Your Daily Balance Game is more like a way of living and a philosophy.
And like any philosophy, it has its own system and beliefs.
So here are the 4 cornerstone beliefs of The YDBG.
1. If the experience of life is the game, then there is an athlete in everyone
First of all, I would like to point out the distinction between life being a game and the experience of life being the game. When life is the game that we are playing to win, we feel successful when we are able to acquire money, enterprise, house, cars, friends, family, children, etc. However, why is it that there are so many people, who are unsuccessfully successful? The world of the rich and famous is abundant with example after example of unhappy, rich lives.
As mentioned earlier, there are two types of successes in life, the big “S” and the small “s.” The temporary rewards from the small success never fully accounts for the absence of joy created from lack of the big “S,” ultimately leaving one unfulfilled. I often say that the reason why people never truly obtain a certain level of health and fitness is because they are winning the games that they are playing. Therefore, if you are playing the game called “things, stuff, and titles,” then making these your top priority each and every day is only logical in order to win. However, for most people health and fitness never fits into their paradigm of success, until they are on their deathbed feeling hopeless because they are clear that the medical industry has not perfected the science of ‘habitectomy’.
For those of you who still have time, by adopting this belief, you automatically create a new paradigm around what Success is and Winning is. You are creating a new belief that states that there is more to life than just hard work, that life can be a joyful experience; the experience that is often accompanied by playing a Game that you love and enjoy.
There are a lot of games out there that teach you how to focus on life; and, you can win these games without ever understanding that experiencing it is a whole other game. This can be readily confirmed in the lives of many successful people who have everything but still have nothing.
The second most important aspect of this YDBG belief is that it creates a world where everybody can experience themselves as athletes for the first time, playing the same Game on the same playing field. There are many men and women, who believe the complete opposite about themselves when it comes to fitness because they have never been given permission to think otherwise. Adopting this single belief can be the difference between someone believing that they are destined to a sedentary lifestyle, as opposed to a life of activity, buoyancy and movement.
By wearing on this belief, life as the game is no longer what you are playing for. You are playing for the experience of life as the game. You see, when someone is playing to win the game of life then their measuring stick can be rooted in the things they can accumulate. This works until it does not work anymore. At some point in time, they find their way back to their health wondering why they are not experiencing their success in a healthy way. By playing for the experience of life, things and accomplishments fall into the background, while meaning and experience move to the foreground of what is important in life.
The next aspect of this belief is that it moves the everyday person from being a fan, in the bleachers, to being an Athlete watching from the sidelines. In order to become Players they must be measured in the Game. When people become Players they automatically play to win. This mind-set increases the probability of success ten-fold.
2. Your Body is the Vehicle; Life is the Road; Health and Fitness is the Performance Lab
The purpose of this YDBG cornerstone belief, is to give the athlete a bigger context around why it is important to take care of their health and fitness other than the common aspirations of feeling better and looking great. This cornerstone belief provides a solid framework upon which to craft a bigger “Why” in order to sustain effective habits around your health and fitness. In the way that the first cornerstone belief moves people to be proactive, the second cornerstone belief creates a context so that people are able to sustain their habit engagement.
When you are able to identify your body as a vehicle, it automatically connects the conscious mind to what the subconscious mind already understands – that your body cannot sustain its level of performance without regular attention and maintenance. It is this correlation that serves as a catalyst within a person so that they are able to create a more empowering meaning around why they are playing for a healthier vehicle.
Most people will take care of their vehicles better than they take care of their bodies. How often do you see someone roll up next to you in a brand new car with shiny new rims which has just been washed and waxed, only to step out of it with a body that has been less than maintained wrapped in tailored clothing of the finest linen, a fine haircut and polished off with a manicure? And don’t forget, gulping down 20 ounces of pure sugar (whole milk, mocha frappuccino, extra caramel with whipped cream on top), straight into their gas tank.
By painting a picture of the person’s body as a vehicle and connecting it to their life as the road, the belief creates a deeper understanding in the subconscious mind, of whether or not people are truly enjoying their ride. This further supports the importance of paying attention to the balance of your wheels, because one imbalanced wheel on your vehicle will disrupt your level of security and peace of mind during your ride through life each day. Since most people are looking to have a greater experience in life each and every day, the importance of balancing out their wheels becomes paramount to experiencing a smoother ride.
The last section of this belief holds the most weight in that there are mechanics shops and performance labs in life. Mechanic shops are where you go to fix and maintain your vehicle. Some great examples would be a hospitals, sanatoriums and nursing homes. On the other hand, performance labs are where you got to test and improve your vehicle. We are going to spend time in both of these places during the course of our life. My intention and goal is that both you and I spend less time in the mechanic shop and more time in the performance lab. When you start to view your health and fitness as a performance lab where you can measure your personal balance, then your experience is no longer about exercising and eating properly. It is about utilizing the feedback to identify where you can improve your balance and increase the possibility of you being able to experience life as a joyous ride each and everyday in the face of circumstances.
3. 50% Consciousness; 30% B.A.L.A.N.C.E. Lifestyle; 20% Fitness
If there is one YDBG cornerstone belief that anchors the whole game then it would be this one. This belief and this belief alone can completely shift the way people define what health and fitness is from this point forward. When I first started strength training in 1991 I did not think twice about the fact that 80% of my results in health and fitness came from exercising. Nowhere in my limited thinking did I entertain the thought that the food I ate impacted a great deal of my health and fitness even though I was raised eating very healthy. Therefore, I would not have given food more than 20% of the credit towards my results.
