bcg Blog

Systems: Mastering Your Strong Voice

It’s a normal Tuesday morning and the worst possible thing happens at 4:23am: I’m awake and my alarm is going off in seven minutes. What a bummer. Seven minutes - too much time to forgo the warmth of my bed, but not enough time to make it all the way back to sleep. Quite the quandary. Unfortunately, it’s one I’m all too familiar with. My internal alarm clock is frustratingly uncanny. 

I choose comfort for another seven minutes, visit my morning prayers, then begin running through the day ahead. I make it to the afternoon when my thoughts are rudely interrupted: BRRRING, BRRRING, BRR - I catch it on the third annoying warning call. 

Everyday begins with the same, an intentional choice: How will I enter the day? My internal voice has me considering all options: I could just hit snooze, sneak in another hour of sleep and skip my workout. Literally no one will know. I’ll still be the first one to the school even if it’s an hour later. I could workout this afternoon. I probably need the extra sleep since I went to bed later than usual last night. Plus, I’ve worked out everyday for the past month. It’ll be fine. And … this bed is warm and comfy.

I catch myself. Another voice, that used to struggle at the plate but is on a hot streak recently, kicks in: “Come on now, that ain’t you. Let’s go Cupps.” I throw the covers off, hop out of bed, and dive headfirst into my day.

My workout is lower body today. And, lower body means one thing: front squats. I hate front squats. Today’s reps are supposed to be three sets of ten. That little devil on my shoulder starts the self-negotiation with a reasonable proposition: why don’t you just do a different exercise today or just do three sets of 8 and go a little heavier? A few less reps can be justified with heavier weight, right? 

And, immediately the rebuttal: “You’re really going to do less? Choose the easier exercise? Why don’t you just do the heavier weight for three sets of ten? Come on now. Fight ready Cupps.” Three sets of ten at the heavier weight it is. And, it sucks.

Get up without hesitation - check. 
Workout - check. 
Next up - ice bath. It’s four minutes, five days a week. It’s cold but supposedly it’s good for you. I’m not convinced of the health benefits but I’m starting to believe in the mental benefits.

That damn voice is right back at it: “You don’t need to do this. What’s the point - you training for Mr. Olympian? Just go take a shower. This is going to be cold … real cold.” Then, like every other day, I find it - the other voice: “Don’t be a bitch. Get in the water.” So I get in.

It’s the same routine every morning. It’s gone from an exercise routine to enhance my physical health to a strong voice reinforcement system that impacts all aspects of my life. 

Why Should We Care?
Our lives, and our teams, are driven by the systems we choose to enact. Sure, we require motivation and discipline to execute them, but it’s the systems we implement that generates the results. We typically choose a system in hopes of a specific outcome, ideally one that is especially suited for that need. However, no system is restricted to a single result. And, sometimes, those auxiliary results become more impactful than the intended result.

The system I described above is a perfect example.

It was designed to optimize health. It requires that I prioritize my time in the evenings in order to get the proper amount of sleep before my 4:30am alarm. Exercising in the morning is the only time I’m sure I can fit a workout into my schedule. Ice baths have numerous positive effects on your health in both the short and long term. Yet, none of these health benefits have proven to be the most impactful result of my morning system. 

That honor would go to the ability to call on my strong voice. 

It turns out that the ability to never hit the snooze button and honor the commitment I made to myself to get up at 4:30am is a really big deal. Every time I honor my commitment, I reinforce that behavior and increase the chances I’ll do it the next time. I build my confidence in my ability to do what I tell myself I’m going to do. Every time I don’t honor my commitment, I create doubt and lessen the liklihood that I’ll do it the next time. 

If I negotiate my way out of a certain weight or number of reps through my weak voice, I’m one step closer to making that my default voice and succumbing to the same type of negotiations in a higher stakes proposition. A system that allows my weak voice to surface, while providing my strong voice an opportunity to suffocate it is the real value of the system. 

Sure it has health benefits, but the true significance lies in the strong voice reps. It doesn’t come without risk, afterall I could choose my weak voice at any moment, but this is precisely the power of the system. I could fail. I could accept my weak voice. But, by consistently acting in alignment with my strong voice I create a relentless mentality that is ready to attack any challenge.

REAL TALK - Action Steps
Our strong voice is what we say to ourselves when things are going well. We’re confident, optimistic, and generally attacking the situation.
Our weak voice is what we say to ourselves when we are struggling. We’re shutting down, negative, and spiraling out of control into catastrophic scenarios and excuses.

While it sounds simple enough to say we just need to choose our strong voice, it’s not quite that simple. I mean, it is that simple, but not that easy. Here are a few ideas for creating opportunities to use your strong voice and a few thoughts on choosing it over your weak voice.

• Your strong voice needs your weak voice.
  
  • To be clear, we all have a weak voice - every single person, and it never goes away. At our best, we recognize when our weak voice shows up and we counter it with our strong voice. For most people, it’s the weak voice we will hear first. That’s ok. All those people living in excellence fight it day after day too. They’re just really quick at muting their weak voice and listening to their strong voice.
    

• Your strong voice likes challenges better than adversity.
  
  • Adversity loves our weak voice and sometimes causes us to freeze or spiral downward. Since it shows up first, adversity can keep our strong voice from ever arriving. Viewing adversity as a challenge changes that dynamic. Our strong voice loves a good challenge and will often show up regardless of the status of the weak voice. Change those adversities into challenges.
    

• Choose your strong voice by being grateful and slowing down.
  
  • Often our challenge doesn’t lie in choosing our strong voice over our weak voice, but in recognizing our weak voice in the first place. It’s about self-awareness. When we realize our weak voice is present, most of the time we can intentionally pick to follow our strong voice. A simple way to slow down is to be deliberate with your gratitude. See. Appreciate. Acknowledge.
    

• Choose your strong voice by suffocating excuses.
  
  • One thing is for sure: your strong voice cannot exist in the presence of excuses. If you think about it, an excuse is nothing more than a specially crafted weak voice. It’s impossible to choose your strong voice while making, or listening to, excuses. So, stop making them. All of them. Suffocate them with your strong voice. 
    

Your life is made of a series of systems. Be sure the system you are following is reinforcing your strong voice. It’s a superpower!

Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!