The 3 Word Phrase to Own 2022

Season 6 | Episode 9 This week I'm a little under the weather, but I decided to record an episode anyway because I want to share the 3 word phrase I am using to take more ownership in Welcome to the platform podcast where we talk to coaches, athletes, experts, and real people to learn about their approaches to training, nutrition, mindset, and much more. I'm your host, Jordan Kunde-Wright, founder, and head coach of the Twin Cities Catabell Club. And I'm on a mission to help others build sustainable, healthy lifestyles. Before we jump into this episode, I want to remind you that registration is open for the second annual Twin Cities Catabell Open on October 22nd hosted by our friends at the Athlete Lab in little Canada, Minnesota. And just like we did last year, we will be including video submission options for participants who are unable to make the trip in person, and everyone will be eligible for the same prizes as our in-person competitors. Let's go to our website to Twin Cities Catabell Club.com for details. This week, I am talking about the three word phrase that is giving me power over my outcomes in 2022. Now, I'm not going to spoil it for you here. What that three word phrase is, you're going to have to get into the episode to listen to it. But I do want to give a shout out to the inspiration for this episode. It was Coach Mike Milner who has been on the podcast before. He talked about this three word phrase in one of his recent podcast episodes. So I want to make sure I give credit where credit is due. This is not my own unique idea, but it was something that he said almost in passing on one of his episodes. And I really gravitated to it and it's something I've been applying in my daily life since hearing that podcast. So shout out to Mike, don't want to take credit that I don't deserve. But I hope that this podcast gives you some insight on how you can have a little bit more control in 2022. And as always, I just want to say that I am incredibly grateful that you listened to this podcast and the best way that you could support me is to join me at the Twin Cities Catabell Open in October and tell a friend or two. You can go to the website, Twin Cities Catabell Club.com for details. Of course, if you haven't already, please be sure to leave a rating and review of the platform podcast in your app of choice. And particularly iTunes because that's what gets it moved up the ranks there. And even if you're not an iTunes listener, you can still leave a rating and review there, which I would very much appreciate it. And of course, you can support my work by supporting my sponsors, who's affiliate links you'll find in the episode notes. And last but not least, if you want help reaching your goals without wasting time, please fill out the coaching interest form linked in the show notes. I help athletes of all levels using my integrator coaching approach. Now, you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at Twin Cities Catabell Club, or email me at Twin Cities Catabell Club at gmail.com. Now, without further ado, let's step onto the platform. All right, welcome into this week's episode of the platform podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Kuhn to you right. And if you can't tell by the sound of my voice being extra Johnny Cash, I am a little bit under the weather. I've been fighting a cold, thankfully not COVID, which is always positive. But I've been fighting a cold for the past few days. So I am all hopped up on Sudafed and Advil. And I'm going to battle through. I decided to record a podcast episode today because it has been a minute since I recorded one. I had a guest lined up a couple of weeks ago, and she got sick, so I decided not to record that week. I'm going to get her in, hopefully soon, excited about that guest. I won't spoil who it is. And then I was on vacation with my family. We went skiing in the middle of Wisconsin, which there's a little mountain there. I did a little bit of snowboarding, which was mostly a lot of falling and getting up and then a little bit of snowboarding. I am not the most graceful human. The physics are challenging. When you're six foot and 270 pounds, the physics are a little challenging, but my oldest brother Jason is a very good snowboarder, and he was very patient with me as my instructor, which was fantastic. It was a lot of fun. It was really freaking hard, though. Honestly, the hardest part was the learning to maneuver, like getting off the lift and how you go sideways and not down the mountain was actually the hardest part. And then just figuring out the physics of how to get up off of the ground and things like that. But it laid bare some gaps in my training and my physical capability. I definitely need to work on some mobility and things. I was testing myself in planes of motion that I don't typically work in a lot of rotational stuff. And it also was a very good reminder, don't let your kids play offensive and defensive line if you can avoid it. Talk them out of it because, man, do I have some mileage on my body from that, the impact of that over many years definitely adds up. So I could definitely feel it in my in my back and in my shoulder and my elbows and knees and things like that. And it was, you know, like I said, a lot of falling. I once I got the hang of it and started going down the mountain a little bit, and by mountain I mean, bunny hill. It was, it was okay, but I definitely, definitely did a