As I became more knowledgeable about what it took to get the results that I desired in my body, I realized that the larger part came from what I ate. After countless of hours of exercise, asking questions from other veterans, and studying to become a personal trainer, I finally adopted the belief that 60% to 70% of my results came from what I ate and 30% to 40% of it came from exercising. This belief was sufficient enough to create the results that I sought until 3 to 4 years into my profession. Once I encountered one too many obstacles that I could not surmount through a holistic nutrition diet and exercising I began not only to dig deeper, but to realize that there was a connection between all of the metaphysical work that I had been doing and the physical result in my body.
It was not until I started to shift my paradigm and create a more comprehensive context around what health and fitness really entailed, that I was able to begin to move past the obstacles that my body and my clients’ bodies presented me from moment to moment. The belief that I am proposing here is far from an exact science. It is simply a perspective that is more accurate in leading you to the solutions that you seek when it comes to creating a more healthier and fit you. I now believe that only 20% of your results around your health and fitness comes from fitness, 30% comes from a B.A.L.A.N.C.E. lifestyle and 50% comes from consciousness.
So let’s delve into some deeper meanings that are associated with this belief. There are several different ways one can view a belief. This is important because one way of looking at a belief will resonate more with you than another one will.
Before I go into another way to experience this cornerstone belief, I would like to clarify a misconception. Many people collapse health and fitness into the same thing without ever realizing that they are very unique; yet they create the same result. If you take a look at the first four letters in the word health then you will see that it spells heal. Therefore, health has to do with healing your body, whereas fitness has to do with its movement. The commonality between the two is that they both raise the energy in your body. However, they are not weighted equally. This brings us to the old 80-20 rule. 80% of the results in your body come from health and 20% comes from fitness. So, another way to look at the 20-30-50 belief is 80-20. If we combine the 30% lifestyle and the 50% consciousness we get 80% health, leaving 20% fitness.
This takes us to the third way to view this belief. If we combine what you can see, which is someone’s lifestyle and habits around their fitness, then we get 50%, leaving the remaining 50% to what you don’t see, consciousness. Therefore, the 20-30-50 belief now becomes 50-50, the seen and unseen. Utilizing this perspective prevents you from getting too preoccupied with what you have to do as opposed to who you have to become to get your desired result.
That being said, I still believe there is one last point to be emphasized in this section. Even though I have allocated 50% to consciousness in order to maintain a balanced perspective around health and fitness, the magnitude that your awareness has on your health and fitness will leave you speechless as you continue to uncover its infinite power.
Now let’s take a look at this paradigm from the standpoint of habits and frequency. If we discuss the number of habits that a top player has around what you can see, i.e., B.A.L.A.N.C.E. lifestyle and fitness, then you will find that their average is around 30+ habits. Supposing the top player implements each habit at a high frequency of two times a day, then their daily frequency would be 70 times per day, with an average weekly execution of 490 habits. (70 times per day x 7 days a week)
Looking at the consciousness dimension, it is often said that most human beings have between 40,000 – 60,000 thoughts per day. If we were to take a conservative look at the minimum number of the range, 40,000, that would render a frequency of 280,000 thought-related habits running like a movie reel in your subconscious mind each week. We can clearly see that there is no comparison between the frequencies of what is possible with lifestyle and fitness habits in relation to your thought habits.
I will leave you with this story. In “The Biology of Belief,” Dr. Bruce Lipton talked about a group of 19th-Century scientists who were debating the validity of the germ theory, which states that bacteria and viruses are the cause of disease. The discussion took place around a table with a beaker of cholera sitting right in front of them. One scientist vehemently opposed the germ theory, becoming increasingly adamant and convicted that if he believed that he would not get sick from cholera, the cholera would not affect him. As the debate became heated, he grabbed the beaker with brazen assurance and drank the whole cholera-laced solution to prove a point.. When the scientist showed no trace of sickness in the next couple of days, his colleagues concluded he was simply an exception to the rule of the germ theory.
I inferred from this story that a man was debating that his beliefs were more powerful than disease. When his body confirmed his belief, the scientists were still in disbelief because they did not experience it personally. This story illustrates the power behind beliefs: a belief has very little power unless there is conviction behind it. Both parties held beliefs and both of their beliefs were true. However, both parties believed strongly in their convictions, which remained even after the proven result. You too will remain in the same place if you are convinced that this cornerstone belief will not work for you. However, if you surrender and suspend your belief in what you think you know – with childlike faith – for one moment, then the possibilities are infinite.
4. Your Health and Fitness is the truth about your Relationship to life
The Game can be summed up in this single cornerstone YDBG belief. In the 7 Habits, Stephen Covey talks about fourth generation management as fundamental to creating a very effective life. Fourth generation management deals with relationships and results, whereas third generation management deals with things and time. If we take this concept and layer it over the four Cornerstone Beliefs, it becomes apparent that Covey was talking about the 4th Cornerstone Belief. The relationship is how you relate to self, others and life and the result is your health and fitness.
With the understanding that the mind does not have the ability to discern truth and the body does not have the ability lie, this one cornerstone belief can save you from a lifetime of denial. Quite often you hear many people professing that they are happy with no real way of measuring their claim. As a matter of fact, I experience this daily as they sit in front of me, obese, lethargic and mildly depressed. With this simple cornerstone YDBG belief, I never doubt or question them, I simply measure their health and fitness using the Game and share with them the feedback on how they are really relating to life. This is usually followed by the “WOW” response which is a visceral response to being awaken to a new perspective. Summed up, fully understanding this cornerstone belief will dramatically increase your effectiveness in creating and relating to your life more powerfully.
If you liked this post, make sure to read How To Create Your Life’s Inner Circle (ITP).
