I've been lying to myself

I’m writing this from my newly designed “man cave”

It’s underground in our basement

There’s no sounds, apart from the brown noise soundtrack I’m listening to

I’m totally in my element, focused and engaged with my thoughts

Writing is such a blisful experience…

I’m so excited right now, I’ve been putting off building my office or personal space for so long.

Since moving from Australia to The Netherlands, we still had a shit ton of boxes not unpacked, they filled the entire office space and I’m lazy AF and kept ignoring it.

“I’ll do it later”

Meanwhile dreaming daily about having my own space and thinking about how productive it will make me.

I just didn’t take action, the thought or idea of being productive was more exciting that actually living it.

The perils of an introvert…

Anyway, like I said in my last newsletter, I wanted to tell more stories, I wanted to get more intimate and share more about me. This is my attempt at doing so.

I hope you like it.

But without coming across seemingly self obsessed I need to deliver some value, so let me talk about a little lie that I’ve believed for the majority of revolutions around the sun I’ve lived.

For 15 years I believed a lie.

a lie that subconsciously stopped my growth

a lie that has robbed me of positive emotions

As a skinny guy (ectomorph) my fitness problems in life were gaining weight.

“OMG I wish I had that problem!” — yells Overweight Karen.

“Problems are relative Karen” - Replied Jono.

So I had to start bulking, eat shitloads and lift weights.

I went from 56kgs to 68kgs in a matter of weeks. (Mind you I’m 6ft tall (185cm) so you can imagine how lanky I was)

More calories in.

Minimal calories out.

The Lie: 

“Don’t EVER do cardio because you’ll lose weight.”

“Running burns lots of calories”

So I never did.

—------------------------------🌳-------------------------------

Fast forward 15 years and 2 weeks.

A good friend asked me if I wanted to go for a run, and for some reason every second person I know is a runner.

So I thought “There must be something great here, why do people run all the time?”

Never in my life have I decided to “go on a run”, get outside and just start running.

Because “Running will make me skinnier”

Anyway we did a 5K run.

It was amazing.

My mind was blown that I could go that far and run the entire time without stopping.

🤯

We listened to a motivational running coach on the way and it taught me to be calm, don’t over think, focus on pace, deep breathing and we kept on going.

After the run I felt incredible.

Endorphins pumping through my body.

The rest of my day was great.

I had a buzz of positive energy the whole day and I slept like a log at night.

Why is this relevant to gaining weight?

Because this run taught me a few things:

• How to breathe

• How to stay focussed

• How to keep pushing myself

Breath, focus and determination are 3 key things you need when running.

If you don’t breathe correctly, you’ll get a stitch and not be able to work as hard.

If you don’t focus, you’ll run out of sync with your breath and tire quickly.

You have to push yourself, if you run 2km away from your house, you can’t just stop and end it, there’s still another 2km until you can rest. So there is a drive to keep going and not give up.

This mindset I now apply to my strength training.

With correct breathing and focus I’m able to push myself harder.

I’m able to squeeze out more reps.

I’m able to hold longer time under tension.

Which means I can accelerate my strength and muscle growth.

Which means I am able to build more muscle.

Aaaaand

Running burns more calories on average, therefore I need more food.

More food = more energy = more growth.

—------------------------------🌳-------------------------------

This lie I believed stopped my growth mentally and physically.

And it made me think “how many other self limiting beliefs do I have?” 

New experiences open your mind and increase your self awareness..

Keep experiencing.

Keep learning about yourself.

You’ll have greater leverage as a creator.

These experiences help feed my mind with ideas and energy to build a dream life.

That’s exactly what I’m doing here with my newsletter and Twitter, building towards a life of freedom.

How?

Right now, I’m building a coaching business, to break down your belief systems and turn you into a creator.

We all have $100k+ worth of experiences and lessons in our minds, we just need to learn how to extract them.

If you want help reply to this email with “habanero” let’s chat! (no sale)

I hope this helped you today,

Follow @jonomation on Twitter for more

Thanks friends