Have you got an Inner Goblin?

#47

Do you have the perception that people who train hard are aggressive, loud and intense? Does that intimidate you or are not behaviours you want to develop in yourself?

This post will illustrate why those traits you perceive are not the ones that most strong and fit people actually exhibit.

You have to be uncomfortable to get comfortable

To get better at anything you have to go out of your comfort zone. That always feels uncomfortable. Most of the time you try and stay in your comfort zone but there are times when you leave it on purpose.

A training programme is one of those. You are effectively paying a trainer or coach to help you get out of your comfort zone and get better at something.

In the case of a training programme you can see where you want to get to and how you are going to get there. You can see all the points were you will leave your comfort zone and that is scary.

You rarely extend your comfort zone with one act. It takes repetitions and challenges to get comfortable.

So you see not only is your journey to your goal difficult, it is also long. You feel trepidation as well as fear.

It’s that time of year when my clients are getting out of their comfort zone

We are about 5 weeks into the new year programmes and clients are registering personal bests.

Both these graphs are estimated one rep max of Female client’s squatting. The first graph is someone who has been training for 1 year and over the last 3 weeks has got the strongest they have ever been.

The second graph is an experienced trainer who follows a periodised programme changing every 3 weeks to vary the stimulus. She has also achieved new strength levels.

Both have entered the uncomfortable zone where every time they train it is new territory.

When my clients get to this point I see their behaviour change. They don’t get aggressive, grunt, shout or get weirdly intense.

They get focused, determined, even talkative. When they successfully complete the set, you can see a look of pride and a slight disbelieving grin, as if they just found a bit of treasure that they get to keep.

Being aggressive takes a lot of energy and you can’t maintain that throughout even one training session no matter over a 12 week programme.

You need a different personality trait. I call this the Inner Goblin.

The Inner Goblin

As we get older, gain more responsibilities and get more risk averse we retreat into our comfort zone. But remember when you were a child, a teenager or in your 20s and all the things you did which were dangerous, stupid, exhilarating and broke social norms. It felt great didn’t it?

This was the time you routinely stepped out of your comfort zone to learn about life, what works and what not to do.

To do that we exhibited some unique personality traits:

• Mischievous & Trickster-like – Love causing trouble, playing pranks, and outsmarting others.

• Greedy & Hoarders – Like collecting experiences, trinkets, and shiny objects.

• Curious & Tinkering – Like to try new things, invent different ways of doing things, some successfully but often in boys case they are lucky to still be alive.

Now you are older how often to you get to exhibit these traits?

They are the same traits that folklore and fantasy writers give to Goblins.

To train outside your comfort zone you need these traits to get you successfully to your end goal.

If I rephrase the Goblin traits to a client on a programme they are basically the same.

• You enjoy doing something different that other people aren’t doing.

• You want to collect personal bests, accolades and positive feedback on how you look.

• You are open to trying new things and experimenting to get to your goals.

The ability to summon these traits from deep inside you and enjoy the challenge, rather than feel fear or trepidation is the key to consistently and successfully stepping out of your comfort zone.

I call these the Inner Goblin traits. They are sustainable over the long term as it is much easier to have a cheeky grin on your face with your eye on the prize at the end of the set, than being worried about can you do it and what happens if you fail.

When I do hard training and my mind starts drifting to negative thoughts I visualise my goblin is next to me, I smile to myself and enjoy being uncomfortable. At my age there are few scenarios where that younger version of me can come out and not get me in trouble.

You all have an inner Goblin, repressed somewhere inside you, bring it out once in a while it will make you feel young again.