Who are you becoming?
Good morning everyone. It is Monday again so I'm gonna repeat every Monday kind of a similar lesson as opposed to you know some people on the weekends have gone overboard, some people haven't. Just remember as well before I think someone left a comment in a group and I think it's great that like when you say like, oh yeah, I've missed out this weekend on something. You have missed out if you've decided to not drink or go out. You've prioritized, you know, not drinking alcohol, you prioritize your health.
Speaker 1:Same with people who go out and have too many drinks. It's not as if you don't care about your health, it's that you're trying to integrate this lifestyle into the reality of the world. So either way is fine and you're gonna have people are gonna have a mix of weekends through this challenge and that's absolutely fine. But again, it's Monday again now. It's a good reset.
Speaker 1:You know, whatever happened on weekends happened, good or bad, we have to start fresh today essentially. We start fresh every day. You know, it's nil nil every day. Let's keep going. Let's go build our score.
Speaker 1:But it reminded me of, so we're gonna learn this in the second book in book club, but it's an important lesson. Epictetus says in his discourses, which is a book that has influenced, know, modern day CBT and everything quite heavily. And he says, you know, he says he's talking to basically the book is him talking to students and someone's writing down his conversations after the lessons. It's very natural but to the point. And he says to one of his students who is telling him he wants to live in peace and he's saying to him about living in peace and he's saying, you know, why is it that you want to read?
Speaker 1:You know, tell me that. If you turn to reading for the sake of entertainment or to acquire knowledge of some kind, you're frivolous and lazy. But if you're directing your reading to the right end, what else could that be than happiness? And if reading doesn't secure happiness for you, what use does it serve? And this is similar to what we're doing at Turtle, know.
Speaker 1:We're not doing Turtle just to acquire knowledge. That's not the point. That's exactly why we do book club and why we do so many Zoom sessions. We're not trying to acquire knowledge as doing entertainment, we're trying to actually get to create a lifestyle from it. So we have to actually put these ideas or methods to the test, is in the real world.
Speaker 1:And it's exactly what he says to this person who says that he just loves reading, right? And the guy and the guy replies to him saying, doesn't reading help to prepare for us for life? And then Epictetus says back, but life is full of many things apart from books. It is as if an athlete on entering the stadium should burst into tears because he is no longer able to carry on training outside. This is what you were training for.
Speaker 1:This is what your jumping weights were for and the sand too and your young training partners. And are you now looking for those when the time for action has arrived? Right? So what he's saying there is like, it's great for us to acquire knowledge to do these sessions, to read the books, to talk to one another, but we all got to get in the arena. And that's why I think this challenge is special coming out of the first octagon.
Speaker 1:First octagon we were training, we were outside the arena. It wasn't essentially real life as you'd say. Now real life has come. Octagon two, we are in the arena and we can't keep turning back to, wish I would have read more. We can apply what we've learned right now.
Speaker 1:And that's the purpose, right? That's the purpose of this challenge. And that's the purpose of weekends. We must put ourselves in the arena on the weekends. And I want to hear your stories like did you go out?
Speaker 1:Did you drink too much? How would you feel about it? Did you catastrophize? Like this is the important battle. Not, did I learn one more thing last week?
Speaker 1:It's not, what did I put to use last week? What did I put to the test last week? So what did you put to the test this weekend? Let me know. He goes on to say as well, he goes, we shouldn't say today I've read this many lines and I've written this many words, but what to what do so in the this way instead?
Speaker 1:I haven't no. I formed my motives as the philosopher recommend. I haven't exercised any desire. I've confined confined my aversion solely to things that lie within my sphere of choice. I haven't allowed myself to be intimidated by so and so or disconcerned by so and so.
Speaker 1:I've exercised my patience, my abstinence, my cooperativeness, and thus we should be thanking, you know, in nature, says here, for what we ought to be thanking him for. So he says here, we shouldn't be saying like, oh, last week I did, you know and I to be fair, we probably should rephrase how he said so we would say, which seminars did you do? What did you do last week? Let's start thinking, once you did do like two seminars last week, why I petite the same year. We don't wanna know how many seminars you did, how many lines you read.
