Barely 24 hours into  UK lockdown, and I had developed an overbearing feeling of hopelessness, which was difficult for me to even articulate why.

In UK lockdown part one I was adamant throughout the process that I would never let it defeat me – this was a time when strength and leadership was needed in my family and I wasn’t going to be the weak link.

So I was surprised it got me down so soon.

Perhaps it was the continuing challenge of raising young children, no gym escape, the realisation I haven’t seen some friends for over a year, or maybe being restricted to home was just driving me stir crazy.

Sunday came and I still felt horrible, though was now beginning to understand that my feelings stemmed from how powerless the whole situation made me feel.

Identifying this was what I needed to give myself the kick up the arse to stop feeling sorry for myself and begin to recover and readjust.

The advantage of quick recovery…

Recovery, is such an underrated attribute to being a resilient person because it’s all about your ability to get over setbacks and mistakes.

This can be the difference between winning and losing.  Think about it…

I like watching strongman, a sport where you see participants having to carry, lift, push, pull and hold a range of heavy objects.

There is no such thing as the all round perfect strongman, and these events expose each man’s weaknesses.

With these setbacks, these giants have to be able to mentally re-centre themselves when they give a less than desirable performance.

I watched an old episode of UK’s Ultimate Strongman, where Eddie Hall had to perform a shoulder press for reps – something he is normally quite good at.

He struggled to push out two reps, looked around angrily and called it quits.

Afterwards when asked what happened, he complained about the height of the platform, making it difficult for him to lift the bar off comfortably.

To be a top performer, you have to be able to shrug off failure, or perceived injustices and move on, every successful person knows this.  If you can recover fast mentally, then you have an advantage.

I’ll repeat that:

If you can recover fast mentally, then you have an advantage.

In the remaining events of UK’s Ultimate Strongman, Eddie Hall demonstrated this skill, firstly going into the next event like nothing had happened, then going on to win the whole contest.

When it all goes wrong…

Next time you experience a setback, a rejection or have an argument, reflect how long it takes for you to get over it.

Are you in a better mood to take on the world in minutes, hours, days, weeks… months… years?

Too much dwelling and not enough getting over it, will mean sabotaging future wellbeing and performance.

So, train your mind to handle adversity, and keep calm to deal with anything… yes even the ‘Rona lockdown.

Fin…

I was going to talk about some of the readjustments I’ve made to my workouts in #uklockdown, including sharing some tips to make this more challenging with limited equipment, so please do subscribe to keep in touch.

Until next time wishing you good health and the best success!

James @perfectmanifesto.com

<<Check out this post: Handling pressure: Lessons from the SAS>>

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