lot of, did a lot of falling. And then there was illness spread throughout the family. So the kids got the cold. And then I got the cold. So I had decided not to record while I was on vacation. That was planned. And then because of everybody being sick, I decided not to record again. So here I am recording on a day I hadn't planned on recording, but I decided to do it because I wanted to make up for lost time a little bit and stay on track with my commitments to try and get 40 episodes out this year. So you may have noticed that in my intro long-winded blab there, I used the words I decided a bunch of times. And the reason for that is I am working on that power phrase. And I say power phrase because I think that the best three words you can add to your vocabulary to change your outcome in 2022 is so I decided. The reason is internal locus of control. Now if you're not familiar with locus of control, it is a psychological theory, I guess we'll say, or hypothesis that was developed back in the mid-50s, Julian B. Roder in 1954 was studying personality psychology. And locus of control is the degree to which people generally believe that their success or failure is a product of internal or external factors. And those of us who have a internal locus of control are much more likely to be successful than people that have an external locus of control. The reason for that is it takes personal responsibility. You're more likely to take responsibility for your actions. You tend to be less focused on external factors. You tend to do better at tasks that are unguided. You have a strong sense of self-advocacy and you're also willing to work hard when you believe that you can control the outcome. When you believe that things are in your control, it becomes self-motivating. Now when you have an external locus of control, you're much more likely to blame other people. You don't take responsibility for being – have you ever had that person in your life that no matter what happens, it wasn't their fault, right? They're perpetually late and like, well, traffic was really bad. I had to stop and put gas in my car, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It's like, well, a person with external locus of control is going to say that's why I was late. I was late because traffic was bad and I had to put gas in my car, et cetera, et cetera. Now, you don't control traffic, but you can look at traffic before you leave. You can look at what the traffic conditions are far enough in advance that you can leave on time, right? You can make sure that you have gas in your car, that you don't let your car run down to where you need to stop and get gas, before you have somewhere to be, things like that. Those are things that you can take personal ownership of, and people who have internal locus of control tend to take ownership of those things. Now, we all do this to varying degrees in different areas of our life, but one of the best things we can do is to intentionally take responsibility and focus our efforts on internal locus of control. And it's one of the things I say with my clients quite often is control your controllables, right? Or focus on the process. And what I'm trying to do when we talk about those things is I'm trying to build self-efficacy. I'm trying to build the habit of being in control and focusing on the things that we can control, because internal locus of control is not a perspective that everything is in your power, right? It doesn't mean that we don't have externalities because clearly we do. I listed a whole bunch of externalities as to reasons why I decided not to record a podcast in the last two weeks. You know, I can't control that a guest gets sick, but that doesn't mean that I can't record an episode. I could have taken that time that we had planned to record an episode and repurpose that time and record a solo podcast like this. But I decided not to, because I wasn't prepared, I had not prepared another topic. I had not prepared to record an episode. And because of that, I decided not to do it. I could have taken more time to prepare a different topic. I could have a list of topics prepared ahead of time, right? That are my backup topics. I could have had maybe potentially even lined up a backup guest or reached out to somebody that I know is interested in coming on the podcast and is in the pipeline for an interview and see if they were available. I could have done that. But I didn't. I decided not to record. I just decided to take a week off, which is okay. But if I consistently make that decision, I am not going to hit my goal of hitting a 40 podcast, recording 40 podcast episodes this year, right? So, so I decided is a great way to reframe your behaviors as choices that you are making. You're actively acknowledging that you are making choices, that benefit your or that either supporter do not support your stated goals. But it really renders explicit that things are your choice. So how does this show up in say a health and fitness standpoint, right? I've given you my examples from the podcast. But how does this show up in a health and fitness standpoint? People who are struggling with their habits, oftentimes will or with their with their adherence, oftentimes will give external reasons why they made a particular choice, right? So for example, you will get someone that says, okay, I was really I was really great all day and and then I and then I finished in the evening. Okay, well, why did that happen? Well, it