Speaker 1:We wanna know what you exercised last week. So what did you learn from Hugh Gilmore last week and how did you put that to the test? That's the answer. Yeah? What did you learn about macros last week that you put to the test?
Speaker 1:What did you learn from the daily audio drop ins? What did you learn from book club? And what have you put into test? And that's what he says here, like, he says it's better to say, today, fought my voters as a philosopher. Today, I've exercised my I I haven't exercised any desire.
Speaker 1:Today, I've, only focused on what's in my control. Today, haven't allowed myself to be intimidated. These are the things that matter. So when you're looking at wins over the weekend, whilst you might be like, well, did drink too much or whatever, let's look at the good stuff you did. You say, well, I did put myself in the arena.
Speaker 1:I did put myself in the real world. I did try and be more mindful. I did try this and I did try that. And while it's not everything's gonna be perfect, I think our reframing of this is better. So I think we should reframe things in that sense.
Speaker 1:And this all came from my comment on Facebook group got me thinking. And to finish off on Epictetus before we go over to don't wanna share too much of it because we will get into it more in the last quarter of the challenge. Epictetus says, in a word, remember this, that if you attach value to anything at all that lies out that lies outside the sphere of choice, you've destroyed your choice. Not only is office outside that sphere, but also freedom from office, and not only want of leisure but also leisure itself. Right?
Speaker 1:And the guy's like, yeah, but I don't want to go into the I don't want to go into crowd. I don't want to be in a busy crowd. And he says, but if you get caught in a crowd, it the games, call it public gathering, call it a festival and join in the festival with everyone else. For what sight could be more pleasant to someone who loves his fellow human beings than a crowd of people? We look with pleasure at herds of horses and cattle and are delighted to see a large fleet of ships.
Speaker 1:So is one to be distressed to see a crowd of people. But the guy says, but they deafened me with their shouting. And he says back to him, then it's your hearing that's impeded. What does that matter to you in your ability to deal with impressions? So first thoughts and stuff.
Speaker 1:Is your ability to deal with impressions hampered in the same way? And who can prevent you from exercising your desire and aversion in accordance with nature and so to your motives to act or not act? What commotion has power enough to do that? What he's getting out there is like, we should wanna be out there with the human beings. Should want to be in the festivals and the Olympias and stuff.
Speaker 1:They used it about back in the day. It's very similar to how we live now. And he's saying, you know, that's that's the best way to be as a human being. But he's saying that still doesn't have the power to stop you from controlling what you can control in those choices. Yes, someone can annoy you by shouting, but does that mean you have to punch him in the face?
Speaker 1:Someone might tell you to down three shots. Does that mean you have to down three shots? This is the reality. This is where we have to be in. We have to be in the crowds and be able to to to handle it.
Speaker 1:So that's enough for the weekend chat. Hopefully, that's, helped some of you kind of, I don't know, feel a bit better about maybe going out and drinking and maybe not succeeding you wanted to do. I managed to stay in, I didn't feel too well this weekend, and I feel grateful that I didn't drink a drop of alcohol and stuff like that. And I feel a lot better for it. And the weekend before, had too much.
Speaker 1:But still, you know, I still want to be there. I still wanna be out watching the rug with my friends and stuff, and I still wanna nail the balance, and that's what I'm gonna focus on. But again, this week is week three. Week three, day one. So we're starting now to build momentum.
Speaker 1:A lot of you would have built a lot of momentum mindset wise, unlocked a few things, listened to a few talks and actually deployed some new Hugh Gilmore's Techniques deans, Ryan Williams. There's a lot of these things you're going to start doing and it's going to change your mindset quite quickly. But physical changes, you might start feeling a bit leaner now because we lose fat inside first then outside. So we got fat around the organs right then we got fat subcutaneous under the skin. So the fat comes off first around the organs so you might feel leaner.
Speaker 1:Lot of you might think is I'm feeling a bit leaner but I don't look it. That's because you probably lost a bit of fat around the internal organs and that's good. And then you lose fat from top down basically. So you lose fat inside out first and then from the top down. So you might be like, oh I've lost fat and my face is building up, I'm still holding weight in my hips and thighs.
