Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Team Franco Bodybuilding Forum: Competition and Fitness Board -> Contest Preparation -> Great read for all of us that compete.. "Striving, Starving, and Struggling"
Post Info TOPIC: Great read for all of us that compete.. "Striving, Starving, and Struggling"
The Lioness


The Truth!

Status: Offline
Posts: 1366
Date:
Great read for all of us that compete.. "Striving, Starving, and Struggling"
Permalink  

Hi everyone,
This is an excellent article that made me really think about the importance of the journey of prepping for a show, and embracing each moment that gets each one of us closer to becoming a winner - mostly from within.

Love,
Gina smile


Striving, Starving, and Struggling: A Coach’s Declaration!
by Scott Abel
http://scottabel.blogspot.com/
www.scottabel.com



I would have preferred to make this month’s Blog an article, but given the content, I doubt any specific web-media would post it. So I am going to do this month’s Blog and maybe the next few on some industry issues and hope they catch fire. In other words feel free to post a link to this article on various web-forums where such matters are discussed or displayed.

The more things change, the more things stay the same. The web has certainly changed the nature of this industry and how information is dealt with. But even at that, the mindset of both the consumer and the competitor seems to remain unchanged. Unfortunately this is as much a bad thing as it is a good thing. Seems this year more than most, I am getting all kinds of correspondence from people with real issues from having undertaken the fitness lifestyle, or the on-line guidance attached to it.


Worse still are the competitors: More and more metabolic damage and more and more misrepresentations of expertise at the consumer/competitor expense. But before I get into that, I want to discuss another irksome issue of the mindset of the consumer/competitor. As many of you know one of my regular expressions is “mindset determines behaviour.” Maybe it is more apt to say mindset determines the quality of behaviour, and this is what I want to address.

Take a look at the title of this Blog. If you are a competitor, is your pre-contest experience one of striving, starving, and struggling? If so, then you’re a loser. I don’t care how many overall titles you may own. That is outcome, it is not process.


People are writing me or copying and pasting in my Forums, the relevant experiences of so-called competitors. They whine, they complain, and they identify themselves as strivers and strugglers; sometimes even “victims:” losers in my book. This is not a way to approach anything.


Athletic competition is supposed to be so intriguing because it is supposed to reflect real life. It is supposed to reflect the human experience as well as the human spirit. Striving, starving and struggling, is a third-world reality for survival. This has nothing to do with being a champion. Efforts need to be categorized into empowering or disempowering. Striving, starving, and struggling, is something the most desperate of people need to do. It’s not the stuff champions are made of. Mindset indeed determines the quality of behaviour. Striving, starving, and struggling is a disempowering, negative mindset.


A contest victory under this mindset will be a costly one for sure. Maybe not now, but soon enough.

I’ve known hundreds of “contest winners” in my time who fit this mindset. It’s the proverbial ‘win many battles, but lose the war’ reality. Contest winners these days are like flavours of the month at your local ice cream parlour. Here today, forgotten tomorrow. What is left then, is their own unique experience of the process of their attaining their goals. If that experience is one of striving, starving, and struggling, then there isn’t much left to grow from there.


What a wasted experience.

Competing in any sport should not be a mission of “survival.” The old saying if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. It may be more appropriate to say if you’re not willing to do the cooking, then don’t bother buying the groceries. Champions just think differently.

Starving: is defined as a debilitating condition brought on by malnourishment.

Striving: is defined as to oppose, resist, or try to accomplish. (more on this in a minute).

Struggling: is defined as action to escape, or efforts to overcome or grapple with a problem.


If you can’t see how these reflect a loser’s mindset just yet, let me expand. Look at the definition of striving. “Trying to” are the key words. Champions and winners don’t “try” they “do.” The mindset is different. Let’s look at it another way. Forget the physical definitions of the above terms, and let’s look more at the connotative applications of them in mental and emotional contexts.


Ambition is much different than striving and struggling. Hunger, is much different than starving. Hunger has ambition attached to its satisfaction, starving is but a debilitating condition and experience. Winners are always hungry. But they are never starving.
How about this as a new term: “Try-ers” There are wannabes out there in the competitive and coaching worlds who think themselves competitors and winners but they are actually “Try-ers.”


