Breakthrough Self-Imposed Mental Ceilings

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Breakthrough Self-Imposed Mental Ceilings

By Wade McNutt
Natural National Bodybuilding Champion

Recently one of my clients name Jon brought up this question. Jon a highly motivated middle-aged guy transformed his body over the last year. By following the protocol I set out in Freaky Big Naturally, Jon built added an impressive amount of muscle to his frame while shedding a tremendous amount of body fat. Although he’s now the envy of his friends and now sports a body most men half his age would kill for he still had that burning desire to get to the next level of physical development.

Jon, like many trainees, made continuous process for about 6 months. After the first 6 months the progress slowed somewhat compared to his initial gains. Then as Jon approached the 1-year mark his progress seem to come to a stand still. No matter what Jon tried, he could not get his bodyweight past 185lbs.

Jon changed diets, tried new routines, added extra supplements but with only minimum change in his body. Frustration began to set in and those little nagging doubts began to creep into his mind. All of the familiar negative self talk plagues the minds of everybody at some point, started coming up in Jon’s brain such as:

I don’t have the genetics.
Natural guys just can’t that big.
Nothing is going to work.
I am not training hard enough, long enough, or frequently enough, etc…
I am eating too much…
I am eating too little…
I don’t have the time to put into the gym.
I don’t have the time to eat properly.
I am not getting enough sleep.
Maybe I am too old, too young, too whatever…
I am not getting protein… and so on.

Does this sound familiar? If so keep on reading.

The Mental Ceiling

Like millions of bodybuilders Jon had reached a “Mental Ceiling” and his outside actions were actually contributing to “self-sabotage”. Most people fail to recognize it’s the inner world that creates the outer world. Every action or non-action you perform is actually just a reflection of a program held in your mind, whether conscious or not.

The mind is a powerful ally and a formidable enemy. What one holds in the mind tends to manifest in our lives. Virtually every self-help book since Napoleon Hill’s timeless classic “Think & Grow Rich”, written in 1937, has illustrated this fact. Modern day psychiatry legend Dr. David Hawkins author of “Power vs. Force” explains in measurable detail the effects of every belief system, self-talk, and the emotions connected to thoughts or “states of being” with his Map of Consciousness.

If you are experiencing a limitation in life I highly recommend checking out these two excellent books to overcome one’s own self-imposed limitations.

The TRUTH About LIMITATIONS

I have experienced sticking points myself; as have virtually every client I ever trained or worked with during my 20 years in the industry. The reality is these points are ALWAYS SELF-IMPOSED! Einstein once said, “The mind that solves a problem, must be different than the mind that created the problem.”

Since all challenges, problems, and sticking points originate in the mind, the athlete must seek out and eliminate or replace the mental attitude or belief system that is holding them back from achieving their goal.

Here’s what you need to do overcome self-created limitations.

4 Simple Steps to Overcoming Mental Ceilings

First, take ownership of what you’re experiencing. In other words don’t place blame on outside circumstances, people, places, things, time, etc. While it may appear that these things are stopping you from making the gains you desire, the truth is it’s your mental programming that’s drawing you into these limiting conditions or circumstances.

Second, review your thoughts through journaling. This is very important. Every evening write down your thoughts, and actions of the day, what you were thinking, and what you did or did not do. Was your self-talk positive or negative? Did you experience old self-defeating patterns of thought? What people influence you in your life? Are the people in your life positive or negative?

Third, carefully analyze your thoughts, experiences, and feelings, it becomes clear just how many of them are self-defeating. In fact most people are not aware of how many limiting thoughts, belief systems, and emotions are running in the back of their mind or within the subconscious mind. Most of these negative programs were picked up in early childhood, from television, or emotional events that you may or may not remember.

Get To “Know Yourself”

The question then comes “Hey Wade, how can I fix something I don’t know about?”

Again, if your not producing the result you want, it’s clear that something some limiting thought is in your mind that’s preventing you from achieving your goal. Accept responsibility for your thoughts and actions, and you have made the first and most important step to changing the result.

The Fourth And Most Important Step - PLANNED ACTION

Fourth, The final and most important step is canceling out those negative programs and inputting new mental programs that promote exactly what you wish to achieve. There are several ways to achieve this and we are going to cover three that I have used with great success.

The 3 Most Effective Strategies For Breaking Mental Ceilings

The first “Ceiling Buster” is declarations. Declarations are a specific form of affirmation, using Neuro-linguistic programming to re-train the brain.

It’s important to form the new positive declarations into emphatic statements in the present tense for them to be effective. When stating these declarations, touching your body in certain kinesiological points increases the effectiveness of the statements.

Let me explain:

T. Harv Eker author of “The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” uses this format to elicit rapid changes in peoples thinking. Here’s how the process works:

State the first statement written below with your hand over your heart. State the declaration loudly and with enthusiasm. Then touch your forehead at the point between your eyes and make the second statement, with the same energy and enthusiasm.

