Mindset Strategy For Mountaineers

In this episode, I explore a simple strategy that can make a dramatic difference to a mountaineer's long-term training motivation, mindset, and general well-being.

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] Alright, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. And in today's episode, we are going to be talking about an incredibly powerful mindset strategy for a mountaineer who's going through a training journey.

[0:13] Now, for the most part, when we're talking about training for mountaineering.

[0:17] Usually we're talking about training up for a particular expedition. I fully understand it's not everyone and some people are just regularly getting out there doing cool things in the mountains and all of that. But for the most part, a lot of people have a particular climb that they're trying to get ready for. Maybe this might be relatively short term, might be three months away, might be six months or 12 months or two years away, or maybe a super, super long-term thing of four or five years away or whatever it is. But most of us have something we're trying to aim for. And for most mountaineers, when we're looking at this kind of long-term plan and long-term expedition, this is kind of what we keep top of mind. This is what we focus on. This is what we use to motivate ourselves. And we're like, hey, I'm doing this training to get ready for that. I'm having a tough day. I want to get ready for this. So I've got to force myself to it. And we keep this long-term goal as that motivating force, which gives us our drive, gives us our fire and all of that. And this is all well and good. And it can be very, very powerful. And this in itself, you know, as a mountaineer or anyone who's training for a particular end point. You know, this just gives you such an advantage over someone who's training with no long-term goal in sight at all.

[1:30] But saying this, even though it can very much help, more often than not, only really having this long-term goal to fall back on and to motivate ourselves and to rely on, it's not amazing for our mindset.

[1:46] Because over a three-month period or a six-month period or a 12 or a 24-month period or whatever may be, there are going to be dozens of things that come up which challenge you, which get in the way of your training and really, really do test your motivation, your mindset, and your commitment. There'll be periods of low energy. There'll be periods of sickness, periods where you're super busy at work, or the family gets sick, or family come to visit, or you miss sessions, or it's super hot, or it's super cold, or just something comes up. It's totally normal as part of a training journey. And sometimes, if we are really just using this longer-term goal for motivation, you You know, when we're going through these things, we can get a little bit lost because in all honesty, we are all our own worst critics. And when these things go wrong and we begin to miss sessions or we don't perform as well as we want or something like that, we are really, really, really good at beating ourselves up. We are really, really, really good at being going in internally. You know what? You suck. You are weak. That was a useless session or you're missing things or you're not going to be ready to or you've got to pull yourself up or whatever it may be. And we are all our own worst critics and we can very easily beat ourselves up.

[3:05] This is pretty normal. It's not great, but it is pretty normal. Now, to pair with that, even though we're really, really good at focusing on the things we're doing wrong and focusing on the things we're doing poorly or whatever it may be, On top of that, we are also, as a general rule of thumb, really good at just not acknowledging anything that's positive. If we do something well or do something that's good or do something that's successful, it's kind of an expectation we have of ourself. It's just normal. That's what we're doing. And we're like, yeah, sure, that is what I should be doing. But we don't acknowledge it. We don't really give ourselves credit.

[3:47] And that's a really, really, really important point to be aware of. Because if we go through a longer-term training journey over all of these months, and we are very good at focusing on the negative, but when we do something positive, it's just like, that's accepted, there's a bit of an unbalance. This disparity, it's not particularly healthy. It's not conducive for long-term success. And it is something that I really, really strongly recommend that you pay attention to. And this is a really, really simple area of mindset, of mental strength, or however you want to phrase it, which if you put the tiniest bit of effort, the tiniest bit of thought, the tiniest bit of attention, it can pay massive dividends in your training over the long term. Because ultimately, if we can flip this around, and yes, we may beat ourselves up during the negative times. But if we can put as much attention to looking at the positive, to acknowledging things when we're doing things well and when we're doing things successfully, this can balance things out. It can be so incredibly powerful. It can be amazing for motivation over long term. It can be amazing for helping us actually get more and more and more benefits from our training and really snowball into a positive effect. It can be amazing for mental resilience when things are tough.

[5:10] And also, just outside of training, it can just be great for general day-to-day well-being. It can generally keep us a bit happier. It can generally keep us a little bit more positive. And no one wants to be that miserable person who is just going through a bad period of their training, and that affects their entire life.

[5:30] So putting a bit of attention to this can be very, very useful. Now, one strategy, there's a lot of different ways you can kind of approach this particular challenge and one particular journey, but one really simple strategy that you can do, which can make a bit of a difference here, is just putting a simple system in place for you to regularly acknowledge your wins.

