So, should you choose to adopt the ideas introduced in this series so far and recognise both that you need to learn and the opportunities to do so are virtually endless, it’s important to realise that even at this so-nearly-complete late stage, it can still all go sideways.
An atmosphere best conducive to learning is (always) what you’re after and while some of this will be out of your hands —and if so, we’re not going to worry about it— much more of it is not.
Nonetheless, many make it far more difficult than it need be for themselves and everyone else concerned, because if curiosity is fueling the engine of your fitness practice, this is the oil.
And to oil your engine all you gotta do is be like Mike.
The bad news is that the Mike I’m talking about is His Royal Airness Michael Jordan, so while it’s easy to say most get about this far…
The good news is that I’m not talking about being genetically blessed or working longer and harder than the next guy, as Jordan famously did, but only about bringing your best to the table to make the most of what you’ve got.
My best skill was that I was coachable.
Michael Jordan
Unlike inherent talent or whatever skill or concept we are trying to grasp this is a mindset we can choose to embrace. The list of qualities here is as long as it is obvious, and unsurprisingly, it’s the virtues again that do the heavy lifting.
If you doubt their validity and utility here as anywhere else let’s imagine how their opposites might play out. Are we under any illusion impatience might be helpful here?
No. It’s absurd to think so. And yet fitness and dietary services are routinely pitched and sold solely on that time-saving, sidestep-the-work basis. Like I said, we have much to learn.
So you need not imagine. If curiosity offsets our unfounded surety (and resulting unrealised expectations) in this domain then coachability is simply the inverse of the grabbing, wanting, dictating, arrogance of mainstream fitness culture.
We are subject to our personality and proclivities but only in so far as we remain unwilling to revise them. We could work on first noticing and then changing a tendency to be impatient or defensive but, as promised, it’s not required because a coachable disposition comes included with your practice.
By taking your eyes off the prize and dedicating yourself to the practice—to that which is greater than you— the path is always clear if not always easy.
The difference this coachable quality makes has long been apparent to me both professionally through Leftfield and also as (yet another) ancillary benefit of jujitsu where in every class you are both student and—especially when paired with lower grades— teacher. But it never made sense: why so many having done the hard part by navigating their equine selves to the water they then refused to drink.
Until it did, because it was only in my learning another skill in 2016 that the less than obvious motivations for it were laid bare when my nervousness in an acting class was diagnosed as ego-driven self-indulgence.
______
Who is in this scene and what is it about?
Right. You’ll notice that you didn’t mention your name. And you didn’t mention your name because YOU are not in it. So stop putting yourself in it.
Just tell the story.
!
______
I’ve used this specifically as an example first as a show of good faith, because—spoiler alert— you’re about to be knocked down the same peg or two, but further because it raises two key points:
It’s the opposite of the chest-puffed arrogance we commonly think of as ego-driven. Nonetheless, it was a concern for how I’d be perceived that was undermining both the performance and the point of the exercise—learning.
Sometimes these obstacles may be understandable, and even perfectly natural, even so, they all come marked with the same return address.
Any unwillingness to look silly, clumsy or wrong— to appear in any fashion like the learner you are— ego-driven self-indulgence. Berating yourself for not getting something immediately— ego-driven self-indulgence. Defending your problem and not even trying a proposed alternative — ego-driven self-indulgence.
Not accepting feedback, a negative attitude and failing to listen all more of the same. I could go on but you get the point. However, coachability is a sweet spot and this is but one end of the spectrum. While it’s far less common,
Martyrdom and working longer and harder than anybody else such that it compromises the (forever and always) dictum of ‘conducive to learning’ is equally— you guessed it— ego-driven self-indulgence.
Now, if you’re quibbling on any of these points, I can further tell you I’ve seen countless examples of this both professionally and personally and any exceptions only prove the rule. I’ll belatedly add that we’re NOT interested in accuracy here anyway only in changing behaviour, so the ends justify the means.
The ‘truth’ here is immaterial. Even if I hadn’t defended the problem in that specific class, could I have later gone into (arguably any) other analogous situation and had my nerves be more ‘kindly’ interpreted?
Yup. Would that have been helpful? No. So instead I took that assessment on board. Wholesale. I need only be able to make a reasonable enough case to myself — as I did in that moment —that made the undesired behaviour more painful than the desired one and progress was not only possible but instant. I agreed with the statement (right or wrong) and because I was more nervous about any acting nerves being perceived as ego-driven, I wasn’t. From the very next scene I have never been (even slightly) nervous again. So even if you don’t think it’s your ego, do yourself a favour— it’s your ego.
In any case, it is always, inescapably, up to you to get over yourself, and get out of your way. Because there IS a shortcut to getting things right in every domain, and it’s the willingness — the happiness—to get it dreadfully and publicly wrong.
You need only do it once to realise it’s not that nobody else gives a shit— as people will tell you, but that they love it because you’ve given them licence to do the same. And you need only do it twice to recognise how much easier learning is.
Because, finally, you’re doing it.
With one unpleasantry out of the way, we move on to the next. Because I’ve presented this series in what might seem to be the natural order of things: our curiosity leads us to guidance so— it stands to reason— we make ourselves coachable.
