Face Down Fear Before Your Workout // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

The CrossFit Open is here! Competitor or Everyday Hero, most everyone experiences fear, worry, or some kind of elevated emotions prior to Go-Time when we’re approaching the Open workouts. Here’s an applicable way to eliminate fear so that at 3-2-1-Go, all you are focused on is the task ahead. Clearing mental chaos is the only way to tap into our full potential. Get out of your own way and let your body do what it is capable of.

Controlled adversity inside of the gym teach teach us Mindset skills that strengthen us to withstand adversity in real life. Think about how you can apply this principle in your everyday life as well.

Keep Coming Forward,

Jimmy Hensel

It's Time To Grow // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

Sometimes people decide to remain immature and actually choose to stay an undeveloped person. Becoming more competent can be intimidating. The understanding that becoming a better person means facing adversity can be difficult to embrace. Many people simply will not choose to be uncomfortable and grow. Some people intentionally fill up their lives or even create chaos in order to avoid the adversity and the challenge it takes to really move forward. It’s human nature to get complacent.

Becoming 100% of the person you were created to BE will require you to work hard and face adversity. Adversity is one of the key ingredients in living a life full of purpose and makes the quest to reach your potential meaningful. The realization that you’re headed somewhere better than where you are now is directly related to your willingness to face adversity and is crucial to self-development. Ideally, we should always be looking to improve and replace the good things in our lives with something better.

Are you growing? Are you unclear about what to do next in your life? Can you imagine what you could become if you intentionally faced the adversity it takes to improve? We have all been there! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Keep Coming Forward

Jim Hensel

Eliminate Chaos in Your Life // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

If you’re feeling chaotic, it might be time for you to think past what you have accepted about your life and cast a new vision for who you might become. It’s just true, if your life isn’t going the way you want it to or your not sure what to do next, it’s time to stop and re-examine your core values.

One of the fundamental principles of life is that language brings order to chaos, in other words, choosing what to do next in your life then eliminating the confusion you feel will be directly connected to how well you can speak and write about what you believe. 

Being able to write down and speak clearly about your strongest beliefs becomes fundamental to developing a vision and defining what you believe is purpose of your life. Don’t allow life to just happen to you and chaos to ensue. Define yourself, establish your identity, choose your values, and write a code to live your life by.

Keep Coming Forward!

Jim Hensel

Fixing Any Mindset Problem Begins with Telling the Truth // Mental Conditioning with Jimmy Hensel

It doesn’t matter what your mindset or mental problem is in real life or in competition, finding the answers start with telling yourself the truth, or telling the other people connected to the problem the truth. As a matter of fact, most of the problems, we face as a society require each one of us as individuals to stand up and tell the truth. The giant challenge we face is that so many of us don’t know what we believe or what the truth is in our lives or in our society anymore. Most of our choices and decisions are based on how we feel at the moment or influenced by the momentum we feel around us. It’s just true, if you don’t know who you are as an individual, then you won’t know where you fit in your family, on your team or in society. What was once self evident is no longer obvious. If you don’t do the work to define yourself, then somebody or something else will define you!


Keep Coming Forward,

Jimmy Hensel

I THINK PASSION IS A FLIMSY WORD // Mental Conditioning

Your understanding of your identity and values must be strong enough to ground you through the successful times and anchor you in the tough times. There are so many things in life we have to do because we believe in it, not because we feel great or are passionate about it. 

If you haven’t developed your ability to list clearly and authentically about what you believe in (values), and all you are relying on is staying passionate, feeling good, or keeping the momentum up, then you are doomed to fail and you will never reach your potential. The path to purpose, success, and fulfillment over your lifetime will require you to fail, fix it, forget it, get up, and move forward and try again. 

That journey will require you to overcome all kinds of negative emotions, emotions that lie to you, and tell you that you are not good enough. The only way through that adversity is to genuinely know who you are and what you believe in as your compass through the storm.

Keep Coming Forward,

Jimmy Hensel

Practical Steps to Face Fear // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

Exchange the word “workout” in this video with whatever adversity you are facing in your life. Eliminating fear or worry before we take on hard, uncertain things can be difficult, but it is a skill that can be developed. Listen for a practical approach that you can implement in your life to move past fear and conquer that mountain in front of you.