[5:53] Regularly acknowledge what you're doing right. Regularly acknowledge what you're doing well, both in a normal week, a great week, and also in the weeks that are not going so well. This may sound a little bit silly, and you're like, well, come on, Roland, let's just talk about training, whatever it may be. But I promise you, this can be so, so, so powerful. I have used this approach I'm about to describe with so many clients over the long term, over the years, in so many different situations. It has been powerful. I've used this for myself through multiple training journeys, through my business journey, through a lot of different things, and it is so, so, so useful. Now, there's a few different ways you can go about this, but one of the keys is we want to, as I said, acknowledge these wins, but we want to have a system in place. It's not something that we're just doing randomly, because we'll forget about it, we won't stick with it, whatever it may be, but we want to have a really, really, really simple system in place. At the very most basic level, how you can go about this is just taking a set time each week, a set day each week at time or whatever may be, where you just take 30 seconds to identify one highlight from the week or one win from the week or something positive from the week and write it down.

[7:13] That's it. I do this with my Mountaineers every single week. You know, as part of, we do a sort of set check-in process every week where I send out a series of questions to all my Mountaineers, which they answer. As part of this weekly questionnaire, one of the things we ask them is, what was a highlight of last week? Now, this is intentionally designed for them to really just have a think about something positive, to acknowledge what they're doing well, to recognize what they're doing well, to bring it top of mind. It takes 30 seconds to think about something like this, but it can just be incredibly powerful if we do it consistently and over time. On top of this, taking 30 seconds to think about this can be a really, really useful tool.

[7:54] Because if you are going through a tough time, you're low on energy, you're busy, the weather sucks, or training's not going well, or whatever it may be. And if you get to that point where you're like, you know what? Everything just feels too much, or everything is just not going well, and you cannot identify a single positive thing, then this is a sign that you need to dive into things. And this is a sign that I use as a coach to be like, all right, we need to dig into this and we need to create opportunities to find wins. So we can dig ourselves out of this negative period. We can actually start getting a bit of positive momentum and move things. So in this situation, if someone was like, hey, I can't think of anything that's done well, we may say, you know what? What we're going to do is just set a little mini micro goal for this week. And we're going to say, you know what? Even though you are crazy busy right now, you're going to commit to a target minimum of sessions this week.

[8:47] You're going to aim for two or three or whatever it may be. And if you accomplish that, that's your win. That's your highlight. And next week, you are going to tick this off, give yourself credit, and happy days. Or alternatively, it may be like, oh, you know what? I've got such low energy. I feel like I've just been spinning my wheels with my training for ages. And you just can't find the positive there. And we may say, you know what? In one of your strength workouts this week, do whatever you need to do for the workouts. That's fine. But I want you to choose one single exercise this week where you push it, where you try to do a little bit more than you've done previously. Get a PB. It doesn't matter if the rest of the week sucks, do one exercise and that can be your win. Or maybe a case of like, oh, I've been sick. I haven't been getting anything in. Like, you know, I just can't see any positive. Then maybe saying, hey, you're going to do 60 seconds of stretching each day. That's what you're going to focus on. And as you can see, like if we're in this situation, acknowledging the win at the first point is awesome. It's great. It's really, really useful. And if you can't actually identify anything, you can use that a bit of a self-assessment tool and help yourself there.

[9:47] So you can take take this strategy for yourself it's very very simple and just set yourself a time each week on a sunday afternoon or a monday morning or whatever works for you set a reminder in your phone just to say what was a win this week write it down acknowledge it that in itself is just so powerful because if you do this every single week over the period of 12 weeks six months two years or whatever may be i promise you it'll make a big difference and as we said before if you do this and you're like, you know what, I'm having a tough time and I can't think of anything, then that's an alarm bell for yourself that you want to set yourself up for a win as soon as possible. You want to say, you know what, I'm going to find a win somewhere. I'm going to do something positive. I'm going to go do this today or whatever

[10:29] it may be just to get you out of that loop. It's really, really, really, really simple, but it's very, very, very powerful. So that's the most basic level. One time each week where you acknowledge a single win. Now, to take this a step further, there's a couple of extra layers you can add into this, which can be really useful. Another good strategy.

