Simplicity

In this episode I explore one powerful question you can use, when things start to feel a bit overwhelming in your training and preparations. 

Listen to the other episodes of this mini-series:

• #1: 20 Lessons From 20 Weeks Of Training (intro) 
• #2: You Get Out What You Put In 
• #3: Avoid Distractions 
• #4: When In Doubt 
• #5: The Best Recovery Tool 
• #6: Don't Avoid What You Suck At 
• #7: Plan Your Day 
• #8: Training Hard And Weight Loss Journeys 
• #9: Plan For Social Occasions 
• #10: Trust The Process 
• #11: Self Reflection 
• #12: Ask Questions 
• #13: Avoid Triggers 
• #14: Search Out Support 
• #15: Be Serious About Recovery 
• #16: Have A Prepared Answer 
• #17: Have A Mantra 
• #18: Simplicity 
• #19: Self Reflection 
• #20: Have A Follow Up Plan 

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

​[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, we're covering episode number 18 of this 20-episode miniseries, which is 20 Lessons Learned Through 20 Weeks of Raining.
And today we are covering a topic which is probably the single most effective question you can ask yourself, which can make a massive difference when things get a little bit overwhelming, or when things get a little bit complicated, or where you just feel like you've bitten off a bit more than you can chew?
And you can use this question in your training, in your hiking, and you can use it in your personal life, in your career.
It's an awesome question. I've used it in so many facets of my life.
So basically, when it comes down to it, you know, in any type of training process, things can sometimes just feel like it's getting a little bit complicated.
When you have a big goal in mind, a big hike, a big adventure, and you're like, Like, you know what? I need to get ready for this.
I need to prepare for this.
I need to get my gear ready. I need to plan the trip. I need to get fit.
I need to get strong. I need to get on top of my aches and pains.
I need to fit this all around my family life and all of that.

[1:10] Sometimes when you're preparing for things, you're juggling a lot and you're trying to improve a lot and you're trying to give yourself the best chance possible.
But ultimately, sometimes things can get a little bit complicated and sometimes it can get a little overwhelming.
You can be like, oh my gosh, from juggling just so many things.
Sometimes it can just be stressful.
So if you find yourself in this situation, what I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend is asking yourself this question.
How can I make this simple?
So let me tell you the story of where this counter came from through my training process.
So through my 20 weeks of training, obviously I had this big event at the end of the process.
And through the training, there were just so many things that I I knew I needed to improve on. I knew I needed to improve my fitness.
I knew I needed to improve my strength. Not only the strength, but I knew there were so many different weird positions we got put in this type of sport, and I needed to get myself strong in all these different positions.
I knew I needed to try and improve my technique. I knew I needed to kind of make sure that I was eating healthy.
I knew that I needed to look after my energy, my recovery, and all of these bits and pieces.
And ultimately, there was a lot of situations where it just did feel like it was was getting a little bit too much.
So let me take you through some specific examples like cardio.
Now, we were doing the sessions, five mornings a week, we were training.

[2:31] And that was obviously a lot of cardio, but I knew, in all honesty, I needed better cardio. I knew very, very early on, I needed to improve this.
And being a coach, being a personal trainer, having a history in this type of thing, I was like, you know what?
I've got a good base of knowledge around strength and conditioning.
I've got a good base of knowledge around improving people's fitness and cardio.

[2:52] Obviously hiking, I've spent a lot of time studying and adapting and applying systems into that. What I'm training for right now is a little bit different.
So being a coach, what I did is I did a bit of research.
I bought a book from a really well-respected coach to learn about his system, about how he went about developing cardio for these types of events, which is absolutely amazing.
It had all of these really, really good ideas, great workouts, great insights, really filled a lot of knowledge.
And what I did is I sat down I was like cool awesome I'm going to take this knowledge I'm going to put together this amazing training program to do outside of my sessions I'm going to cover all of these bases week by week month by month I'm going to shift things around to make sure I'm in the best possible position but what I realized after putting all that time and attention into it after a few weeks I just wasn't doing it I wasn't being consistent I wasn't fitting in the number of sessions I needed to see the results I wanted I wasn't working at the intensity I wanted and I realized, look, I'm just trying to fit too many things in here.
I'm trying to fit too much into my week. I'm trying to get a little bit too complicated. It's just getting a little bit too overwhelming with the cardio.
So I asked myself this question, how can I make this simple?

