3 things I learned at Outward Bound...
I spent last week running, tramping, climbing and sailing around Anakiwa at the top of the South Island completing Outward Bound's Navigator course. It was both physically and mentally taxing, but while I was down there I managed to learn a few things both by
self-reflection and from my course instructors. I thought I'd share some of them with you.
1. Event + Response = Outcome
This one I got from our lead instructor Asher. At the time I thought it was a simple little equation, but the more I thought about it the more I realised just how relevant it was to both fitness and life in general. Too often we let events impact the way we feel about things (myself included).
If we can re-frame how we respond to events (important point: respond, not react) then the outcomes we can achieve can be a lot more positive. Remember how you responded the last time you missed a training session because you couldn't be bothered, or how you felt when you last fell off your nutrition plan and hit the burger king drive through. Did you feel guilty? Depressed? Frustrated? Annoyed with yourself?
Next time it happens, try re-framing it as a small error rather than a complete failure and see how quickly you get back on the plan.
2. Your mind will quit 100 times before your body does
This one I learnt from reflection and with the help of my watchmates (the group of people you spend the course with). We climbed some mountains both physically and metaphorically during our course and each time my mind said "enough, just give up". But my body had much more in it than my mind wanted to admit. Sometimes it takes other people to remind you of this until you are mentally tough enough to remind yourself.
I don't advocate pushing your body to the limit at all times when training - there needs to be recovery time, rest days, and low impact sessions thrown in to a training programme, but you do need to push to your limits sometimes if you want to progress. You need to do this to train your mind as much as to train your body - to know that you have more in you than you think you do.
3. Get outside your comfort zone regularly
This was a big part of Outward Bound for me - pushing past where you would normally just say "nah, I'm good with where I am right now". Finding your limit and then taking one or two more steps just to see how far you can go. In our watch we had people rock-climbing with feet tied together, rock-climbing blind folded, and some people doing both simultaneously (nice one Becs)!
There are plenty of other examples but these ones illustrate the point nicely I thought.
What the instructors got across to us over the duration of the course was this - if you did that stuff regularly, it would no longer be challenging, so you need to push the boat out a little more each time. I think we can all be guilty of staying inside our comfort zones at times (myself included), so I will be making a concerted effort from now on to do things that I would normally shy away from.
Overall the Outward Bound experience was challenging for me on a number of different levels - the obvious physical challenges were pretty immense, but there were emotionally and mentally challenging moments too. I would like to thank the crew of McKenzie Watch (617) for helping me get through the tough times, but I'd also like to include a challenge to you all too (and anyone else who reads this) - keep pushing yourselves outside your comfort zones and doing things you didn't think were possible. And help me stay accountable by forcing me to do the same.
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self-reflection and from my course instructors. I thought I'd share some of them with you.
1. Event + Response = Outcome
This one I got from our lead instructor Asher. At the time I thought it was a simple little equation, but the more I thought about it the more I realised just how relevant it was to both fitness and life in general. Too often we let events impact the way we feel about things (myself included).
If we can re-frame how we respond to events (important point: respond, not react) then the outcomes we can achieve can be a lot more positive. Remember how you responded the last time you missed a training session because you couldn't be bothered, or how you felt when you last fell off your nutrition plan and hit the burger king drive through. Did you feel guilty? Depressed? Frustrated? Annoyed with yourself?
Next time it happens, try re-framing it as a small error rather than a complete failure and see how quickly you get back on the plan.
2. Your mind will quit 100 times before your body does
This one I learnt from reflection and with the help of my watchmates (the group of people you spend the course with). We climbed some mountains both physically and metaphorically during our course and each time my mind said "enough, just give up". But my body had much more in it than my mind wanted to admit. Sometimes it takes other people to remind you of this until you are mentally tough enough to remind yourself.
I don't advocate pushing your body to the limit at all times when training - there needs to be recovery time, rest days, and low impact sessions thrown in to a training programme, but you do need to push to your limits sometimes if you want to progress. You need to do this to train your mind as much as to train your body - to know that you have more in you than you think you do.
3. Get outside your comfort zone regularly
This was a big part of Outward Bound for me - pushing past where you would normally just say "nah, I'm good with where I am right now". Finding your limit and then taking one or two more steps just to see how far you can go. In our watch we had people rock-climbing with feet tied together, rock-climbing blind folded, and some people doing both simultaneously (nice one Becs)!
There are plenty of other examples but these ones illustrate the point nicely I thought.
What the instructors got across to us over the duration of the course was this - if you did that stuff regularly, it would no longer be challenging, so you need to push the boat out a little more each time. I think we can all be guilty of staying inside our comfort zones at times (myself included), so I will be making a concerted effort from now on to do things that I would normally shy away from.
Overall the Outward Bound experience was challenging for me on a number of different levels - the obvious physical challenges were pretty immense, but there were emotionally and mentally challenging moments too. I would like to thank the crew of McKenzie Watch (617) for helping me get through the tough times, but I'd also like to include a challenge to you all too (and anyone else who reads this) - keep pushing yourselves outside your comfort zones and doing things you didn't think were possible. And help me stay accountable by forcing me to do the same.
_________________________________________________________________________
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