[10:49] Is not only are we just acknowledging small wins during the week, but we want to make an effort and a serious effort to give genuine acknowledgement when you do something that's actually really significant. Because all too often, if we do something really good, if we do something significant, we don't really acknowledge it. We just accept it as part of the course. If we went out and did a big hike on the weekend and it went really, really well, More often than not, we're like, yeah, that's how I should be feeling. And we're like, yeah, cool, great, and move on. Or maybe you went out and did a climb and you got a route that you haven't done in ages. And you're like, yeah, you get that little thing. You're like, yeah, cool, I'm improving. But we don't really take the time to acknowledge it.

[11:32] Putting a little bit extra attention into those bigger highlights and be like, yeah, you know what? You're crushing it. You're nailing it. Again, this can be really, really, really positive. So if you learn a new skill, which you've been struggling with, and you finally feel like you've grabbed your head around it and mastered it, mark that as a moment of significance. Acknowledge it to yourself like, yeah, you're nailing it, but then do something for yourself. Buy a nice dinner. Write a note for yourself. Do something to actually acknowledge it. If you PB'd in a workout or an exercise, if you did your longest run ever or whatever it may be, acknowledge it. Mark it.

[12:08] Whatever it is, these significant things, be a cheerleader for yourself. It can be really, really, really useful. And then on top of that, if you want to take this a step further, you can even look at daily wins. And this is a strategy that I actually got from one of my business coaches previously, which I use very, very regularly. And it's very, very, very powerful is where every single day at the end of your day, and I do this at the end of my work day. So I do this five days a week. But some people will do this, you know, seven days a week, whatever it may be. But at the end of every single day, I will sit down and I'll do a little end of day summary about what I've done, yada, yada, yada, a little like five minute routine. But one of the things that I write down every workday is I just acknowledge one win for the day. I'm like, you know what? Today I did this and it was good. It may be like, hey, I went to the gym and I had a really good session. It may be, hey, you know what? I had a really difficult conversation, but I navigated it well. Or hey, you know, I put this together for my business. Or hey, you know what? I did some stretching in the middle of the day, whatever it may be. But every single day we identify something that's positive. So when I'm having a good time and there's good momentum in aspects of my life. This accelerates that and helps me feel good and helps me build off that momentum. And when I'm having a really tough time, if I've got the roughest, suckiest day at work in the world, I can say, you know what? Today sucked, but I still did this something positive. And that in itself can just be such a powerful thing.

[13:30] So even doing this for yourself, whether you're doing this for as a general holistic thing, like, hey, I pull out a highlight of whatever I've done today, or it's just a purely training thing. You're like, you And when I did this that's going to help my mountaineering, this can be really useful.

[13:45] So weekly... Big events, and potentially daily. This may sound a little bit simple,

[13:51] but I promise you it can be so, so, so powerful. So here is my challenge for you. If you've never really considered anything like this formally, if you are the type of person who happens to focus on the negatives, but you don't really give yourself time to acknowledge those positives as well as it can, if you're on any type of longer-term training journey for your mountaineering, give this a go. Set yourself a system.

[14:16] Every single week, you will sit down and you will acknowledge one single win. Keep a list of it, write it down somewhere where you can refer back. And I haven't even mentioned it, but being able to look back on these things over the long term and be like, you know what? All of these wins I've accumulated week after week after week after week, it can feel amazing. Both to help your momentum when things are going good and when things are going bad, you can look back and be like, oh, you know what? Actually, the last three weeks have sucked, but you know what? I've still on this really good stuff. It can be so powerful. Set up a weekly routine, think about those significant events and how you can highlight them a little bit more. And if you want to take it a step further, those daily wins can go such a long way.

[14:54] Give it a go. And I promise you it will make a difference. So with that being said, I'm going to wrap things up here. I really do hope a few people put this into action and I really do hope a few people enjoy this and can see a bit of a change from this approach. Last thing I'll say as always with this podcast, if you were a mountaineer who was in a part of a training journey with looking for help with your training, with your workouts, with your fitness, with your motivation, with your consistency, all of that good stuff, and you're interested in getting a coach in your corner to help you through it, I would love to chat with you. To find out a little bit about our online personal training for mountaineering, go to summitstrength.com.au slash mountaineer. On that page, there's a big video, talks to our program in a bit of detail. And if it does sound like something you want to explore a little bit further, there's a link on that page. You can book a call with our team. We can have a bit of a chat and see if and how we may be able to help you, your goals, your mountaineering and your training. So with that being said, thank you for listening. Hope you've enjoyed it and we'll talk to you soon. Bye.

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