Challenging Your Own Beliefs

By: Joel Luedke

I've been having some great conversations over the past couple of days with some of the athletic training students at UW-La Crosse.  These conversations start off with great questions by the students

and then it always seems to morph into me getting onto my soap box and just railing off ideas without trying to sound too "preachy".  We got deep into some ideas about treatment and rehab but it came back around to challenging beliefs and asking ourselves "can we do it better"

That is what this article is based around, challenging your own beliefs.  I've heard about this idea from many different arenas and each time I hear about it I agree more and more.  Tai Lopez (worth looking up) started it all off saying that he doesn't like to hire anyone who agrees completely agrees with everything he does and says.  He prefers the opposite.  He wants someone that doesn't agree with him but challenges the things that he does because in the long run, it makes him and what he does better.  This helps make him a better person and a better business man and if you watch a couple of videos you'll see that it works.

How does this concept apply to your life when it comes to health and nutrition?  Challenge what you know and what you do....all the time.  If you are unsure of what you're doing and if it is right, challenge it.  You need to make sure you can fully explain and answer with the most confidence you are doing what is right.  If you can do this you can with great reassurance, then keep going.  If you can't answer it then all is not lost but it gives you the opportunity to investigate and change what you are doing in order to  get to be where you need to be.

The other great way I heard to challenge your beliefs and see if it stands the true test is the "3 Why Test".  I picked this up from a top CEO of a company in Brazil that took it from basically nothing, gutted everything and then rebuilt it back up to a giant and a huge player. (Thanks Tim Ferriss for the interview)

The basic of the 3 Why Test is you take any process or procedure the you follow.  This could be in treating, treatment, nutrition, or anything else.  Ask yourself "why" you do what you're doing.  Have answer?  Great.  Challenge it again with another why and get more specific.  Just when you thought you were done you have to answer "why" one more time.  If you can firmly back up what you're doing in your training scheme or in how you are going about your nutrition throughout the 3 whys, you probably have something special and worth hold on to.

This is a long way to get around always challenging yourself and asking "can I do it better".  While this applies to health, nutrition and fitness it can be applied to everything in life and constantly work to improve yourself.  This has been a very big part of my life recently and made  huge difference and get so much more out of it and get so many things done in a highly effective manner.

Challenge your own beliefs.