was a really stressful day at work and so when I got home, I threw on Netflix and just started eating a bag of chips. And before I knew it, I had eaten the entire bag. Okay, let's just reframe that with the three power words. It was a really stressful day at work. So I decided to watch Netflix and I was eating potato chips and they were good. So I decided to finish the bag. Right, you see how just just adding those three little words takes it from being a thing that is ostensibly not your fault and makes it squarely your responsibility. Right, it is your choice how you manage your stress. You cannot control necessarily that it was a stressful day at work. However, how you respond to that stress is your choice. And I am not saying that it is a bad choice to watch Netflix if you had a stressful day at work. I have done that. I have made that decision. Right, I'm also not saying that you can't have chips or that you can't have ice cream or whatever. Right, but the important thing is shifting the perspective to your being your choice because that empowers you to make a different choice if you so choose, if you desire to make a different choice. So when it is time for you to decide that watching Netflix after a stressful day at work or every day after work is no longer a habit that serving you or serving your goals because say your coach is handing you about you need to get to sleep. You need to get quality sleep. You need to make time for seven to nine hours of quality sleep every night. And Netflix is probably impeding your ability to do so because you're watching two, three episodes of whatever show or any TV, right? For a couple hours before you go to bed, well, guess what? It's going to be hard for you to sleep. We interrupt this podcast, bring you a special update about one of our sponsors of the 2022 Twin Cities Kettlebell Open. One of our original sponsors, Cambron Customs, is now known as CK Maceworks and he is donating two of his plate loadable Caddy Rock Maces version 2.0 for this year's competition. I'm really excited about that and you guys should definitely check out his new Instagram profile. It's at ck underscore maceworks. That's at ck underscore maceworks. Thank you very much, Nathan Cambron and we are really looking forward to getting our hands on those new Caddy Rocks. Really appreciate your support. So you get that feedback and if you are taking responsibility and ownership of your habits, you can say I'm going to make a different decision. I know I need to get to sleep better so I'm going to decide to not watch Netflix before bed. Or if you're wanting just to be more reasonable with your habits and it's not about not doing that, you can say I am deciding to watch only one episode of whatever show or only one hour and then I'm going to start my bedtime routine or then I'm going to turn off the TV and not look at screens. I'm going to read or whatever right. The so I decided component makes it your choice and empowers you to make different choices. It is a huge huge huge change that I think is one of the main keys to long-term success in anything, but especially when it comes to health and fitness because it's it's very easy to say well I was really tired so I didn't work out. Well I was really tired so I decided not to work out. Well I was busy so I decided xyrc. Making that intentional change in language, adding the power phrase so I decided will make you have to own the choices that you're making. And in that there is a cognitive effect that happens. You start to program your brain to have a more internal focus of control. Even if you haven't even started changing your decisions yet, continuing to say so I decided programs your brain to believe that things are your choice because they are. That's something that I tell my kids all the time. You control how you respond. You are in control of your emotions. You can't choose how you react necessarily in the immediate moment. You can't control your emotional responses. If something happens and someone makes you angry, you can't change that you responded angrily if that was just a subconscious but you can identify that you're angry and not throw a toy at your sister to use it. Do you use a very specific example from parenting? I'm trying to teach my son that he may not be able to change people's behavior because well, but Kira didn't know that's fine. I understand Kira did a thing that made you angry. You got angry and you threw a toy at her. It's okay that you got angry. It's okay to feel the feeling. But it is not okay to throw the toy. So you need to take control and take ownership of your response to your emotions. That's the big thing is understanding that our response, putting a mechanism in place that allows you to take ownership of your response is incredibly important because most people's struggles come from either autonomous habits, autonomic habits that they just don't even realize what their triggers are and why they do the things that they do. They continue unhealthy habits that don't support their goals because they don't even realize that they're triggering themselves to do these unhealthy habits. And then because of that, they feel like they don't have control or they blame other things. So the trigger might be a stressful day at work. How do you respond to that? I watch Netflix and eat junk food because it makes me feel better. That's the real, you know, it makes it makes me disconnect. It makes me feel less stressed and the