As I once heard it put, “trying is just failing with honour.” In my time I’ve trained and coach dozens of try-ers. They didn’t win because they weren’t mentally and emotionally ready to win. They’ve been to Nationals over and over and come up empty. And the irony is that it wasn’t their physiques that were lacking, it was their mindset as try-ers. And the component parts of that mindset are struggling, starving, and striving.


Winners are alive with hunger-fuelled ambition. They embrace the challenge that accords the victory. They rejoice in the fact that anything worth having should be hard to accomplish. They embrace the “process” with conviction. Try-ers are usually worried about what the competition is doing or taking; worried about the gossip and the peanut gallery comments. Try-ers think that first place makes them winners. And most importantly, try-ers seems to approach process from a fear-based anxious energy; rather than a conscious decision to win.

I’ve studied pro sports most of my life. My master’s thesis had to do with pro sports as labour. I understand the true athlete’s mindset inside and out. While other people cheered for the underdog in culture team sports I studied the dynasties intently. Anyone who looks into these Team dynasties will see a trend. This trend was that they usually lost the big one, before they won it. Almost all depictions of these dynasties were that “they weren’t ready to win yet” until they did. Process was everything including the experience of losing; at least in terms of outcome. This is what makes someone’s great, greater, their better, their best. Conviction.


The physical talent was not lacking, the mindset was not yet ready. Well I see this too often and too much in the competitive side of the fitness arena. And the reason is that no one is really coaching competitor's to the winner's mindset !

Paul the Bear Bryant’s famous quote remains true to this day. “It’s not the will to win that matters. All high level competitors have that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters!” I would like to add to that by saying it’s the will to properly mentally and emotionally prepare to win that matters. (in competition or in life) Try-ers simply don’t get that.


Neither do the coaches who focus only in the physical realm.


Striving, struggling, and starving is not a mental/emotional recipe to win. It’s a negative and debilitating mindset. The process will be tainted by it. Therefore each competitive experience within that mindset will not build the stepping stones to the mettle of a champion. That mentality will instead just repeat one negative process after another. There is no “winning” in that.

Much as I don’t like to use names in my personal accounts, one comes to mind here: IFBB Pro Ben Pakulski. I trained Ben way back when. Here’s the thing: Even while at level 2 Ben was talking about when he turns pro. A lot of people saw the comments as arrogant and boastful. My experience in this game is that for most people: “To talk it before you walk it,” is indeed both of those things. But what many underestimated was Ben’s conviction. He was not boasting. He was stating his conviction in what he knew to be a fact. He was expressing his thoughts as a winner. And like I said above, he did indeed lose the big one before he won it. This just fed the hunger, not the starvation. While the try-ers, are still trying Ben has gone on to do well, even as a pro.

And my colleague Kevin, “The Machine” Weiss comes to mind. He seems to constantly compete within himself: Such a rare thing to witness and watch. There is no striving, struggling and starving attached to the mindset with these guys. There is only the “doing.” You won’t find Kevin on any web-boards as he prepares for a show. There is no seeking of support or validation from others. And there is certainly no whining about how difficult it is. Kevin’s own clients don’t even know when he’s competing. He lives that within himself. Oh, but the fire that burns by doing so. That is the difference. And it’s observable energy to be sure.

On the flip side of that coin are the all too common pretenders: The ones that do indeed talk a good game. But when the walk, doesn’t back up the talk, then I say these people are “squawkers.” I’ve had many people join with my coaching only to not last long, because my reality coaching is always to call it true down the line. When I point out to them that their game, doesn’t match their diction, they disappear. Their fantasy remains, but they can’t back it up with the kind of real-world commitment true winning takes.

So now the attention turns to those of you competing. As I always say, choose the behaviour, choose the consequences. This has to do with your choice of coaches as well as your choice of mindset.

