We Fear The Mental More Than the Physical
14 October, 2008 - Motivation - 10 Comments
Photo by Josh C
I love seeing people push themselves to their limit. I love pushing myself to my limit. I don’t think anybody truly knows what it’s like to be alive until they have gone to their limit and come back again. Until you get to a point where nothing in the world seems worth saying apart from, “Damn! I feel alive!”. Yep, I’ve screamed that phrase at the top of my lungs on a number of occasions. Most noticeably after intentionally capsizing my kayak and getting involved in a very messy, very cold rescue.
I hit the water, upside down. I tried to find the handle to pull off my spray deck. I tried to find the kayak to push myself out. I surfaced, far from shore, in freezing conditions, with fellow kayakers screaming rescue instructions at me. Hands numb. Head feels like it’s squeezing as it cools. All you want to do is get out of the water, but you know the only way to do so is to stop splashing, screaming and shouting. You know your only hope of rescue is to stay calm. A fellow kayaker won’t risk their own life if you’re splashing and threatening to grab their boat and pull them under. They’ll only come close once you’re calm. You know you have to stop and listen.
Then, suddenly, the water feels warm. That’s not a good sign, because you know the water is very cold. They say when cold water starts to feel warm, you’re not in a good position.
I finally calm down, still floating in the water. I float there, holding to my rescuers kayak as he pulls my kayak over his to empty the water. He flips over my kayak and slaps it back on the water. Now I have to find a way to climb back in to it. There’s a technique, but I can no longer feel my fingers.
90 seconds is the limit to have a capsized kayaker back in their boat. We were way past that.
Finally I got back in. Cold, wet, hungry and sleepy. That wasn’t a nice experience, but it was the best feeling in the world when I got back in the kayak and had a drink of hot chocolate. “Damn. I feel alive!”
Are You Unbreakable?
We have a new reality TV show here in the UK. “Unbreakable”, on Channel 5, has brought together eight of the fittest members of the UK public who claim to be unbreakable. They are being put through physical and mental challenges. Cross country ski marches. Jungle treks. Nights sleeping in snow caves. Training for falling through ice. Dealing with the effects of CS gas. The list goes on. One by one, the show aims to brake them. And one by one, the contestants aim to show they are unbreakable.
These people are incredibly strong. Some stronger than others. But all very strong. I watched in amazement as they pushed themselves to their limit. I watched as one contestant who wasn’t able to swim, volunteered to go first in dropping in to a hole in the ice. Yep, water just one degree above freezing, and in she went with her backpack, ski’s and ski poles. She struggled as the cold hit her core body area. The possibility of having a heart attack from shock at that temperature is very real. Yet she did it and put in one of the best performances of the whole group.
Then I watched as they built themselves snow caves to sleep in. Most did very well, considering it was their first attempt. But one of the contestants decided she had had enough, and rather than putting in the extra effort to ensure a comfy night, she dug herself an open, exposed hole and jumped in. She paid the price, after waking up in the morning with the first stages of hypothermia. Only after being forced to do exercise to warm herself up did she recover. 5% extra effort now gives 50% extra comfort tomorrow.
CS Gas
The highlight of the show was the presenter, British explorer Benedict Allen, taking the chance to challenge the CS gas. Stand in a tent filled with the potent, pepper spray CS gas that chokes and burns your eyes and throat, then take off your gas mask and see how long you last. Most of the contestants lasted 20-30 seconds. One managed a full minute. Benedict Allen? He lasted three minutes! The physical effects were the same for all who tried, but Allen had the mental strength to block out the pain and replace it something else. In this case, that “something else” was conversation. He talked with a trainer inside the tent and didn’t stop talking until the trainer got bored.
The True Fear
As I watched the show, and as I remembered back to my own times of breakable moments, I made a strange realisation. The contestants (and I) were more worried and scared about the tasks that involved nothing but mental strength, than they were about those tasks that required super-human physical strength.
For me, I wasn’t at all worried about my first experience of kayaking a river. I was excited. Likewise, I wasn’t at all worried about long stints of kayaking across large lakes where arms and legs easily become tired. But I was scared about the first time I intentionally capsized my kayak. I was scared of the cold. I was scared of the escape from my kayak.
Likewise, the contestants on last nights show were was more scared about sitting five metres, behind a wall, from a 5kg bomb and entering a CS gas tent, than they were about skiing many miles with 25kg backpacks.
It struck me that those tasks that require mental strength require much more motivation than those that require physical strength. And that’s why we need to beat the mind to beat the body. In order to jump on the bike and go for a ride, we need to overcome our mind and not our body. In order to write on a regular schedule for our blogs, we have to overcome our mind and not our body.
Beat the mind, beat the body.
How mentally strong are you? Are you able to discipline yourself? If you work from home, do you find it easy or hard? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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Posted on 14 October, 2008 by Jamie Harrop
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I agree, mental tasks are much more daunting than physical. However, I do love how they give you that same feeling of aliveness once completed, and especially when you’ve taken yourself to the limits of your mental capacity. I often find this true when doing very creative yet complex tasks.
Hey Oktober.
Creative and complex tasks. Yep, those are fun, for sure.
Thanks for the comment! Hope you stick around and read some more.
Jamie
Oh, I definitely will. I enjoyed your comment on Writer Dad and stopped by. I like it
Oh, so easy to work at home. I’m an introvert true and true. I used to get pretty annoyed at my last job as a proofreader when people would stroll into my office unannounced and start talking. I didn’t mind the odd break, but not when they were the one who’s rush job I was working on. I LOVE working at home!
It’s funny, now I have to discipline myself to take a break. But I don’t feel like I’m “working” now so it’s hard to see when I need a break.
Davinas last blog post..Blog Action: Pass The Change, Be The Change
Hey Davina,
Yep, that’s how it used to be for me in my early days of working from home and as it happens, I’ve got some of that back since I came back from Australia.
When you’re truly passionate about what you do, it never seems like work when you do it at home. :
Thanks for the comment!
You’re back? I thought you were traveling around Australia?
DavidDs last blog post..Lehman Brothers: How to Make the Most out of Redundancy
Hey David,
Yeah, I was supposed to be, but it didn’t quite work out. I came back to the UK.
It’s all good though. I didn’t know whether living out of a backpack would be for me until I tried it, and it turned out it wasn’t. You never know until you try.
[...] This is a physiological response to the fear, and you’ll feel it in your body – a sense of energy, vigour or power that can propel you forwards. Frequently people use this for physical or environmental challenges like jumping out of a plane, giving a big speech or running the rapids. [...]
[...] article from one of my new blogging friends, Jamie Harrop. The blog post is about fear, and titled We Fear the Mental more than the Physical. Jamie is a great guy and great writer who demonstrates a great ability to create motivational [...]
Michael Phelps believes the same thing. He attributed much of his success to being mentally strong. When his body is screaming at him to stop, he keeps pushing himself. Putting in the extra work on days like your birthday and a big holiday isn’t easy… that’s when your mental strength comes in.