The Under Dog Story

Welcome Back!  Another episode of Primal AF.  I know you missed me!  Here is what we'll be covering on todays Episode!

Off-Season: Taking a break, focusing on family, and gearing up for the next training phase with Coach Matt Roberts.

1. Importance of Nutrition: Highlighting the significance of nutrition, constituting about 80% of achieving goals.
2. Main Topic Introduction: Embracing the underdog story and its impact on motivation, performance, and personal development.
3. Underdog Narrative: Exploring the allure and motivation behind identifying as an underdog in various aspects of life.
4. Positive Aspects: Discussing the positives of adopting an underdog mindset, including humility and surprising oneself.
5. Dangers of Underestimating: Recognizing how self-imposed limitations can hinder progress and limit beliefs.
6. External Comparisons: Addressing the downside of comparing oneself externally, seeking approval, and setting unrealistic standards.
7. Fear of Success: Exploring how fear or intimidation can lead to self-sabotage or setting unattainable goals.
8. Glamorizing Struggle: Analyzing the addiction to struggle and the belief that greater effort equals a more elegant achievement.
9. The Hero's Journey: Discussing the necessity of struggle in the pursuit of goals and the elegance in simplicity.
10. Imposter Syndrome: Tackling doubts about accomplishments and navigating through feelings of not deserving success.
11. Strategies for Growth: Ways to overcome the toxicity of the underdog narrative, focusing on personal goals and collaboration.

