The Journal #34
Reframing. Goldilocks. Rules. Recovery.
01. PSYCHOLOGY - Joe Gaunt
Reframing - Part 1
So we just delivered The Hundred 2024 and it was another special weekend!
I personally enjoyed this year a lot more with 1 year of learning and a great job from everyone involved in making it happen. I am so grateful to all involved in helping us trying to change men's health and wellbeing for the good of all.
I opened the weekend talking about behaviour change and the many variables that influence us all in wanting to either change a bad behaviour or pick up and stick to a good one.
One part of this talk focused on thoughts themselves. Research used to suggest we had 60-70000 thoughts per day but recent findings suggest its much less at around 6-7000. It really depends on what you call a thought.
What you may not know is that most of our thoughts are relatively throw away and are negative, automatic thoughts (NATs). ‘Did I pack my kit’ ‘how soon until lunch’ ‘this isn’t good enough’ ‘im rubbish at this’ etc.
So if we know about 70% of our day is habitual (so our hormones and neurology like this as it feels easy) and most of our thoughts are negative, it is easy to see from a psychological perspective, why we get stuck in behaviour loops and moments of feeling down or low can become a compoundingly difficult obstacle if and when we continually think or feel this way.
Thoughts shape feelings, feelings influence behaviours and the resulting outcomes from these behaviours. Constant self doubt leads to low mood and regressive behaviour. In the moment anger may lead to knee jerk reactions we regret later.
But great news - there are lots of exercises we can do to combat this and I want to give you 2 tools to work on if any of this resonates with you.
Firstly, we need to separate our thoughts from ourselves. Bare with me here. What I mean by this is you are not your thoughts, and thoughts are not facts. Just because its your voice, your thoughts on a situation - doesn't make it so.
Now with so many negative thoughts its important we really focus on applying this to the ones that have an impact on our feelings and resulting behaviour. With lots of throw away thoughts really focus on the ones linked to you either wanting to feel or act differently.
So for this week please just try and recognise what I have just explained. Try and just recognise and capture these thoughts when they occur. Nothing else. Just practice seeing them for what they are.
Like anything it may take some practice but try have some notes on 6-10 thoughts that you'd like to change or work on that impact you for next week.
Examples
‘I need a drink’. I will train later/ make up for it’ ‘I have been good all day/ week’ ‘he/ she is doing this on purpose to piss me off’ ‘why does x always happen to me’.
Good luck
Joe
02. HEALTH - Recovery
Not too Little, Not too Much. Just Right.
When it comes to our training plans, recovery is often overlooked.
All of the best athletes recovery the hardest and so should you, especially we age.
Recovery is usually the missing piece to the training and health puzzle and most often the thing standing between you and the very best of you.
Like most things, there is a balance to be had when it comes to training stimulus and the way we recover after.
Too little training stimulus and you won’t find the adaptation you’re chasing.
Too much training stimulus and you’ll over-reach and inhibit your ability to recover and go again.
The key, like most things in life, is to find balance.
Not too little, not too much. Just right.
Be like Goldilocks.
03. MINDSET - Mike Bates
Rule Breaker?
I’ve spent half of my life in the shadows.
Not an ordinary life granted but one of immense pride, national level impact and as a consequence of both of those things immense personal satisfaction.
Then I chose to leave.
I resigned not because I fell out of love with the work, how could I, it was every boys’ dream. I chose to leave because my personal mission shifted as I reached 40 years of age and it no longer aligned with many of my colleagues and perhaps of the organisation itself.
I watched how over time prized operational effectiveness and street smarts gave way to those playing corporate games and increasing bureaucracy. The machine needed to combat terrorism had to grow in scale to match the threat.
Inevitable perhaps? But, not the way I wanted to live my NXT45.
I knew that leaving a 20 year covert public sector role would be challenging for many obvious reasons.
A loss of identity. Lack of job security. Possible reduction in professional impact. (to name but a few).
What I hadn’t expected was that it would be such a lonely journey.
The colleagues I once called friends ceased to call and ignored (by instruction from their managers and the organisation I later found out) my messages.
As I emerged into the overt world and began to share elements of my story on social media, podcasts and business the organisation I served loyally for all those years started to see me as a threat.
Threatening letters landed on my doorstep.
They claimed that I was breaking the rules.
I suppose I could’ve remained in the darkness, received my Civil Service pension at 60 and told fictional renditions of the stories I keep secret only to my grandchildren long after those operations ceased to impact any current modus operandi.
But I felt deep within that I had an even greater mission in the NXT45 that lay ahead.
To continue to serve others, but no longer in the shadows. Now in person.
Not to tell secrets or to betray the important obligations I signed up for all those years ago, but to shine a small light on the unique experiences gained in altogether strange and often misunderstood world with the aim of inspiring others to Live a Life Without Limits.
I fully respect the rules and laws I am obligated to but I don’t accept that necessitates remaining hidden for the remainder of one’s life and not being allowed to carve out a new existence by bringing to bare one’s skills and experiences (carefully of course) for the benefit of others.
I see helping others as the highest moral duty and one for which I am prepared to shoulder the greatest responsibility.
Would you?
Respect the rules but don’t follow rules blindly.
And above all else; don’t be afraid of the light that can only be found in the darkness, if you’re prepared to search hard enough to find it.
Here’s another way to put it from a man with more wisdom than I could ever hope to accrue:
‘If you understand the rules - their necessity, their sacredness, the chaos they keep at bay, how they unite communities that follow them, the price paid for their establishment, and the danger of breaking them - but you are willing to fully shoulder the responsibility of making an exception, because you see that as serving a higher good (and you are a person with sufficient character to manage that distinction), then you have served the spirit, rather than the mere law, and that is an elevated moral act.’ - Jordan B. Peterson
04. QUOTE
‘We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light ’ - Abraham Lincoln
08. TIP
Wondering how you are able to monitor your recovery simply?
Invest in an affordable wearable and track these 4 health markers and how they trend over time (months not days):
HRV - Heart Rate Variability (the slight variations of time between heart beats).
RHR - Resting Heart Rate (the number of times your heart beats at rest).
REM/SWS/LIGHT - Focus not just on the amount of time that you are spending in bed but the amount of total restorative sleep that you are getting.
RPE - Rate of Perceived Effort (how you actually feel).
As we learned from Doctor Thomas Little (Performance Director at Sheffield United FC) in our NXT45 monthly masterclass, of all the metrics used to monitor wellbeing, recovery and tolerance for training stimulus, simply asking how an athlete feels is generally the most accurate.
Don’t over-complicate it. But do recover hard.
We believe that when men live happier, healthier & more fulfilled lives…everyone wins! - NXT45
The Journal by NXT45