Keep Coming Forward,

Jimmy Hensel

How I Taught My Kids Values // Mayhem Mindset

In my experience, teaching my children “Values” began with me living out my own values. Kids learn more by watching how we live than what we say, “more is caught than taught”.

Next, they needed a basic start to values that they could wrap their heads around at a young age. We began with the words Kind, Gentle, and Generous. When they made mistakes, I would ask them, “Was that Kind, Gentle, or Generous?” Those values became a filter and a way to teach them to be critical thinkers early in life without needing a long list of rules.

I also wanted them to understand who they were as individuals. I wanted to help them understand what was purpose for their lives and spend time guiding and affirming their identity. There are no perfect people, but my daughters have grown into amazing young women that know who they are, know what they believe in, and have the strength to live it out. Hopefully this helps the parents out there who are working hard to raise a values-based family as well.

Check out our “Define Your Family Workbook" in the SHOP tab if you need help getting started on this process with your own family. The downloadable PDF allows you to start right away.

Keep Coming Forward,

Jimmy Hensel

SERVE & GROW // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

I believe we need values that represent our strengths, our weaknesses, and our ideals. It’s not good enough to simply say that what you believe is self-evident. If you can’t articulate your strongest beliefs authentically,  if you can’t write and speak clearly about how what you believe, well it’s just silly to think that what you believe will anchor you through the challenges ahead in 2024. If you do not intentionally, daily live your values, you will be defined by someone else or something else. Your choices and decisions will mostly be affected by your emotions and the momentum of the moment. 

At the beginning of each year, I go back and update my Code. I read and update my core values. I make sure that each definition reflects my growth, physically, mentally, and spiritually, and that each of the values is a relevant and strong position of strength to operate from in the upcoming year. One of the categories of values I use in my code, I call Ideal values. These are values that I want to add to my life, values I want to begin to study, live, and apply over the coming year.

For most of my life, I have felt a sense of incompletion for not serving in the military or law enforcement. It’s something that I felt strongly about coming out of college, but the bad choices and decisions I made in my personal relationships sent my life in another direction. Following the desire to serve, I chose SERVE as my Ideal value for 2023. I became a Reserve Sheriff’s Deputy here at home for the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. That experience of living the value of SERVE throughout 2023 has intersected with my new Ideal Value for 2024, GROW. 

One of the most important ingredients in feeling a strong sense of purpose, and staying on a mission through life is intentionally facing adversity that grows us. So many individuals in our culture are stagnant and lack vision and purpose, because they simply have become too comfortable. I’m not talking about looking for trouble, I’m talking about purposefully challenging yourselves with adversity that causes growth in our lives. I talk about this a lot in the mindset coaching I do and it’s important to me to walk it out in my own life.

At 55 years old, I decided to take a full-time job at the Sheriff's Office. I go to the Academy on January 15th for 12 weeks. It’s time to SERVE & GROW! I will be updating you on my progress every week. What are you doing to face adversity and grow in 2024?

Strength and Honor,

Jimmy

Grow Stronger Mentally // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

Growing in mental strength requires you to willingly face adversity. It will mean you have answers for your life mentally, physically and spiritually. Facing adversity is a prerequisite to growth. Adversity reveals our character and opens our heart for the truth.

The first step in mindset growth is to define yourself. You must choose who you are as an individual, have an understanding how you fit in your family and your community. You must organize your core values or your strongest beliefs into to a framework that supports and organizes your life, and you must live your identity and values in a solid routine daily. Understanding your purpose, getting clear on the direction you want your life to go, and staying motivated stems from doing the work to define yourself.

It all boils down to this: Do you understand the importance of how you think, and will you make the time in your life to master that?

Keep Coming Forward,

Jimmy Hensel

For any Mindset problem, Begin with the Truth // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

It doesn’t matter what your mindset problem is, finding the answers will start with telling yourself the truth, or telling the other people connected to the problem the truth.

As a matter of fact, most of the problems, we face as a society require us to individually stand up for and tell the truth.

The giant challenge we face is so many of us don’t know what we believe the truth is in our lives or in our society anymore.