This process is called anchoring. Anchoring connects, thoughts, words, and actions to the bioelectric meridians in your body to elicit faster responses. World-renowned motivational teacher Tony Robbins is a master of this technique. He and many other motivational speakers use this or similar techniques in public seminars to instantly change people’s lives.

Powerful Declarations For Building Muscle

Your declaration statement would go something like this:

My inner world creates my outer world.
I have a muscle-building mind.

What I heard about bodybuilding is not necessarily true.
I choose to adopt new ways of thinking that support my bodybuilding goals.
I have a muscle-building mind.

What magazines say about genetics is not necessarily true.
I have the genetics to build mountains of muscle.
I have a muscle-building mind.

I release my unsupported bodybuilding experiences from the past and create a bigger, more powerful body.
I have a muscle-building mind.

I observe my thoughts and only entertain those that empower me.
"I create the exact level of my muscle building success.”
I have a muscle-building mind.

By repeating this process you erase old “failure” programs that run in your head and create new neural pathways that lead you to rapid success.

You can make up your own declarations after analyzing your self-talk. Change any negative belief systems into positive belief systems in each statement and then anchor it with the physical movements as illustrated above.

Declarations - Simple Yet Powerful

Although at first glimpse this strategy seems extraordinarily simple, rest assured it’s application is powerful and extremely effective. The key is daily repetition of the declarations. I suggest you go through your declarations first thing in the morning, and last thing evening, just before you go to bed. Perform these declarations faithfully everyday, until you truly believe in your statements.

What happens is the body starts to manifest behaviors that support your declarations. The personal barrier is usually broken within a few weeks, sometimes only days, depending on how focused the individual is when repeating his/her declarations. Most sport psychologists use variations of these techniques with professional athletes. It definitely works as records keep getting broken every year.

Hypnosis – Bill Pearl’s BIG SECRET

Another more radical strategy to employ is hypnosis. Bodybuilding Legend Bill Pearl used Self-Hypnosis to overcome physical limitations and built perhaps the greatest drug free physique of all-time. The challenge with Hypnosis is getting the procedure done by a professional Doctor who is well schooled in its application.

I stumbled on Hypnosis by accident one day while searching through a bookstore and it turned out to be one of the best tools for overcoming limits that I ever used. At the time it seemed pretty radically but now almost every high performance athlete uses some form of hypnosis. In fact most professional sports teams have a team psychologist to develop personalized hypnosis, and performance psychology programs for each athlete.

For those interested in self-hypnosis for bodybuilding, check out the amazing CD by Dr. Lee Pulos called “Psychodynamic Mind Training For Bodybuilders” click here.

I used this exact audio program to win 5 Championships in Bodybuilding including a National Title. This Audio Works!!!

Meditation – The Ultimate Journey of Self Discovery

The Final strategy and probably the most beneficial, is to learn a process of meditation. Meditation is without a doubt the most effective personal study to uncover the inner workings of the mind. Science is now taking notice of the tremendous benefits meditation produces in all aspects of people’s lives.

Meditation produces the most long lasting and powerful results or any psycho-physiological technique and can be performed without much training in the privacy of one’s home. Meditation techniques and practices are extremely varied as the practices have been around for thousands of years.

I believe meditation is the absolute best practice and I do use it daily. Meditation does take a bit of effort, especially when you first start out so I suggest you seek out a qualified teacher in your area. Dr. David Hawkins illustrates qualified teachers in his book “Truth vs. Falsehood”.

There are numerous organizations that teach meditation, which is often referred to as the science of the mind. Simply look for one in your area until you find the technique or teachings that resonate with you.

4 Steps plus 3 Actions Lead to 1 Result

So here’s a quick review on how to smash through any self-imposed ceiling in your life.

First, accept responsibility.

Second determine the mental thoughts, patterns, behaviors, through journaling and self-analysis.

Third input proven mental strategies to overcome the old limiting programs or beliefs.

Fourth, repeat the process over and over as new programs or old programs can come back if left unchecked. Success comes through repetition.

I have found that the 3 best Actions to use are:
1) Declarations
2) Hypnosis
3) Meditation

So there you have it. Employ these mental strategies and develop your own mental game plan. Every great athlete recognizes and uses mental strategies to produce optimum results. The sooner you do, the faster you will achieve your muscle building goals.

Wade McNutt
Natural National Bodybuilding Champion
IFBB Mr. Universe Competitor

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Wade McNutt is a Natural National Bodybuilding Champion and author of Freaky Big Natural. He also spends his time formulating high performance training routines, mental technologies and cutting edge supplements to improve the performance of natural athletes around the world. You can contact Wade by clicking here.

Or learn more by visiting these links:
http://www.wadebodysystems.com
http://www.wademcnutt.com