“In” and “Out” in 60 Seconds Flat

At 1,300 words per minute, our self-talk has a huge effect on what happens both in our heads and in our lives. I’m confident that it wouldn’t take me all of 1,300 words to talk myself into or out of something. In that way, I can be “in” or “out” five times before a minute has past.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! That’s the alarm. The sun is barely rising. “Really? Already?!” Yes, “already.” By my math, in twenty seconds we can comfortably run through over 430 words in our head. That conversation includes multiple variations of, “Hit snooze! You’re crazy. You need sleep!” Surely, there are enough words left over to include some words of encouragement, too. “Get your ass up! You know you’ll feel better after you workout anyway.” And, so goes the chatter in you head.

Whether you get up and train or sleep in is a decision that you’ll flip back and forth over a hundred times in your mind before you make it, which is scary given the susceptibility to talking yourself out of nearly every decision you make. That moment isn’t always made clear either. When you choose, in this example, to sleep in, it doesn’t sound like “OK, I’m choosing to sleep in rather than train. I’ve even weighed all the options.” The scary reality is that our self-talk is so thorough that by the time you’ve decided to opt out, you’ve fully convinced yourself it’s the best option available and their was no reason for assuming there was another choice in the first place. In other words, you lie to yourself and at 1,300 words per minute in your head, you’ve closed the case on your lie so air tight that of course you’re right.

So, here’s the moment. Today’s workout is a 5K time trial. Are you in? Or, have you come up with a reason why you’re out?

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach