Back to the Future

“Remembering what you know for supercharged workouts”

If we can foresee even a glimpse of ourselves performing with excellence in an imagined future, then we will try to support that with more positive recollections from our past.  It’s a cool loop.

I read this profound idea in a book called “The Discovery of Being” by Rollo May.  No, I wasn’t reading it to my kids at bedtime and I probably should have been out having far more fun, yet that’s how I roll…

Rollo’s a clever dude.

He expresses the notion that “we recall the past selectively, based on the vision of our future.”  I paraphrased this, but that’s what he said.  As soon as we think ahead with good intent we evoke the successful past.

Expect the best for future workouts and you’ll hunt for previous evidence that this is possible.

We don’t have a time machine to pop back and alter the past to change today, but we can imagine a great future and find some support for it from our past.  Right now I’m building today’s session by revisiting some great workouts I’ve had.  I’m constructing what I’m going to do from awesome memories.  This spontaneity comes from repeated practice and you can do it too.

Start thinking Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, who saw what he wanted, and then acted accordingly so that the past supported him day to day.

“Autonomy, mastery and purpose, day by day…”

Just like a gamer that “becomes” the character, gradually we become the successful protagonist in our own feature film.  (Must stop playing Tomb Raider…)  It’s vital that we support ourselves with both a compelling future vision and successful patterns in the past.

A confident person has easily accessible memories of them being good at stuff.  They’ll access these memories as part of their identity when faced with a future challenge.

Here’s the practice:  Sit or stand and think of your upcoming workout, being open to images, sensations and emotion.  Recall a previous workout that felt good and allow the confidence and accomplishment of that to fill in the future workout.  Keep doing this until you’re ready to go!

Make a strong mental note of good performances and build a storehouse of them.

“Lets do tomorrow’s workout today!”

Jeez, where’s Michael J Fox in his Delorean?

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