A NEW FRONTIER
Ten years ago, the fitness industry as we know it did not exist. People were not sharing their workouts on social media and there were very few resources about training online. If you were someone who was heavily into training, that was the thing that defined you as a person. Fast forward to today and there are an endless number of websites, blogs, and social media personalities providing unlimited information about all different types of training and nutrition. If you are interested in getting in shape or finding a diet that works for you, the information is all right there and available. And it no longer defines you as a person; for athletes and recreationalists alike, training is just one part of our daily routines that keeps us balanced, grounded, and fulfilled. With physical training now commonplace, the next frontier for personal growth is in the mind.
THE POWER OF MINDSET
Whether they were aware of it or not, every high performer in history has had a “training” routine for their mind. The Brazilian soccer star Pelé used visualization before every game to build a mental movie of success and reconnect with his love and purpose for the sport. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban attributes much of his success to a philosophy of “lifelong learning” that manifests in four or five hours of reading per day. From elite athletes to successful entrepreneurs, they all have routines to train their mindsets and keep them motivated and innovative to continually outperform the competition. But there is no reason this should be unique to the world’s top athletes or CEOs. Anyone with experience of mindset training is aware of the profound difference it can make in their emotional and cognitive performance. Similar to what happend with fitness, mindset training is quickly moving from obscurity to mainstream.
Everyone begins at a different point in their mindset training, just like with fitness. An initial fitness goal might be to lose weight, gain muscle, or increase general health. We continue to adjust our training until these three factors are optimized, and then continue to level up in each of those categories. Mindset training analogously seeks to optimize three factors: motivation, creativity, and emotional regulation. In the following newsletters, we will explore all of the details of these factors, along with their many subcategories and how we can form training routines based on which we most want to improve.
motivation
Motivation is our desire to strive towards meaning, purpose, and a life worth living. The most powerful motivation is intrinsic, meaning it comes from within and it is fully integrated with one’s identity. This leads to lasting effort and a more fulfilling life of accomplishments.
creativity
Creativity is our ability to think of new ideas, make connections between other ideas, and solve problems in unique ways. The character trait of creativity is linked to curiosity, positivity, and intrinsic motivation. Each person has the ability for creativity, and it is one of the most important aspects that leads to self-actualization.
emotional regulation
Emotional regulation is our power to affect change on our emotional states through such practices as mindfulness, intentional focus, and cognitive reframing. It is not only the ability to control and conceal emotions, but to actively change the color of these emotions in our experience of the moment.
The Mindset Training Newsletter will be an ongoing project sharing the ASRV mindset and documenting our team’s exploration into optimal human performance. It’s an open newsletter for our internal team members and any other like-minded individuals out there obsessed with progress, innovation, and challenge-seeking in all areas of life. There are no clubs to join, no programs to buy, and we only measure our success against the versions of ourselves from yesterday. Each newsletter will include discussions around the ASRV mindset of welcoming challenges, info about what our team is currently experimenting with for our own optimal performance, and highlights of relevant concepts to consider from religion, spirituality, neuroscience, and anything in between.
Mind and body harmony is an endless frontier that has no finish line, no finite goals, just infinite growth. This journal will not lead us to finite happiness, but we can guarantee that it will bring us closer to who we truly are. We believe that each human individual has unique and extraordinary abilities, but these talents must be brought out of us. And much like the years we put into physical training, this process takes time, discipline, and effort.