Michael Phelps became the most medaled Olympian in history. He finished with 28 medals, 8 of which he won in one year, which is also an Olympic record. Does anyone know what happened to Phelps immediately following his career?
As soon as his career ended, Phelps struggled with alcoholism and depression. You might be thinking to yourself, “wow, how selfish or out of touch with the world he must have been for HIM to get depressed. He had just won the most medals in Olympic history and became an extremely wealthy icon. What could be so bad about that situation?”
Phelps had dedicated his entire life to achieving this goal, and he achieved it. The problem was, he didn’t have any plans for what to do after. Swimming became his identity, and once that was gone, he felt completely empty.
In other words, he had only set FINITE goals. He needed an INFINITE goal.
Although we’re not Olympians, we can still learn from Phelps’ mistake. What Phelps should have done was set his goal to do the things it would take to become a gold medalist, rather than on becoming a gold medalist itself.
Had he done this, he would have felt accomplished every day simply by doing all the things it took to become a gold medalist. In this case, he wouldn’t be measuring his success off whether he won gold, it would have been based off whether he did the work that day. This mindset would have carried over after his Olympic career was over. He would have had something to teach or mentor others and thus likely avoiding alcoholism.
We need to take the time to do this with our fitness and nutritional goals.
Rather than putting all our intention on hitting a specific number (weight loss, strength, or fat loss), we need to put more intention on the things we need to do to achieve that goal.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t set finite goals. You need those. What I’m saying is, we also need to develop an infinite mindset, otherwise you will not be satisfied when you achieve your goal, and you’ll have no reason to continue doing what it took to get there. Therefore, most people yo-yo with their weight, body fat, and consistency at the gym. They’ve restricted themselves to finite goals.
Think about your goals. Think about who that person is. What does that person do daily to achieve the level of health and fitness they have achieved? If we can switch gears and set our goals on committing to those actions and doing them consistently, your goals will ultimately take care of themselves.
The difference here is that you’re now focused on becoming the person that has that level of health and fitness, rather than just setting your sights on hitting some numbers on a scale. When you commit to this, you’re committing to an infinite game, which is becoming a healthier version of you that you can share with the world.
I hope this helps! Have a great one!
-Steve