Sometimes loyalty is mis-placed. We certainly cannot fault a competitor for loyalty to their coach. But is it well-placed? Hell, gang members have loyalty to their gang affiliation, but where does this lead? Blind-faith in this game needs to be readdressed. Competitors, ask yourself, “Do I feel like a charged up athlete with this coach?” Is my mind clear and my energy well-placed? Is my coach looking after my best interest, or using me to represent his own? These are key questions to ask. Most on-line coaches don’t know the first thing about coaching. They are at best, advanced trainers. So remember, trainers manage workouts and diets, coaches manage people! Ask yourself, which your coach is doing?


The coach should be all about challenging your capabilities, not exhausting them. Again, ask yourself, which applies to your coach?

So if your coach has you reinforcing a mindset of physical starvation, physical striving, and physical struggling; then it’s time to find a better coach. Period ! 3 hours of cardio on a starvation diet is not good coaching. It doesn’t even qualify as bad coaching. Anyone can starve a willing participant. And what does that do to enhance the experience of the competitor? The competition day should feel like a day of celebration, not a day of survival. The latter is just the try-er mentality trying to play itself out by pretending confidence.


Remember winners don’t need to pretend. They already are winners.

Real winners forget they are even in a race. Real winners just love to run! If your process has you only focused on the race, rather than the thrill and challenge of the run; then you are missing the point ! The coach should be tapping into your desire to run, not the outcome of the race. That is for you to usurp. (and yes, running is an analogy to training here)

Here is the thing about real coaching, and it is covered in my new book. (soon to be released) The coach is adept at what I call coaching within the “Triangle of Awareness.” Like a triangle, coaching awareness has three sides; the physical, the mental, and the emotional. The adept coach needs to be well-versed and capable of coaching within all three realms. Not all aspects of the competitor prep are physical. There is their mental and emotional preparation to be coached as well. This triangle can take many forms: One line longer than the other depending on the athlete/client’s needs; be they more emotional, more mental, or more physical. One certainly enhances or limits the other.

For instance you Figure competitors out there. Have you addressed whether you are competing as a form of self-expression, or for some other reason? Are you risking your health and well-being to do so? Is your coach so focused on your physical prep, that your emotional or mental stability is being compromised? The coach should be enhancing all these. There is a huge difference between empowerment and enabling. If the coach’s approach only magnifies negative issues with food or diet; or self-esteem issues; then beware. The coach is not the one that will suffer for this neglect. You will.

Coaches who tell you metabolic damage can be reversed in a few months have no idea what they are talking about. I’ve been dealing with this issue for years, and my success rate is only about 40%! And even then its taken about 2 years to resolve. Once again, win the battle, lose the war. And the equation out of this damage, is certainly NOT a focus on diet, but instead the triangle of awareness, mentioned above.

There are two relevant spiritual points in operation here. 1) What you focus on expands. Focus on the wrong things, like the weight scale, the mirror, the struggle etc, and you are flirting with disaster. And the coach, who forces you to focus on these things, is an enabler. 2) What you struggle with weakens you. To think that competing is a constant struggle of diet and deprivation will nullify what should be a process that leads to self-improvement and personal growth. Again, ask the question, is my coach on the path of empowering my process or enabling and intensifying my struggles?

If coaches are exploiting anything it should be the client’s skills and talents, wherever they may be in the triangle of awareness. That is coaching. Focus on one strength area to improve the weaker area. Someone mentally strong can be persuaded to use this to overcome physical limitations or obstacles etc. (including self-image issues) Real coaching is all about action. That action is reflected in reason and persuasion, not dictation. If a coach is merely slotting your preparation into some pre-fab recipe of diet and training, then beware. And remember, it’s not the recipe that matters, it’s the chef.


I hope this declaration is of some service to you competitors or consumers in the Fitness Industry who are seeking real coaching. Please, ask the right questions! Don’t ask if you are right for the coach! Ask yourself if the coach is right for you !

Some of you will get it. Some of you will not.


__________________




" Get ALL in 1 @ http://beyondsupps.com and http://www.topsupplementsonline.com Champions aren't made, they're built! "
The Lioness


The Truth!

Status: Offline
Posts: 1366
Date:
Permalink  

bump for this post....I think it is really great and I desire SOMEONE to reflect on it!! xoxo

__________________




" Get ALL in 1 @ http://beyondsupps.com and http://www.topsupplementsonline.com Champions aren't made, they're built! "
Yoster


The Truth!

