I am my worst critic. Mentally, I beat myself up constantly. I justify it by saying it got me this far.
There's the expression "All or nothing." My expression is "All or all." For example, my plan calls for me to run three times a week for an hour each time. As we all know, life does not go according to plan.
I train hard so I pretty much always feel beat up. It's a fine line for me not to overtrain. When I feel especially beat up, I sometimes convince myself to go for an hour ruck instead of running.
Good idea right? Well, I usually berate myself for taking the easy way out and not running. Meanwhile, the greater population thinks I'm a sadist for the hour ruck.
The other day I was listening to a podcast with Peter Attia. If you have not checked him out, I recommend you do so. He is an MD who focuses on longevity. He has great guests on his podcasts and is great on others.
Peter said he can be very hard on himself. It got to the point where he actually got professional treatment for it. The best piece of advice I gleaned from it was, to speak to yourself as you would speak to a friend. Wow, this put a whole new spin on things for me.
So the other day when I felt like a bag of smashed sphincters and thought about going for a ruck instead of a run I didn't beat myself up. I spoke to myself as I'd speak to my wife. I said "On top of the fact that you are beat up, you just lost your dog of 10 years, you are stressed at work, and you are still doing something really good for your body. It's far better to do this than stretch your recovery thin and go for a run that could cause you to be overtrained. The ruck is actually the smarter thing to do."
I felt much better after this little internal conversation. Far better than the verbal abuse I usually give myself. If you are someone who beats themself up, try this positive self-talk out.
