If ONLY everyone would do CrossFit. I wish my parents would just do it! It is scaleable!
If ONLY everyone knew the benefits of eating paleo! I wish my parents would just do it! It is a matter of choice!
If ONLY everyone knew how to count their macros! Everyone would lose the weight they keep talking about!
If ONLY i was not so naive. I would then be able to see that evolution not only exists on a macro scale but on the micro as well. The quotes above are things that I have said, and truly believed in.
We all fall victim to these beliefs, these dogmas, constantly. We believe that our newly acquired information is the most important information we have ever received. This information must be enacted on everyone immediately, of course for their sake. You are not exactly to blame either, it makes you feel so GOOD. It invigorates you, has helped you lose the weight you wanted to lose, gain the strength you wanted to gain, get the job you wanted to get, and it served you in some way.
What you may fail to realize is that your ideas. just like everything, will continue to evolve. Your current “belief” may not be the same in 10, 20 years, and why should it be?! Don’t you assume that you will be a different person then? How to account for this? Should you stop believing in your beliefs!?
Not exactly. We need to take a brief look at how this happens and how it serves us. How do strong beliefs form?
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You have success with / due to the activity
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People in this community share success/miracle stories, as well as finding evidence to confirm their belief
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You engorge yourself with books, articles, videos, etc. of those who are sharing information and more reasoning behind the logic of why this thing is working.
There you have it. Sold. Sign me up. I am 100% committed to veganism, wait no, carnivorism? I am a CrossFitter! No, sorry, I am a yogi (but on the weekends). You are mistaken, I am a MOVER! Yes, does that cover me?
People want to so desperately belong to something, in fact we truly need it. We evolved in tribes and small knit communities, until our shared stories and systems became complex enough to shove more sapiens into the same society.
So, whats the problem? The problem can be seen here in action – Click!
Being a CrossFitter is ok, as is eating more vegetables, as is being a more conscious meat consumer. It is ok to practice Yoga, and also cycle. In fact, I do all of these things. I ride my bike sometimes, and I also perform workouts which involve rounds, reps, sets, and even time domains. However, I learned from my past that I am not only going to change my ideas, but I am going to change them as I experience my current ideas in action.
It makes sense that eating carnivore for a month could improve your health and your education right? It will teach you to be aware of the meat that you eat, where it comes from, and how it gets to you. Also, being a vegan can make you aware of the potential benefits different veggies have to offer. CrossFit can make you very strong with a set of specific tools, as well as teach you how to push yourself and your limits. Yoga can teach you to have an internal dialogue, moving into difficult postures and focusing on your breath and your beliefs (I think I can, I think I can, one more chaturanga).
The problem lies in believing that this current state is your FINAL state, and that you have the answers others do not. You then share this mis-information and potentially harm others in the process, if they do not have the wits to evolve out of their dogma.
“Figure out where you can both stand on the same ground. What do you both believe to be true? This is where some real gold can be found.”
A solution? Don’t be so quick to believe even yourself. Test and document your workouts, food intake, sleep, current beliefs, and more. Find ideas opposed to your own and genuinely try to understand them. Here is the real kicker, figure out where you can both stand on the same ground. What do you both believe to be true? This is where some real gold can be found.
Understand that what is working for YOU right now might not be what is best for someone else, or even you in the future (or the past). People constantly tell me they wish they knew about “movement” or some isolated set of skills like handstands and snatches when they were younger. News flash – NO YOU DID NOT. You were busy doing all of the other things that made you – you. Now is the only (and the best) time.
Everything is happening as it should, in the order that it should. You cannot control that.
Be nothing – Be everything – Don’t be afraid to evolve.
– Kevin