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Quick Little Note: Instead of having full on articles like I originally planned, I'll be posting little tips here and there that come from an article series "How to Push Through Adversity"
This is the first one because I think it's funny, but also tremendously helpful! It's the "Rock Lee Method of Self-Improvement" that I came up with from watching the anime "Naruto". Enjoy!
One of his personal training rules goes something like this: “If I can’t do 10 thousand kicks then I will do 5 thousand push-ups”.
If you ignore the absurd anime numbers for a moment, you can actually use this same principle in your own life to help avoid burnout while also challenging yourself in different ways. But let’s take a look at the rules for it, and then we’ll go into why it works:
Both of those exercises are geared to make him stronger.
For us in the real world, let’s take a look at how you can use this in your life to better understand what I mean:
Let’s say that you are trying to lose weight. That’s the ultimate goal and a few different ways to reach that goal could look like:
All of these things could help you lose weight, but that doesn’t mean that you’re doing them all at once. So to use Rock Lee’s method, you might set your goal to go to the gym three days a week.
If you fail, however, then you will instead have to walk a mile for every day that you missed (or however you decide to do it).
You want to structure your goals and ‘punishments’ to both work towards the same goal, which in this case is to lose weight. However, you don’t want to keep adding stuff on top of a goal that you miss. The biggest reason for that is to avoid making it feel tedious. Because think about it, if you failed to go to the gym three days this week are you really going to want to go four days next week? What happens if you miss that week's goal, do you then have to promise to go five days the week after? Ultimately, you’ll end up trying to force yourself to unrealistic standards (I’ll go to the gym eight days next week as an example). And you won’t want to keep working towards your goal, which in this example is to lose weight which could make you give up on it altogether rather than sticking with it.
Instead, you’ll want to change what you’re doing so that you avoid burnout and avoid making it feel like something you’re forced to do. Which is going to make you not want to do it which will ultimately discourage you from moving forward towards your goal.
And the reason this works is that it helps you find things that you will genuinely enjoy doing that will help you lose weight. Maybe you don’t like going to the gym three days a week, but by thinking about ‘punishments’ like this it’ll open your mind to find creative ways to still lose weight. And maybe down the road, you find that you really love swimming instead of going to the gym which will then inspire you to start swimming instead of lifting weights.
Using the above example, maybe you don’t like going to the gym to lift weights and it feels like a chore. So you end up missing a day. But you still want to lose weight, so rather than feel discouraged and feel like giving up on losing weight altogether, you instead channel your focus on finding a different way to lose weight.
And you cycle through doing this until you find something that you’re happy to make a part of your lifestyle. Something you’re happy to live with for years or even decades! Which is the bigger part of why this works, besides helping you avoid burnout.
This is the first one because I think it's funny, but also tremendously helpful! It's the "Rock Lee Method of Self-Improvement" that I came up with from watching the anime "Naruto". Enjoy!
Use The Rock Lee Method
Those who have watched the anime “Naruto” will be familiar with a character called Rock Lee. The whole thing behind Rock Lee’s character is that he’s an insanely hard worker, even for absurd anime training montage standards.One of his personal training rules goes something like this: “If I can’t do 10 thousand kicks then I will do 5 thousand push-ups”.
If you ignore the absurd anime numbers for a moment, you can actually use this same principle in your own life to help avoid burnout while also challenging yourself in different ways. But let’s take a look at the rules for it, and then we’ll go into why it works:
Rock Lee’s Rules For Self-Improvement
Let’s go back to what he’s doing, which is ultimately getting stronger. Both of his exercises are in line with getting stronger. 10 thousand kicks will help his technique while the push-ups, if he fails the first part, will make him physically stronger.Both of those exercises are geared to make him stronger.
For us in the real world, let’s take a look at how you can use this in your life to better understand what I mean:
Let’s say that you are trying to lose weight. That’s the ultimate goal and a few different ways to reach that goal could look like:
- Go to the gym three times a week
- Meal prep every week
- Eliminate junk food outside of cheat days
- Try to drink a gallon of water every day
- Eat more healthy snacks
- Walk a mile a day
- Start playing a sport
- Etc.
All of these things could help you lose weight, but that doesn’t mean that you’re doing them all at once. So to use Rock Lee’s method, you might set your goal to go to the gym three days a week.
If you fail, however, then you will instead have to walk a mile for every day that you missed (or however you decide to do it).
Why Structure it Like That
You’ll immediately notice above that what I didn’t say was: “If I fail to go to the gym three days this week then I’ll go four days next week”. That’s not what I said and here’s why:You want to structure your goals and ‘punishments’ to both work towards the same goal, which in this case is to lose weight. However, you don’t want to keep adding stuff on top of a goal that you miss. The biggest reason for that is to avoid making it feel tedious. Because think about it, if you failed to go to the gym three days this week are you really going to want to go four days next week? What happens if you miss that week's goal, do you then have to promise to go five days the week after? Ultimately, you’ll end up trying to force yourself to unrealistic standards (I’ll go to the gym eight days next week as an example). And you won’t want to keep working towards your goal, which in this example is to lose weight which could make you give up on it altogether rather than sticking with it.
Instead, you’ll want to change what you’re doing so that you avoid burnout and avoid making it feel like something you’re forced to do. Which is going to make you not want to do it which will ultimately discourage you from moving forward towards your goal.
And the reason this works is that it helps you find things that you will genuinely enjoy doing that will help you lose weight. Maybe you don’t like going to the gym three days a week, but by thinking about ‘punishments’ like this it’ll open your mind to find creative ways to still lose weight. And maybe down the road, you find that you really love swimming instead of going to the gym which will then inspire you to start swimming instead of lifting weights.
What The Rock Lee Method Ultimately Does For You
It tricks your brain from getting discouraged while also forcing you to think about what your goal is, and how to achieve it while also finding ways to achieve your goals that you are happy with.Using the above example, maybe you don’t like going to the gym to lift weights and it feels like a chore. So you end up missing a day. But you still want to lose weight, so rather than feel discouraged and feel like giving up on losing weight altogether, you instead channel your focus on finding a different way to lose weight.
And you cycle through doing this until you find something that you’re happy to make a part of your lifestyle. Something you’re happy to live with for years or even decades! Which is the bigger part of why this works, besides helping you avoid burnout.
