Thoughts I'm Not Sure About Yet
Hi Reader,
So, I don't actually know what to write about this week.
Which usually means I need to write about whatever's been sitting in my head taking up space.
So here are some thoughts that have been floating around. Not connected. Not polished. Just things I keep noticing.
Here we go...
I saw this quote yesterday: "People can only meet you where they are - mentally and emotionally. Not where you want them to be."
Hit different.
Because I keep expecting people to show up the way I need them to. Have the conversation I want to have. Understand what I'm trying to say. Meet me at the level I'm operating at.
And they can't. Not because they don't want to. Because they're where they are. Dealing with their own stuff. Operating from their own capacity. Carrying their own weight.
You can't make someone meet you somewhere they're not. You can want it. You can explain it. You can get frustrated about it. Doesn't change where they are.
That's liberating once you accept it.
And frustrating as hell until you do.
I wrote something else yesterday on one of my IG channels. For the guys who are stressed, anxious, overthinking, worried, unsure, feeling low, doubting themselves, not feeling good enough.
Get under some heavy weights.
I'm serious. Not as punishment. As clarity.
Powercleans are one of those exercises that just feels like you're doing work. You can't overthink a powerclean. You can't doubt yourself halfway through the lift. You either commit or you don't. And that commitment - that physical action - gives you something your mind can't give you when it's spinning.
Clarity. Emotional balance. Discipline. Proof that you can do hard things.
Your body knows things your mind doesn't. And sometimes the answer isn't more thinking. It's less. It's physical action that forces you out of your head.
Don't believe everything you think.
Your thoughts aren't facts. They're just thoughts. And most of them are on repeat. Patterns you've reinforced so many times they feel like truth.
I'm not good enough. Everyone else has it figured out. I'm falling behind. This won't work. I should be further along by now.
You've thought those thoughts so many times they've worn grooves in your brain. And now your mind just defaults there. Not because it's true. Because it's familiar.
Negative self-talk isn't just pessimism. It's pattern reinforcement. You're training your brain to go there. To see yourself that way. To interpret everything through that lens.
And then you wonder why you're anxious. Why you're doubting yourself. Why you feel stuck.
You're stuck because you keep thinking the same thoughts. And thoughts create patterns.
And patterns create reality.
Which brings me to the other thing I've been noticing.
Where you put yourself matters more than you think.
Not just physically. Digitally too. The environments you choose. The spaces you inhabit. The feeds you scroll. The people you're around.
All of it is shaping what thoughts are possible. What patterns get reinforced.
I make coffee at home and it tastes like, well, coffee. Same coffee in the bush at sunrise tastes different. Not because bush coffee is better. Because I'm different there. The environment changes what's accessible in my head.
Same with cities. Walking through Manhattan or London for hours, getting lost, new input everywhere. My brain processes differently than sitting in my usual chair looking at my usual walls. Ideas that feel impossible at home become obvious when I'm somewhere that breaks my patterns.
Travel does this. New places do this. They give you permission to think differently. To be different. Because the environment itself is different.
But most people don't think about this deliberately. They just go where they've always gone. Sit where they've always sat. Scroll what they've always scrolled. Wonder why nothing changes.
Then they blame circumstances. Blame the algorithm. Blame other people. Never thinking that maybe they're choosing environments that reinforce the exact patterns they're trying to break.
YouTube comments make you think the worst of people. Instagram feeds where everyone's performing make you think that's normal. That's what success looks like. That's what you should be doing.
But it's not. It's just an environment. And you're choosing to be there. And it's acting on you. Shaping what thoughts are possible. What patterns get reinforced.
I block anyone who compromises my vibe now. Not because I can't handle it. Because I'm choosing my digital geography the same way I choose my physical geography.
When I need space to think, I go to nature. When I need energy, I go to cities. When I need to break patterns, I go somewhere extreme enough to make my normal thoughts feel small.
And when I need to protect my headspace, I stay out of digital spaces that reinforce the negative patterns I'm trying to interrupt.
Same external world. Different internal experience. Because environment shapes what's possible in your head.
You can't control where other people are. But you can control where you put yourself. And where you put yourself determines which patterns get reinforced and which ones get interrupted.
People can only meet you where they are. Including yourself.
You can't force yourself to think differently just by deciding to. Can't just stop the negative self-talk. Can't just choose to believe you're good enough.
Your brain doesn't work that way.
But you can interrupt the pattern. Catch yourself thinking the thought. Notice it. Name it. "There's that thought again."
Not to fight it. Just to see it. To stop treating it like truth and start treating it like what it is - a pattern you've practiced.
And you can choose environments that make different patterns easier. Under heavy weights, you can't think "I'm not good enough." You're too busy not dropping the bar. That thought doesn't have space to exist there.
In a new city, the default grooves don't have the same grip. With people who see you differently than you see yourself, the negative narrative has less power because you're getting different input.
Digital spaces that make you feel like shit? Stop going there. Physical spaces that keep you stuck? Leave them when you can. Even for an hour. Even for a walk.
Environment isn't everything.
But it's more than most people think.