Adversity: Overcome And Succeed Despite It
When you look up adversity in the dictionary or online, some definitions may include hardships, misfortunes, or distress. Whichever meaning you choose to accept the fact remains the same.
Regardless of whom you are or where you call home, we all deal with adversities of many types in our lifetimes and it never comes at a good time.
The one upside to adversity is since it is inevitable, you can prepare to deal with adversity in general before it arrives and that can help you deal with whatever troubles you so you can move on with your life in a positive way.
Types of Adversity You Deal With
Adversity comes in many shapes and forms. It can hit you from a physical standpoint or from a mental and emotional angle.
Whether it is one way or the other, the fact of the matter remains you need to deal with it properly and quickly so you can move on because your bodybuilding and fitness aspirations are awaiting you and the sooner you can get back on track the better off you will be in both the short and long runs.
Click To Enlarge. Adversity can hit you from a physical standpoint or
from a mental and emotional angle.
Let's look at both types of adversity a little closer so we can plan on how to overcome them.
Physical Adversity
When I refer to physical adversity, I am referring to something that physically keeps you from focusing on what you are trying to do. This can be something like an illness or an injury that prevents you from training.
If you are sick or hurt, it can devastate you and prevent you from striving forward. You cannot let this stop you because bodybuilding and fitness isn't just about the gym or weight room as we all know.
Nutrition is the most important aspect of bodybuilding, fitness, and good health in general. When you are sick or hurt, this increases at least tenfold. Each good calorie that you take in and each bad calorie you avoid increases your chances for recovery.
Click To Enlarge. Nutrition is the most important aspect of bodybuilding,
fitness, and good health in general.
Staying away from the convenient and bad foods is just as important as the healthy foods you take in. The better you eat, the faster you will overcome your adversity and get back to training.
Don't forget about your supplementation either. Taking your multi's, protein powder, and whatever other products you have at your disposal is crucial to get you off the couch and back to doing what you love to do.
Mental Adversity
Mental adversity refers to either events or people that bring you down mentally and make you feel like you shouldn't go train or it doesn't matter whether you eat healthy or not. It brings you down to a sad or depressed state.
Events like this can include losing your job, going through a breakup or divorce, a catastrophic occurrence like a fire or extreme weather doing damage to your home or the worst of all, the death of a loved one or a friend.
Having to go through something like any of these events or others can make you extremely sad, lower your self-esteem and self-worth, and influence negative thoughts like bodybuilding is pointless or you aren't worth taking care of yourself.
Regardless of the thoughts that go through your head, none of them are true and the sooner you realize that, the quicker you will get into a more positive state of mind and get back on track.
Click To Enlarge. Mental adversity refers to either events or people that bring you down mentally and make you feel like you shouldn't go train.
People can have this same effect on people. Folks that are you are close to or even those that are strangers can affect your mental state. They can be negative because of things going wrong in their own lives and try to bring you down with them. Knowing they can make someone else feel bad sometimes makes them feel better.
They could try telling you that you are wasting your time at the gym and you can't achieve those outlandish goals you set for yourself. You can't let people like this keep you from staying in your positive mindset and striving toward your own goals.
Hopefully seeing that you can overcome adversity and live your own life for the better will inspire them to try to do the same.
Overcoming Adversity
It is one thing to prepare for different types of adversity but it is another to deal with this obstacle and move on in a positive direction. You have to do it though because letting adversity bother you is bad for yourself as well as those close to you.
If you are sick or injured and are physically unable to train, you can do more than just eat properly. This would be a great time to start coming up with a new strategy for when you do return to take on the iron.
You can study different exercises and read about nutrition information that can help you come up with a new plan to make gains again.
You can find ways to train around your injury so you don't get hurt again. Perhaps you can find a new supplement to try so your immune system will have extra support.
Working on a new plan will get you excited about what you are going to do once you get back to work instead of dwelling on the fact that you can't go to the gym now.
If it is more mental than physical then you can do a lot to keep that positive state of mind so you won't stop doing what you are doing. The first thing you must do is keep yourself surrounded by positive people.
Hanging out with people that have nothing to feel good about does nothing except bring you down with them. This is the absolute last thing you need. As a matter of fact, you don't need it at all.
A second way to keep yourself upbeat is to look back on how far you have come since you started. You have a lot to be proud of and there is nothing wrong with holding your head up high to show pride in your accomplishments. Looking back fondly at your feats will help you remember why you are doing this and that will help you feel better.
BodySpace
One final suggestion I have is to go on Bodyspace. Bodyspace is a great social network to get you focused again and reenergized mentally. Seeing the progress pictures and reading the blogs showing how people train and how good they feel will help you work toward having those same feelings yourself.
Writing in your own blog about what is going on in your world and knowing people are there to help you out by either sharing a positive comment or sympathizing with your situation goes a long way in helping you.
Take it from someone that has benefitted greatly from being on Bodyspace. You need to be on this site if you aren't yet.
Never Quit
When adversity strikes you, regardless of its form, dealing with it in as positive of a manner as possible will help you overcome it faster and get you back on the bodybuilding and fitness journey.
Taking that journey itself is as great a way to prepare for adversity as any other. Not everybody can do this and you should be proud of the fact that you can.
Hopefully that thought will help you overcome your adversity and prove why you can in fact do it.