[4:04] How can I simplify this to get me where I want to be that's going to clear up mental headspace, free up that mental stress, and kind of get me moving forward?
So I was like, in all honesty, realistically, this plan I put together, it's not realistic.
It's too complicated, too many moving parts, and it's just not going to work. So I stripped it back.
Instead of planning to do three extra sessions of pure cardio on top of all the other stuff I was doing in the week, I was like, you know what?
In all honesty, I can commit to one session of hard work on top of everything we were doing in regards to cardio.
And on top of that, I can do lots of little bits and pieces.
And I was like, you know what? I can do an extra 10 minutes each day.

[4:43] Now that was nowhere near as much as I'd originally committed.

[4:46] And the sessions themselves were very, very, very simplified.
They were very, very, very basic. But in all honesty, when I asked myself that question, how can I make this simple?
How can I move myself forward in a way that isn't going to overwhelm me?
That's what I came up with.
And that is what I managed to stick with for the remaining weeks.
And that's where I managed to put my attention into and got me where I wanted to be.

[5:06] So that was one example. Another example is strength. As I mentioned before, you know, in the type of event I was doing, I had to develop all of these aspects of strength.
I knew I needed to get stronger. I knew I needed to improve my endurance.
I knew I needed to improve my power. I knew I was going to get put in all these weird and wonderful positions. So I had to to train my body in these slightly different positions than I usually.
And ultimately, with my training, I was like, okay, I'm going to come together with a training program to cover all of this.
I was doing these strength sessions, which had all these slightly different moves and stranger moves than I'd really done before to cover all of these bases.
And I put together this program that I was, again, I was like, you know what? It's going to cover everything. This should be good.
But again, as I was coming through, I realized like I was doing these sessions and I had all of these complicated movements and things that I wasn't used to.
And in all honesty, I realized that, look, I was just spending too much time trying to learn these exercises.
I was going into the gym and instead of actually training and working hard, I was just trying to figure things out. I was spending my precious time doing that.
Plus on top of that, there were a lot of days where I was just tired and I just couldn't bear the thought of going in and doing exercises, which were complicated.
And I would honestly dread the thought of these strength sessions.
So I asked myself, I was like, you know what? Realistically, this isn't working.
And I asked myself that question, how can I make this simple?

[6:28] And what I did, I stripped it back again. And instead of having these complicated training sessions, I created two really, really, really simple strength sessions, which just covered the basics, but which I knew I would do rain, hail, or shine.
No matter what mood I was, no matter how busy I was, no matter how tired I was, I can get in and I could do these basic sessions and it worked for me.
My consistency went way up. My improvements went way up and it was great.

[6:55] Now, another example was my dinners. I was trying to eat really, really healthy. I was trying to be really, really on point with my nutrition.
But again, when I was busy, when I was tired, and I was trying to put things together day to day, it was getting a little bit overwhelming.
So I asked myself, how can I make this simple?

[7:12] And what I did, I started sitting down on a Sunday and just planning out the entire week ahead.
I'd make sure I knew seven days worth of eating. I'd go down to the grocery shops and buy all of those. All the ingredients have it all ready for me.
So I didn't have to think day-to-day, what am I going to have?
I didn't have to think, you know, day-to-day, I've got to go down the shops, but it was all sorted.
And on top of that, I was like, you know what, realistically, there's a lot of days that sometimes I'm just too tired to cook.
I just can't think of complicated meals.
So I was like, what are some backup options? And ultimately, I was like, you know what, I'm just going to have some frozen meals in the fridge, in the freezer, which I can fall back on.

