The Freedom Project

Today, I’m going to give you the truth. Honestly, this isn’t the sexy stuff. I anticipate this blog will get way fewer views than most of my stuff, but it’s the truth behind strong mindset foundations. If you’re going to push yourself, your mindset better be built on strong foundations. Without strong mindset foundations, you’ll find yourself going round and round in circles; perpetually falling into the same old trap and wondering why you can’t change your mindset. When I start working with athletes, they want to jump into the shiny stuff straight away: pre-lift routines and the like. I’ll be honest with you for a moment - if you haven’t got a decent foundation of mindset, most of that will fall flat on its face. Here are the foundational mindset requirements. Get these right and you’ll close the gap between you and your potential. Get them wrong and you’ll always be stagnated.

Whether you are proud of the athlete you become or not, depends entirely on your mindset. Not your physical capacity. Think about your mindset as the thing which determines the gap between the level you perform at and your potential. Someone else wrote this better than me: Performance = potential - interference. In my time coaching crossfit athletes mindset, I’ve located five extremely common problems which hold athletes back from their potential: the forbidden five. Today, I’m going to help you figure out which one of these five is holding you back the most. If you don’t know the belief holding you back, you will always be limited by it, but you probably won’t be able to see it. “Until the unconscious becomes conscious, it will rule your life and you’ll call it fate.” C.G. Jung Today we’re going to cover: Why you can’t meet the standards you set for yourself Why you don’t believe in yourself Why you feel like the outsider Why you can’t change your mindset Why you feel it’s fine for someone else, but not for you

I see 7 big reasons CrossFit athletes stay frustrated with poor performances.   If you consistently finish up comps or workouts second guessing your effort. Or look back at months of training and realise you haven’t come as far as you’d like. Or are just frustrated at how slowly you’re improving, this is for you.   Especially if you have a hunch that your body isn’t the limiting factor, it’s probably your mind.   Today, I’m going to let you know the 7 traps that I see athletes falling into time and again.   If you fall into one of these 7 traps, your mindset will suffer, and so will your performance.

In this podcast I’m going to explain how I debrief CrossFit Open performances with my athletes to help train their mindset.   This ensures no matter the result, they can use The Open to be better than they were before.   Before we get started, I need to reiterate something:   The quickest way to make The Open a complete failure is to learn nothing from it.   No matter if it went well or poorly, you stop growing when you stop learning.   The biggest mistake athletes can make right now (or after any comp) is failing to reflect on it by rushing onto the next thing.   I’ve found that if athletes go through this process they never regress. Of course, there’s some more depth I hit whilst in conversation with them, but these are my starting points   A mindset debrief comes in the following parts: Praising the positive intentionally Growing from setbacks and disappointments Increasing your self awareness Take action

If your mindset is an exhausting emotional rollercoaster, I wrote this for you.   Training like a full time athlete is exhausting enough. Combining it with not being able to live comfortably off sponsorship, running a full time & demanding job, or being a parent is infinitely harder.   You have other exhausting things in your life, and you still have lofty aims.   Yet the constant demands of everything stack up.   And there’s always the inner doubt of “is all this even worth it?”   Part of you wants to give up, but there’s a stronger part of you which desires a life well lived.   Most athletes never reach their potential because they let this emotional rollercoaster take away from what’s important, create self doubt and make them think that anything less than perfection is failure.   You don’t have to live that life. You don’t deserve that life.   Today, I am going to teach you:   How to drop the pressure when you need to perform How to let go of perfectionism How to stop being knocked around by your thoughts and emotions How to regain the fun in training

“I’ve tried to journal, but I don’t know how.” If that sounds like you, this blog post is your answer. I’m going to give you an exact framework of the 4 most common journaling exercises I use with the athletes I work with. If you’re like almost every athlete I have spoken to, you know you should be journaling, but you’re not sure how, you’re not sure it will even benefit you, or you struggle with it feeling like it’s working. If you’re not journaling, you’re missing out on huge mindset gains because you’re just settling for what’s normal to you… …not what’s best for you. Most athletes never get the most out of journaling because they don’t know how to do it effectively. I’m going to teach you how to journal for four main goals: How to be more a more positive athlete How to increase your self-knowledge How to become mentally tougher (or any other character skill you want) How to be more consistent, driven & disciplined