Speaker 1:And women do hold more fat hips and thighs, men like lower back, abs. And this is just because of the hormones. The hormones, the balance of distribution is due to our hormonal balance. And you can't spot reduce fat. So I can't say I'll do loads of ab workouts now and I lose fat to my abs.
Speaker 1:It just doesn't happen, it's never been that way. But what tends to happen is we do see our face lean up a bit first, then we see our upper body lean up and our arms. And then, you know, I don't know why it is but well, actually do know where it is. It makes evolutionary sense why fat is around hips and thighs because that's where women, you know, when you're giving birth and stuff and you obviously around that region and that's a fat storage area that you can store a lot of fat there and it's easily accessible broken down into bloodstream and stuff. It's a good place if you think about it to hold a lot of fat, hold a lot of energy.
Speaker 1:Think about it evolutionary wise, you can hold a lot of energy around that area and it's quick into the bloodstream and it can get quick into what's needed. And people do give birth, tend to, and Lionel MacDonald speaks about this, changes happen in the body, fat happens quite fast for people post pregnancy in some cases, because your body, you're breastfeeding as well, you're going to use more calories. But also something happens, he's like if you could bottle up what happens and sell it, it would be a magic thing he says but you know obviously you can't. But evolutionary, that's the reason why fat is stored in those And we can't change it really, mean, you know, if you changed your, balance of, hormones like you had more testosterone for example, it may change it but obviously females have more testosterone will then have masculine stuff and you know you'd have to take synthetic testosterone. And same for men who would consume more estrogen, would get sucked in more feminine looking bodies with, they would have more fat on the hips and thighs, they start having, kind of the breasts grow and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So they definitely change where fat is stored. But don't fall into the trap of thinking you do more arms, lose more fat in the arms, you do more abs, you lose more fat in your abs. Fat loss will come as it does in a deficit. You can't control exactly where and when. And that doesn't matter, it's not in your control.
Speaker 1:And exactly this, leave go of that control. Know, look at your face, I'm losing fat to my face, but I wish I was losing fat to my abs. But that's not the case, right? You're not going to lose fat in your abs faster than your face. It's not how it works.
Speaker 1:So there's no point thinking about it. Don't even wind yourself up about it. Right? So that's how we do lose fat. So if anyone is wondering, why is it that they feel leaner, but they're not actually looking at it.
Speaker 1:It's just that. Just keep going. It does happen. And there's something called the whoosh effect as well where you might be holding the same weight for a while, and then one day you weigh yourself and you drop like four pounds in one day. Now that doesn't mean you've dropped four pounds of fat in one day.
Speaker 1:It just means that you were holding on to a decent amount of water retention. All of a sudden, it drops, for for reasons we don't really know. We can there's some reasons we know, but not 100%. And then, you know, you could you go down. It just that's just how it works.
Speaker 1:So a lot of you will experience this. So some of you will be like, I haven't dropped for ages, and then it just comes out of nowhere. But then you feel all all of a sudden all better. But what I'm trying to tell you is don't worry about it. It will happen over time.
Speaker 1:Just collect the data, daily weigh ins, and you'll be fine. So the wish effect. And then the last thing to cover today is to get you started on stage. There's something called the valley of despair. It tends to kick in about now or week four, and it just means that you kind of lose that initial motivation and you start thinking, I wish I had that motivation from day one.
Speaker 1:It's tougher than I think. And look, changing your lifestyle isn't gonna be tough. It's never an easy thing. But this is why tiny habits is important. We can build tiny habits into our lifestyle and we can make it more manageable.
Speaker 1:But what alternative do we have? With all your dieting being disastrous for our health, what alternative do you have but to actually just give yourself, just to have some patience. That's all I'm asking for you guys is to have some patience with us, have patience with yourself and your health will be much better off for it. Don't keep falling for the easy, fast, quick, extreme ways even though they're more like exciting and they are tempting. If we can resist that temptation and go down the path of a lifestyle change, you listen, in a year's time, six months time I was going to be you're going to look back and go, God I didn't get swindled by that kind of quick results thing.