But, unfortunately no. Because although vanishingly rare in the broader scheme of things— and I fail to think of any other example— the fitness industry churns out en masse a special breed that is eminetly coachable: they show up, listen, take feedback, and perform accordingly.
And still learn nothing. Still incurious.
And Leftfield is no exception. Indeed, perhaps I’m at least partly to blame. For all my talk of learning and skills and education I’m equally vocal about concepts like the minimum effective dose and ‘enough’.
But it’s also a hangover from a school system that consigned fitness to second-class citizenship. A pursuit that, while perhaps not beneath us, was certainly never seen in the same light as reading, maths or any of the more ‘intellectual’ pursuits.
Ironic because that was about the dumbest thing imaginable. As we can now tell.
A further hangover from that same schooling makes it near impossible for us to even consider it’s not about being told what to do. Even if you’re getting a gold star for doing it. And getting it right.
It pains me to say it, but over the years not just many but most, check-in, do their 3 sessions, and check out again. And nor do I mean they’re phoning it in, no, they are training. Engaged. And many have done so for years. Consistently.
Trust me. Every single box is ticked.
The trouble is that’s all it is: box ticking.
C’mon! What else do you want? I show up and I train and… WTAF!!!
And look, I get it, and far too many people don’t bother to get fit at all.
Now you’re telling us that when we do, we’re not even doing it right!
No. Well, yes. Well.. I’m saying you can do better.
And, that at the opposite end of the spectrum, if you’ve never strung anything remotely resembling a training history together, you can start things better from the get-go.
And, that if your fitness efforts have been intermittent, this will fix that too.
But before you all completely lose your shit, remember, I’m not here to make your life difficult, right? Just the opposite.
Because you do yourself a disservice. Consider other box-tickers you might know. Maybe in a cafe, or retail, but the classic case is CYA — cover your arse— management. You know the ones. Those who do just enough that no fingers can be pointed in their direction but are, evidently, and obviously, not at all concerned with success. Indeed the most salient feature of CYA management is salience. Everybody knows. And everybody knows everybody knows.
That’s the box-ticking I’m talking about—but, to be clear, I don’t mean box ticking to make yourself accountable to me, but, for peace of mind— fitness to offset the possibility of a nasty medical event: tick. To improve your quality of life: tick. And to look, feel and perform better than the next guy or gal: tick.
And you are not wrong about any of it. But there is no reason not to learn at the same time. No reason to remain stubbornly remedial.
Again, not for my benefit. Think about how box-ticking — that bare minimum— makes you feel. And then consider that your body reflects what you do with it exactly. And that includes what you think about what you're doing with it.
You’ve decided it’s worth ticking the boxes. And that’s it. Now, you can dismiss this as woo woo all you like but you are in relationship. A good one or a bad one and everything in between but you're in one. So be under no illusion that ‘box ticking’ is neutral.
It’s characterised by a laziness and impatience and a will this be on the test?attitude. It’s better than not, and that’s about it. But your incuriosity, your lack of self-regard, your lack of interest is just as salient to your body and mind.
And most of Western society looks, feels and performs not as if they are unfit. Not as if they are immobile. Not as if they are weak. Not as if they distracted. And certainly not as if they don't have enough time or are too busy.
They look, feel and perform like they simply don't care.
You enjoy the benefits of being fit but you also don’t know what you’re missing. All for a tiny bit more.
As I’ve written repeatedly, few areas in life transcribe the maxim that you get out what you put in so faithfully as fitness. Where effort is concerned. But you are confining yourself to this realm of proportional rewards because here I’m talking not about more effort but about interest, and frankly, these benefits have no accord with that reality whatsoever. Here you give an inch and get a mile.
The difference between those who only do jujitsu in class and those who practice even as little as 20 minutes a week at home is as plain as day. In fitness, I see the same dramatically accelerated progress and for reasons it’s difficult to explain until you remember the manager that invests that bit more care, attention and interest.
The fact is you can be fit by rote. And with all of it still a mystery. You don’t connect the dots. And if you continue doing what you’re doing, you never will. It’s like knowing your times-tables word for word without understanding the maths.
Let’s not pretend they are the same thing.
I also make the analogy to learning to cook and how it unlocks a whole new world not of cooking but of eating. I know you have other things to do—I couldn’t agree more. I’m not imploring you to learn this to better understand exercise or fitness or any fitness-specific property but— because these are your operating instructions— you unlock LIFE.
But then let’s say you do recognise this, what are your options and where might you learn it?
You could go down the YouTube rabbit hole but then you have a (massive) curation problem.
You could do a PT cert and learn the relevant principles but that would only be specific to physical fitness not nutrition etc. And along with what was useful you’d get a boatload of crap that wasn’t.
Or you could register your interest in the new Leftfield Training course. It’s a pilot course and details including a start date are still being ironed out but it will never be cheaper and the only metric of success from my perspective is raving fans at the end of it.
It further demands a quorum for the peer-to-peer coaching so, irony of ironies, it’s possible it won’t go ahead for lack of our subject today and one of the things it’s intended to solve: Interest.
But interest begets interest. You don’t have to do more, care more or be more interested. You don’t have to do anything. And maybe you’re not sitting on the sidelines which, no doubt, is fantastic.
But you’re on a half-court with a wonky hoop and a flat ball.
And you could be like Mike.
Enjoy your weekend.
- OLI