[7:49] I'm going to have, you know, always eggs and bread in the house.
And some nights we'll just have eggs on toast and it's not a full dinner but it's simple and that was how i simplified things so there's just a few examples of there where some things tended to get a little bit more complicated they need to be they stress me out they kind of add a pressure onto my shoulders which i didn't need and i just wasn't getting the value out of those things i wasn't getting the value out of my cardio i wasn't getting that value out of my strength i wasn't getting the value out of my my dinners because things were just a little bit too complicated So I asked myself that question,

[8:21] how can I make this simple?
And it just made such a difference for me.

[8:26] So for you as hikers listening to this, this is exactly the same.
Anytime you feel like something's getting a little bit overwhelming, anytime you feel like something's just got too much mental load, it's whatever may be, ask yourself, how can I make things simple?
For example, your training plan. If you're trying to just go in and just make up workouts, you go into the gym or you turn up one day and you're like, what am I going to do today? and just make up workouts on the spot.
That in itself can be sometimes overwhelming.
Way to simplify that, have a plan, get something written out, talk to a coach, work with a trainer, have a plan laid out for you so you just don't have to come up with it. You just go out and do it.
Or your schedule, do you get a little bit overwhelmed trying to figure out where to put it, fit in your sessions or what days to do what sessions?
Sit down on a Sunday, plan out your week. That's an easy way to simplify things.
We can say Monday to do this, Tuesday to this, Wednesday to this.
It's all planned instead of figuring things out.

[9:20] Now, your clothes. This is a funny one, but a lot of people get tripped up on this.
Sometimes people get a little bit overwhelmed with their training clothes.
They're like, what am I going to wear?
I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to have another outfit over this and that.
It sounds funny to some people, but a lot of people spend a lot of mental load on this.
How can you make that simple? Have a set rotation of clothes.
Say, on Monday I wear this, on Tuesday I wear this, on Wednesday I wear this, and make sure you have enough clothes for an entire week of training.

[9:50] So you can just do one load of shopping, you don't, shopping, washing, so you don't have to do like laundry in the middle of the week.
If you're training seven days a week, have seven training outfits, which you just rotate through.
Or you're hiking. You know, if it sometimes gets a little bit stressful, like before every hike, you're just running around trying to pack your pack with all the things you need.

[10:08] How can you make that simple? Put a checklist together. Sit down, put down, write down on a list all the things you need to do.
So every time you go out and hike, you just go through that checklist. list.

[10:19] Or if you're home or if you're training in the gym and you're like, oh my gosh, it's just a bit hard to get to the gym. I've got to travel.
I've got to change and this and that. How can you make that simple?
Maybe just train at home. Alternatively, do you get distracted at home?

[10:33] Are you just not doing the work? How can you make that simple getting away from the distractions?
Train in a gym. Whatever it may be. There's so many different situations in here, but in all honesty, that sentence, it can just apply because everyone's going to have different answers to this thing. When you say, how can I make this simple?
You'll ask that to 10 different people in 10 different situations.
They'll give you 10 different answers.
But because it's personal to you, because it's useful to you, it can go such a long way. And I have used this question in so many situations.
I've used it during this training process, multiple times in multiple situations.
I use it in my business pretty much every single month.
I use it in my personal life. I use it in my organization around the home.
It's just so many different things. How can I make this simple?
So if you're a hiker who's going through a training process and you are feeling like things are just getting a bit overwhelming, getting a bit complicated, just getting a bit away from you, it's adding extra stress, it's adding extra worry, and you're just not putting the time or the attention into the things that you need, ask yourself this question. How can I make this simple?

[11:36] And it may make a big difference. So with that being said, I hope a few people get some good help from this.
I hope it does make a bit of a difference because I know it's been so significant for me. so thank you so much for listening i hope you've enjoyed it and we'll talk to you soon bye.

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