junk food does junk food literally does give you dopamine and happy neurotransmitter release short-lived, but it does give you those things. So the reduction of stress because you're distracted by Netflix and then the feel-good chemicals. Those are physiologically valid responses to being stressed, but the trigger is being stressed at work and then the habits that you go into might not actually support your goals. Right. So recognizing that giving yourself a mechanism that it is your choice and you are in control of it allows you to make different choices. And that I think is the biggest thing. That is why this is my biggest focus for 2022, both for myself and with a lot of my clients. But really taking ownership of the, I decided what to do. It's incredibly important. It's incredibly powerful. And I think you'll feel happier. You'll feel more independent and you'll probably be more successful if you can take that ownership because the next step after ownership is adjustment. But if you don't view the world as under your influence, then what's the point? How are you going to make any changes? If success is predicated on external factors that you don't control, then you're never going to feel like you're in control of your own destiny and of your own success. So taking ownership, even when it's uncomfortable and identifying that all things can be true. There are external factors that you cannot control, but there are internal factors that you can. And you are ultimately in control of your responses. You can set up your environment for success. You can create space to adapt and control for the randomness of life because the randomness of life is consistent. It's variable as to when the, I mean, that's the definition of randomness. You don't know when it's going to occur, but you know it's going to occur. So the consistency of randomness across life means that it is something you can plan for. It creates space for, right? And taking control of your responses to random acts and two things that are triggers in your life is a huge part of setting yourself up for success, longitudinally, on anything, whether it's at work, whether it's weight loss, whether it's building a workout habit, right? Understanding that you control, you control you and you control your responses, you control your, what you do with your emotional responses. And to a large degree, you actually can, you can also reprogram your emotional responses. Now, that's a little, that's a different topic, a little, that's a deeper, that's a deeper topic, but that is something you can work on as well. The brain is, the brain is incredibly powerful and it can be trained. You have, it takes intentional work and it takes application, it takes reps, right? Lots of reps. Just like, just like anything else, you need to give yourself reps. So my challenge to you is this week to start using the words I decided or so I decided when you're thinking about choices that you're making and it can be good or bad, right? I had a rough day at work today. So I decided to go for a walk and de-stress. I had a great day at work today. So I decided to write that in my journal. Whatever, there's any, any number of applications, right? But my challenge to you this week is to start adding the so I decided phrasing to choices that you're making. What decisions are you actively making and if they don't serve the direction that you want to be going, identify which ones, which choices are you making consistently that aren't serving you in the way that you want them to or that aren't moving you in the direction that you want to be going. And by identifying those, you will then be able to make changes because you're taking ownership of those choices and of those patterns, right? So decide to say so I decided decide to take ownership this week and see the impact that that can have. I think you will find that it is a very useful phrase and that it feels good to to feel in control of your own outcomes because then your successes and your failures are yours. But it feels really good when you're successful and it's because of the things that you took control of. And it also makes you more resilient for when you're struggling or when things go bad because you're not waiting on somebody else or some external factor to fix things. Say no, I have control of this. I can make my own choices. I can shape my own destiny. It's a great feeling to feel like you are in control of your own life and of your own emotional state. So I'm working on it. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I certainly have I certainly have a lot of things that I need to take more control of and take more ownership of. And so that's what I'm working on and that's my challenge to you this week as well. Take ownership. Decide what your what your actions are. Make them your choices. That is it. I hope you all are doing well. Stay in healthy. Stay in safe and keep growing and keep pushing forward. I will see you next time. Thanks for listening to this episode of the platform podcast. I'm Jordan Kunde-Wright. We'll be back with a new episode next week. Please don't forget to register for the Twin Cities catapult open on our website TwinsidiscatableClub.com. And if you have a question or suggestion, please email me at TwinsidiscatableClub at gmail.com. Follow us on social media at TwinsidiscatableClub. And of course, if you want to step onto the platform and competing catapult sport, please reach out to me. Till next time.