Fit For Your Purpose?

Being well, being in the frame of mind, and feeling well about whatever we’re doing, alters the likely outcome of that activity beyond imagination.
Why?
Because it makes the difference to how we do it, doesn't it?

We often overlook the importance of how we do anything.

Yet we see examples of this every weekend on our television sets.
We see two teams play hurling, or rugby, or camogie, and we see there, right in front of us, that the difference in performance, and ultimately the result, is not so much  about what people are doing as it is how they’re doing it.

There are 30 players on the pitch. They're all playing the same game, in the same conditions, with the same rules.
Yet one team is playing the other one off the pitch.
It's the 'how', isn't it?

The ascendant team is likely to be better prepared, better trained, and better practised.
They are ready, ready to perform at a certain level.
The other one isn't.
It's a good lesson, isn't it? 
They've prepared physically. They've trained mentally.
And they've rehearsed in physical and mental events that may replicate in the game.
That's being ready, isn't it?

And yet, when it comes to our own daily performance in whatever it is we are doing, we seem to forget this point. 

We tend to think that because we’re going through the motions, doing the steps according to the procedure, that we should be certain of a successful outcome.

And while adherence to the procedure or game plan is recommended and admirable, what makes the real difference is how we do it..

This is the real value in seeing ourselves as the instruments of performance.

Decades ago, I had a conversation with a music teacher. This teacher, while concerned with the lessons and exercises that needed to be learned, saw the value of the mindset and the attitude of the pupils coming to the lessons.

Having once aspired to become a drummer, and having experienced the thrill and accomplishment of some basic learning, and using some basic skills, the importance of mindset and attitude became apparent to me.

Way back then, it had become apparent to me that those whom I admired had a frame of mind, an attitude, an open-mindedness, a willingness, an ability to practice what they didn’t really  want to do, to reach the levels at which they could now perform.

Their performances then, were many levels ahead of those of us  with a different mindset. 
They were aware not only of the importance of frequency, but of the attention and the content of their practice.

The quality and purpose of their practice was at a different level to the average player.
So, I was very interested in what this teacher had to say.

As an example of the effect of this observation, I carried the same principle over to my physical training and general fitness regime. I applied it to all aspects of the regime in relation to my own personal goals in life.

In the couple of seconds it took to realise that this principle was transferable to any activity, the levels and effectiveness of my training were transformed.
The goals crystallised.
Irrelevancies evaporated.

From that day on, the whole meaning of being Fit and Healthy and Well took on a different significance. 
It meant that I was equipping myself with the wherewithal to achieve the relatively modest goals for my own life.
But any goal, however modest or ambitious, needs a frame of mind to begin the activity, a physical and mental endurance to sustain it, and an emotional attachment to give it the life and vitality of meaning.

It means we're fit for the purpose of doing what we need to do to get where we want  to go.

And that's what being 'Fit' is really about, isn't it?

If you agree with that, you could do worse than click this link.

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