Status: Offline
Posts: 2604
Date:
Permalink  

I'm a bit split on this. I have no prior exposure to this guy so don't know his particular motivation.

I don't particularly care for his liberal use of "LOSER". It comes across that if you don't subscribe to his particular point of view - you suck - and I think that is a bit narrow and don't particular care for that.

However I do agree that motivation is a key point to overall happiness. I know I will never make dime one off of bodybuilding and as such I do it for myself. I do it because I love it. I also agree regarding the "sacrafice". I don't see anythig that I am doing as a sacrafice. I don't see forgoing the beer, the cookies and being physically hungry as a CHOICE and PRIORITY - not a sacrafice. I don't see goinig to bed early so I can get up at 4:55 a sacrafice - but a CHOICE. A CHOICE I freely make and remake every day.

People comment - "I could never do that" - so to this guy's point again - "Hard is what makes it great" Not everyone can do it.

I also agree that finding a coach that you mesh with is critical. I know for me - Joe and I are very different people - but he understands what I need and supplies that. In return I make sure that I do everything he tells me to do.

I do disagree with they "strong silent" perspective. That is one aproach and it works for some. However I know I draw a lot of strenght from the people on this forum and the support they provide. I don't think we have whiners on here (a few weirdos with whip cream fetishes - HA) but no whiners. Plus every once in a while people need to vent, get and give validation and just feel like they belong. So I don't think you are a loser if draw strenth from those around you.

I boil it down to this.

DO IT (whatever IT is) for YOU and no one else.
BELIEVE in yourself what you do
GIVE it your ALL

Other than that - who cares





__________________
Life is a set of challenges to be overcome!
Rick


Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 770
Date:
Permalink  

Interesting read. You know every once in a while I get the feeling that I am "deprived" on my diet and in my routine. . . Whenever I get this feeling, it really begins to discourage me, where I finally have to make myself stop thinking of my diet as a deprivation--so I switch up my thinking about what I'm doing. . . I do agree with the author's emphasis on mental attitude shaping behavior--deprivation thinking leads me to feeling discouraged. . . when I switch it up and "think" how good I am really eating. . . how much I appreciate the nutritous food I eat, and how thirst quenching the water or green tea is. . . I get pumped up and re-energized. Thanks for posting this thought-provoking piece G!

__________________
No excuses, no exceptions
The Lioness


The Truth!

Status: Offline
Posts: 1366
Date:
Permalink  

For me personally, this article is deep.
I used to be the person that was striving and struggling. I don't know if many people know that about me, but I was that. This is part of the whole eating disorder issue that I have dealt with in my past. This is who I USED TO be, and I felt it really hard when I read the words in the article relating to striving and struggling. Part of me was bodybuilding for the enjoyment, and part of me was striving and struggling everyday in this sport. That was part of why I left the sport entirely for a short time, because I was not all in it in the way that one makes this a lifestyle and also to be successful. I feel that working with Joe helped to refocus me and make a positive shift. I now do it for different reasons....for my health, for my enjoyment, for a mental and physical focus.

__________________




" Get ALL in 1 @ http://beyondsupps.com and http://www.topsupplementsonline.com Champions aren't made, they're built! "
Yoster


The Truth!

Status: Offline
Posts: 2604
Date:
Permalink  

Gina,

In reading your latest post on this - I think it solidifies my biggest issue with the article. You have noted that you used to to view things one way and now a different and its for the better. However - this article seems to dwell on the NOW and not the journey. You have changed your attitudes towards the lifestyle and how you approach this. THAT is the important thing. The JOURNEY - the BETTERMENT - the IMPROVEMENT - the JOURNEY. Those are the cornerstone - and I didn't see that in this article. He does make some good points - but for expounding the vitues of everything else - I felt he missed that.



__________________
Life is a set of challenges to be overcome!
The Lioness


The Truth!

Status: Offline
Posts: 1366
Date:
Permalink  

Yoster wrote:

Gina,

In reading your latest post on this - I think it solidifies my biggest issue with the article. You have noted that you used to to view things one way and now a different and its for the better. However - this article seems to dwell on the NOW and not the journey. You have changed your attitudes towards the lifestyle and how you approach this. THAT is the important thing. The JOURNEY - the BETTERMENT - the IMPROVEMENT - the JOURNEY. Those are the cornerstone - and I didn't see that in this article. He does make some good points - but for expounding the vitues of everything else - I felt he missed that.