There are two types of comparison. One really is the thief of joy. If you compare in this way, you’ll always find proof you are not good enough. Your workouts will be filled with doubt and negativity. Your progress will stutter to a halt.   Whilst this form of comparison will hurt you, comparison’s lighter side will guide you to better performances. It will highlight your best path to growth. And it will provide fuel for your progress as an athlete.   So maybe you should be comparing yourself more, not less.   This week, I’ve had conversations with a handful of the athletes I work with about comparison. They have been struggling with comparing themselves to the athletes they either look up to or want to beat.   I told them they need to stop that way of thinking.   Yet I had a conversation with another athlete where I encouraged them to compare themselves more to those kinds of athletes. When they did that, their performance excelled, their motivation spiked, and they felt more positive.   Today, I’ll be explaining how I approach comparison with my athletes, and ensure that they’re using the correct type to fuel their process, not beat themselves up with.   We’ll be covering   The difference between the two types of comparison and what to avoid if you want to perform well How to recognise the negative type of comparison and limit how it shows up An antidote to the non-serving comparison to fuel positivity How to train positive comparison to excel as an athlete

Today, I’m going to show you the anatomy of a confident athlete.   After reading this, you’ll know how to build your confidence and start performing like you believe in yourself.   Because right now, I’m guessing there’s a little too much self-doubt in your performances…   …not enough belief…   …and a whole bunch of unhelpful self-talk.   Which means that progress is slow and training has stopped being enjoyable.   Most athletes never discover their confidence for two main reasons:   They see confidence as a character trait which is set in stone, and not a trainable skill They never put the reps into changing it   Today, I’ll give you the first steps in changing that.   There’s so much BS out there when it comes to training your confidence. Most often we’re just told to be more confident… yes, but how?   “Just believe in yourself” does more harm than good to the unconfident athlete   I’m going to explain to you the four things confident athletes do, that you don’t do:   Detaching from the problem Having something worth fighting for Creating the vital distance Creating effortless effort

If you struggle with Oly Lifting, brace yourself because the following doesn’t read nicely…       You walk up to the barbell. This lift is always your biggest weakness.       All you want is to succeed for once. But success is unpredictable for you. Will it be a good session or a bad one?       You’ve already visualised missing the lift. The pressure is unbearable. You feel weak. Confidence through the floor.       You tell yourself to drop the pressure, or just try and enjoy it, or maybe “just stop being so shit.”       You’ve missed the lift before you’ve even touched the barbell.       Which just proves to yourself the story that you’re not good enough & you won’t make your potential count.       Ouch.       Sorry to speak so bluntly, but if you’re not going to look honestly at the problem, I will.       Because if your mindset sucks, your lifting will suffer.       And using discipline, aggressive self talk, and psyching yourself up will not be enough to change a story that lives deep in the recesses of your mind.       Today, I’m going to teach you a four-part mindset checklist to improve your relationship with olympic lifting.

If you’re ready to overcome that little voice telling you “you don’t belong…” …you don’t deserve to be here… …you’re not good enough… … then you’re in the right place. Today, I’m going to teach you the 4 steps to eliminate imposter syndrome in the world of competitive fitness. Imposter syndrome is feeling you don’t belong and you’re going to get caught out. If you’re an athlete, that means looking at your competitors and feeling like you’re an outsider. It means feeling like you’re just making up the numbers and not a serious contender. But asides from feeling shitty, Imposter Syndrome means never living up to your potential when it counts, never feeling like you gave your best account of yourself, and missing the opportunity to meet your potential. Most athletes never get to grip with this problem. They dabble in mindset work but never find a system that works for them. Or they think they just have to “believe in themselves.” Basically, they try to change, but have no idea how to change. Imposter syndrome is not only costing you your best performances. It’s costing you fun, enjoyment, and purpose in the thing you love doing the most. Today I’m going to teach you the four steps you must take to overcoming this potential stopper: Discovering the story at the root of it Creating a “break in case of emergency” antidote The 7,000 year Imposter Syndrome Remedy Building confidence through an undeniable body of work