Speaker 1:And that's what the story of the choice of Hercules is about where Hercules was walking down a path and he had a forked path. On the left, there was this like angel woman and she's like, come down this path Hercules, you don't have to work, you'll have never left to work, you'll have all the glory, all the the pleasure, you'll have the body of your dreams, you'll have to do nothing and you just live in luxury. Then the other fuck is the another kind of angel going, don't listen to her. Whilst you might have, you know, the the lean body and all the pleasures in the world and you can do whatever you want and all that, you won't feel fulfilled because you won't have earned any of it. And you feel terrible for keeping going down instant gratification, you feel shockingly bad for it.
Speaker 1:If you come down this path, it's very tough. There's a lot of challenges on the way, a lot of obstacles we're gonna put in your way, and those obstacles are like a medicine. They might go down with bit of kickback like, oh, this is disgusting, but it's for your own good. So we're gonna give you 12 big challenges. But because you do them yourself and you overcome these challenges yourself, you're gonna become somebody you never thought was possible hence he became the famous Hercules.
Speaker 1:Now Hercules wouldn't be Hercules at all if he didn't go through those tests and the 12 labors. Right? He had to go through those obstacles to become Hercules. And it's all the same for you guys, who do you think you're going to become if you always go for the easy option, you always fall for the simple tricks, the extreme methods of quick, fast, get rich quick schemes basically. Like if you keep falling for those because you don't want any obstacles, because you want it to be as easy as possible, who are you gonna become?
Speaker 1:Absolutely nobody and absolutely nothing. But if you want to go down a tough path, which it is the lifestyle change is, the obstacles you're now overcoming they will start pushing you and molding you into this person. And only when you look back you'll realize I'm the person I am today because I actually went through those obstacles. I actually went out on those weekends and I went drinking to try and build it into my lifestyle. I actually did want to learn about macros, my education and learn to cook and meal prep.
Speaker 1:I actually did learn about strength training and I did push myself to use more weights. I did actually sign into some mindset seminars. I did actually read a non fiction book for the first time and it was challenging and fitted in my kids and all that but I woke up thirty minutes early a day and I've got more time in a day. I did all those things, I overcome them, they're like medicines and that's how I am today, a healthy positive person and that's why I am Hercules. So just remember that, these obstacles and Ryan Holiday has a book called Obstacle is the Way, that's pretty much what it's all about.
Speaker 1:The obstacle is the way, and we go through it. We don't try and run away from it. We go through the obstacle and the person we become going through these obstacles is what matters. So remember that and enjoy yourself today. So remember, we are taking things one day at a time.
Speaker 1:The person we are becoming, so the person we are working on right now will eventually morph into this person time that you won't believe is you. But you can't just skip all the day. You can't just go all do, you know, do weeks weeks of work at once. You have to take things one day, one action at a time, and we just build up. So that's all we're gonna do.
Speaker 1:One day, one action. So get your one big thing done. If you are still not on the challenge, you're still waiting to do your macros or running your first workout, your one big thing today is just pick one of them. Just do your tracking, do your workout. Drink your water, get your steps and just pick one of them and we build momentum.
Speaker 1:Everything starts tiny habits and they build. Right, Zara was on one the calls last week and I finished this and she was saying how she was always trying to do courses all the time, online courses. And you know, there were huge amounts of work to get done, loads of videos to watch. And she would never complete them because you're looking in its totality, you're looking at it as like eight hours of work, eight hours videos, fifteen hours, twenty hours. But then she started saying, you know what, I'll just read one page a day.
Speaker 1:And that's what she did. And now she's do finishing courses at a speed she never thought was possible because she's reversed it. And then like, actually, I'll just do one a day, and then it turns into 10 a day. So it's easy to trick our mind this way. So for you, this is why the one big thing method works.
Speaker 1:What's your one big thing today? You might probably you will probably do more than the one big thing today, but just do your one big thing today and that's it in your mindset and then it's gonna build momentum. Because we we get motivation mainly after we build. So we instead of thinking motivation equals action, action equal progress, progress equals motivation, we can start with action, which is one page, one step, one run, and then you run one minute to jog in. That then goes into progress.
Speaker 1:You're making some progress. Once we make some progress, we feel awesome. And then we can make progress. That feels more motivation and boom. That is the cycle.
Speaker 1:So use it today to your advantage. Have a good day. Speak to you tomorrow.
