officer in Toledo, Ohio, found that he lost control of his body and mind in high-speed car chases.
“I was a threat to myself and others. My voice would go up several octaves. My radio communications would become unintelligible, tunnel vision would take over, and my reasoning and common sense would go right out the window.”
To try and tame his response, he started using breathing tactics he leaned in martial arts. Everyday he played a tape recording of a police siren for five or ten minutes. As the siren shrieked, he breathed deeply — in for four, out for four.
He wanted to make his breathing an automatic response to the siren. After about a month he sounded and behaved like a different person.
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Takeaway #1 → Rhythmic breathing is incredibly powerful in helping us think and behave greater than our emotions when in highly charged environments.
Takeaway #2 → What looks like a genetic gift (ie. thinking clearly when chaos ensues) is actually the result of a lot of deliberate practice.
Takeaway #3 → The next time you encounter peak performance (ie. someone who is extremely disciplined with their eating) ask them how they developed their skill vs assuming they are one of the “gifted” ones.
3/ Stupid bravery.
This 2 minute clip is an incredible display of improvisation by singer/songwriter John Mayer.
Takeaway → This might seem very counterintuitive, but improvisation is an essential component to successful weight loss. When the unexpected happens, choosing not to have the birthday cake, shared nachos or shot someone just bought you requires a fearless improvised bravery that might make us look “stupid” in the pursuit of something that will eventually make us look amazing and highly intelligent.
4/ New term.
Mental liquidity: The ability to quickly identify and abandon beliefs that are no longer true.
False beliefs abound, especially in the weight loss space.
Here are a few that hold many people back from achieving weight loss success…
I’m too old.
I lack discipline.
I have lousy genetics.
I keep trying and keep failing. I’m not meant to be lean and healthy.
I have a slow metabolism.
None of these beliefs are true of course.
Weight loss is not a genetic gift. It’s a skill that can be learned by anyone at any age regardless of personal history, DNA or metabolism.
Just ask that guy on the left.
He had to break all of those false beliefs to become the guy on the right
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Takeaway → The secret to personal growth, in any area of life, is defined by our ability to identify and transcend the false beliefs that are holding us back.
5/ A technique I use for self-improvement.
I’m presently working on getting better at my ring muscle up.
One technique I use to improve my skill development is to search YouTube for video footage that resonates with me.
I then clip out the part of the video I want and watch it in slow motion, frame-by-frame, so I can learn from and model great technique.
Here’s the clip I captured to help me improve my ring muscle up.
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Takeaway #1 → Building strength is open to anyone who has the mental liquidity to challenge whatever false belief they presently own around the subject.
Takeaway #2 → YouTube is an incredible free resource to help you create exponential self-improvement.
That is all for today.
See you next Sunday my friend.
And hey — keep being awesome.
Dean 🇨🇦
If you are looking for more, here’s how I can help.
I do premium one-on-one coaching for those looking to lose at least 10% of unwanted body weight.
I have lost 23% of unwanted Dean and it has transformed my entire life.
Imagine how your life would change if you could lose 5%, 10% or more of unwanted you.
To learn more start here.
To learn more about how I can help you specifically, click here to book a live video call. It’s free.
PS. I’m also the proof that my approach works. And I have done this at an age (57) when people think such transformation is not possible.