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Transcript

Jimmy: 0:17

Yo, long time no see. Welcome to another episode of Primal AF. We back online. Sorry. I took a little hiatus. I know you missed me. Just a little bit of update. So I finished up the OCR year with Savage Race. That ended up being my last one in November down in Florida. The thing I like about Savage Race is obstacle completion, which really. Plays into what I do well the Spartan races are more geared for, for the runners and there's, there's more elevation there too. And the savage races are a little bit different obstacles and it's, it's, it's fairly obstacle heavy. Um, so moving forward. I am entering the point system for Savage Race going into next year. goals wise, we're probably going to limit the schedule and be a little bit more intentional, but it's, it's really cool. Cause I met some really cool people through the Spartans and the Savage Races so far. So I'll probably throw, one or two Spartans in there for training. I know I'm doing one in January with my boy, um, Kendo and. Uh, vegan. So, body composition wise, I'm really close to where I, where I feel like I need to be. Technical, technical skills wise, I could always get a little bit better, a little bit stronger, a little bit faster. I'm coming off of about a three week almost off season where I really didn't do anything. went down to Florida and just kind of played around in the sun and the kids and not really focused on any running or training. heading into this next week, Matt Roberts over at Primal. Um, he's my coach and he is who is training me. We're going to, again, build a good foundation. And, uh, build up a training stimulus that is, uh, he's starting to ramp up for the next season. So building, building muscle and this is, this is a long, this is a long term, long term goal type thing. So we're not hitting it like really, really intense right away. So we're doing it methodically and slow and keeping nutrition. At the front of the mind, because that's pretty much about 80 percent of, of getting, getting where we need to go. Today's episode is, this is a really, a really cool one. Um, I've had a lot of conversations here lately and, been able to help build and start a mentor group, um, with a bunch of just really high end people. And it was really, really cool. Today, I really wanted to focus on the underdog story and how that serves us. the underdog story, what, what is the point? A lot of high achievers, and people that, are into sports, into competition, at work, racing, or habits, we have all, Seen and love an underdog story. Think of, you know, your Rocky story, The guy that never should have been to the top. And, there he is, right? It's a very good, dramatic story. And there's a lot of emotions evolved in it. But at what point does the underdog story serve us? And where does it start being an attraction to where we need to be? The reason I'm, I'm throwing this up there because I am I'm really good at selling myself as an underdog, um, to myself. And this is, you know, it's not like I have a conversation with a bunch of people and say that. I am, not as good as these people, um but that may be a part of that strategy. the underdog story can help us, especially motivation wise. it's a great story of adversity in most cases. there's a motivation there that can be stress free if you use it correctly. everybody likes to, to surprise. People with performance that at any environment, whether it's at work if it's at an OCR race, or even if it's lifting something small scale, even personally, like, Oh man, I can't believe I threw that weight up, on bench press, or can't believe I ran that 5k in that time, um, and there's a, there's a humility. there, there are some reasons where an underdog story can serve you if that's the story that you're telling yourself. I know that I struggled with it and, I talked with my boy Aaron Velke and man, the dude is so insightful when it comes to this. And the question that he posed to me was, what is the point of the underdog story? The point is to rise to the top and be the overdog. And it didn't really register with me at that time, but what are some of the reasons that we make the underdog story and it does not serve us Sometimes this could just be a story of plainly limiting your own beliefs. Um, you ever see that movie Little Giants? And uh, there's a bunch of, you know, I'm gonna quote the C players against another team as a bunch of A players. They're not supposed to win any games against the A players. Right? Underdog story. But if we believe In our limited ability too much that could really detract us and even almost have a sense of satisfaction and and being comfortable with not supposed to be winning. Um, the other thing that brings up is the underdog is really comparing himself to. External things you're comparing yourself to a set of values placed by somebody else or goals set by somebody else or records or timings set by somebody else. So we're looking for. Approval on a global scale, and it's very external. It doesn't serve us much justice to compare us, it doesn't serve us very much to compare ourselves to other people, especially because those other people are not in control of our happiness. Um, a big one that comes up for a lot of people is this is plainly fear of success. You're being intimidated. Or you're just comfortable where you're at and that might be okay, but that might not be in alignment with the goals that we're trying. To achieve so if we are if we're trying to I use I use racing a lot so if we're trying to level up in our in our Fitness in our in our racing and our performance and we're giving ourselves the underdog story But we're okay with like hey, I'm a pretty slow. This is what we're telling if this is what we're telling ourselves. I'm a Pretty slow runner. So it's okay that, this person over here is way faster. I'm not supposed to beat them. you're already talking yourself into intimidation and you're looking up to somebody where, I mean, dog, they're just as human as you. They have the same, they have the same feelings as you do. The fear of success can also come across as making goals way too big to accomplish. And that's just like a safe way out by saying, hey, I mean, if I'm, if I'm making, 20, 000 a year and I set my goal at 150, 000 a year there without any extra strategies going above, it's almost giving myself the okay or the out to do that. we think that the harder we work for something, the more elegant. the trophy is. Some of the, there's like, there's almost like an elegance in the struggle or the stress of trying to, to get to where we need to go. Like climbing up this, this mountain of challenges. I mean, we have to sweat and we have to pour out blood and we have to give everything that we've got. That can be addictive because when we tell our stories to how we overcame that adversities, we could very, very easily have a dramatic sequence of events, and it almost makes it elegant. It's a movie quality story that we might have in our heads. And again, going back to Aaron, he was saying, You know, what if, what if that challenge or what if that struggle overcoming it? What if it was easy? what are you taking away from your story or what are you taking away from the actual achievement of reaching your goal? Does that change who you are? What's the point of it? Um, a story that he told was, of the hero's journey. With Stress or Struggle, the hero will leave his city. And he does not go into the bad place or through hell or through all the crap just for fun. He does not seek that out. That's just what he has to go through to accomplish what he needs to do. It doesn't seek it out. I mean, if you're in sales, you know, we would much rather have a lay down if we're, if we're presenting an agreement or a contract or a closing, um, it can be elegant to close for three or four hours and, you know, negotiate your way to, to a deal and kind of win that, win that conversation. But honestly, Most people would prefer to walk into a place of business, somebody have a check ready, and they hand it over, and they shake your hand, and thanks for having business, and everybody walks away smiling. And one of the last ones is, is really, it's It comes up for a lot of people and especially, especially high achievers. It's the imposter syndrome. And there's always a consistent doubting of ability or doubting of accomplishments. It's almost like the dial can't go above room temperature. For some people, I know I've dealt with it in the past. It's almost like you're not supposed to be there. You're living somebody else's dream and it doesn't exactly serve us. Um, how do we pull away from toxicity of ourselves telling ourselves the underdog story one. Is growth, right? Working on the confidence in yourself, but also have your own goals that are individual, we could really, if we get really intentional and we're only focused on who we are and where we need to go. For us to be happy and not really worry about what kind of external validation that we need, or what kind of stories that we need to tell to impress people. If we're happy with our own goals, then we don't have to worry about comparisons. It doesn't have to be hard, but what does that also allow us to do? Maybe that frees us up a little bit and we are more apt to collaborate with people instead of compete against. people. And this could be in the workplace or just anywhere in general. It could be an individual sport. It could be like OCR racing. Dog, you ain't gotta be Rambo, right? You don't gotta go Rambo 1 or 2. By the way, um, Rambo 2 is probably the best Rambo that Is out there. Um, Rambo 1 is alright. I think like if you're a grown ass, if you're a grown ass man and uh, and Rambo 1 is your thing. I mean, I get it. Um, Rambo 2 is way better. Um, anyway, you could, you don't have to do it by yourself. You don't have to go rogue in, uh, in your journey. Use people, build a team, get people around you that are really good at what they do and possibly better at you. or better than you and whatever you're trying to get to. you don't have to be the underdog your whole life. Be present, be where your feet are. I appreciate you guys listening. find me on Instagram, primalafpodcast. com. Hope to see you guys here soon. Peace.