As I once heard it put, “trying is just failing with honour.” In my time I’ve trained and coach dozens of try-ers. They didn’t win because they weren’t mentally and emotionally ready to win. They’ve been to Nationals over and over and come up empty. And the irony is that it wasn’t their physiques that were lacking, it was their mindset as try-ers. And the component parts of that mindset are struggling, starving, and striving.
Winners are alive with hunger-fuelled ambition. They embrace the challenge that accords the victory. They rejoice in the fact that anything worth having should be hard to accomplish. They embrace the “process” with conviction. Try-ers are usually worried about what the competition is doing or taking; worried about the gossip and the peanut gallery comments. Try-ers think that first place makes them winners. And most importantly, try-ers seems to approach process from a fear-based anxious energy; rather than a conscious decision to win.

I’ve studied pro sports most of my life. My master’s thesis had to do with pro sports as labour. I understand the true athlete’s mindset inside and out. While other people cheered for the underdog in culture team sports I studied the dynasties intently. Anyone who looks into these Team dynasties will see a trend. This trend was that they usually lost the big one, before they won it. Almost all depictions of these dynasties were that “they weren’t ready to win yet” until they did. Process was everything including the experience of losing; at least in terms of outcome. This is what makes someone’s great, greater, their better, their best. Conviction.


Dave.....I felt that the things in pink (of course I choose pink)smile, were geared more towards the journey and process.


__________________




" Get ALL in 1 @ http://beyondsupps.com and http://www.topsupplementsonline.com Champions aren't made, they're built! "
Yoster


The Truth!

Status: Offline
Posts: 2604
Date:
Permalink  

agreed - like the pink as well

__________________
Life is a set of challenges to be overcome!
Rick


Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 770
Date:
Permalink  

Well stated Gina. Now this is the transformation that is within a champion bodybuilder. The emphasis in pink emphasizes the positive focus of the article. After all, bodybuilding is about life-long transformation, isn't it? Rick.

__________________
No excuses, no exceptions
The Lioness


The Truth!

Status: Offline
Posts: 1366
Date:
Permalink  

Rick wrote:

Well stated Gina. Now this is the transformation that is within a champion bodybuilder. The emphasis in pink emphasizes the positive focus of the article. After all, bodybuilding is about life-long transformation, isn't it? Rick.



thanks Rick:)  Yes I believe that its all about changing your mindset to create change in the body, and the process is what we must enjoy.  This is key to remember during our contest prep, and also so we prevent that "post contest blues".  Our journey is the main focus in my opinion.smile



__________________




" Get ALL in 1 @ http://beyondsupps.com and http://www.topsupplementsonline.com Champions aren't made, they're built! "
Rick


Guru

Status: Offline
Posts: 770
Date:
Permalink  

It is interesting. I am working with a trainer who has been working very hard to get me to change my thinking--from being "a bodybuilder" to being "a championship bodybuilder." Same idea. It's the difference from "wanting it" to "really wanting it."

__________________
No excuses, no exceptions
The Lioness


The Truth!

Status: Offline
Posts: 1366
Date:
Permalink  

Rick wrote:

It is interesting. I am working with a trainer who has been working very hard to get me to change my thinking--from being "a bodybuilder" to being "a championship bodybuilder." Same idea. It's the difference from "wanting it" to "really wanting it."


here's one that's a better way of saying it: what make a champion is that they are COMMITTED, everyone else is just "interested".smile Having an emotional investment
into what you are striving for is essential for success.  It takes an obsessed mindset to push your self to the highest points of success.

__________________




" Get ALL in 1 @ http://beyondsupps.com and http://www.topsupplementsonline.com Champions aren't made, they're built! "
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
 
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.
Team Franco Bodybuilding Forum: Competition and Fitness Board -> Contest Preparation -> Great read for all of us that compete.. "Striving, Starving, and Struggling"
Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse 		Powered by ActiveBoard