Most of our decisions are based on how we feel at the moment or are influenced by the momentum we feel around us.

It’s just true, if you don’t know who you are as an individual, then you won’t know where you fit in your family, on your team, or in society.

What was once self evident is no longer obvious. If you don’t do the work to define yourself, then somebody or something else will define you!

Keep Coming Forward,

Jimmy Hensel

What happens when the moment is too big for you?? // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

If your level of responsibility or your platform grows faster than your personal character development, sooner or later the underdeveloped places of your character become the weakness or the crack that in that big moment under extreme pressure split wide open revealing the truth about you. 

Character development counts. Don’t let anyone tell you different. It’s easy to prove what I’m saying is the truth and we can see examples where the moment is too big for someone and the truth about where they are mentally, physically or spiritually is on display for everyone to see. The truth about where that person is in their character development is revealed, regardless of the their intentions.

When I was growing up I remember the preacher quoting a bible scripture that said something like “be sure the truth will find you” and it was always said in some manipulative way to scare us into avoiding sin. It was much later in life that I understood this concept and how it practically works, regardless of your ideology.

The highest definition of the truth in my mind is “If it’s true, then it works.” I mean others will see the evidence of the truth in our lives in the way we live and behave. I think this is especially true in the big moments when we feel extreme pressure. It’s simply human to react based on feelings in the moments that are too big for us. The only way to be able to handle more pressure or the bigger moments is to prepare by continuing to intentionally grow and develop your character, to continue to become a better person. We all must continue to develop our ability to control of our emotions, and our reactions and responses under pressure. This kind of character development must be intentional. You must put in the work to prepare for this moments instead of hoping to react and feel properly in the big moment. 

When we analyze these moments in our own lives, and the lives of the people around us, there’s always a a couple of key ingredients in this kind of failure. Taking offense or being offended exposes our under development as a person. The feeling of being offended extends from someone’s inability to form an appropriate verbal response and stay in control of your emotions. Many times it means that you can’t respond with the proper words, because you haven’t developed your vocabulary enough to respond appropriately, make thoughtful choice about the proper response based on what you think and not what you feel. The big pressure moments also expose our need to be affirmed, to be liked, to feel like we are enough, to be validated. Any insecurity or inadequacy that we would not normally feel at any other time can overwhelm us and causes the emotional reaction and the underdeveloped parts of our character to be exposed under extreme pressure, so “The truth finds you out.”

By the way, It’s troubling to me and should be troubling to you when the leaders of our country or the rich and famous in our society aren’t held a accountable for these kind of failures, especially when it has a negative effect on the rest of us because of the obvious responsibility that goes along with their platform. These kinds of failures affect each of us financially. They affect the stability of our culture and society. For sure what I am saying here applies in my own life and I believe that I am personally responsible and accountable for that growth in my life. For sure I have certainly failed in this area of my life and let other people down. Personal development and character growth applies in all of our lives. It’s our responsibility to add value as an individual, in our families, and in our society as a whole. For sure character counts, it’s pretty hard to argue it any other way. Do the work to define yourself. Don’t let the moment be too big for you! 

Keep Coming Forward

Jimmy Hensel 

My First Mindset Lesson // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

Have you noticed I finish everything I write with “Keep Coming Forward”? I got that advice from my Uncle Jim. He was like a father to me. He has passed now from cancer. He would pump his fist and say, “Son, keep coming forward; if you're going to fall today, fall forward.”

That admonishment was my first mindset lesson. Some days we move forward smoothly; everything is working. Some days it takes all we have to lift our heads. I have learned I’m enough (secure with my personal identity and use my clearly defined values daily) and that no matter what happens today, I can control my attitude and effort.

Through the dark times and in the good, we have the power to control our emotions and choose to be connected to our values if we have done the work to be prepared to fight for it. Uncle Jim taught me this lesson with his words and, more importantly, how he lived. My heart hurts thinking about him and his absence. I want to honor him today.

For everyone who has experienced a tough defining loss, if I were with you in person right now, I would stand in front of you, look you in the eyes, and give you the best troll hug I could give you. Then I would say with as much compassion and truth I have, remember them, honor them, celebrate them, and ALWAYS carry them and the truth they taught you in your heart.

Keep Coming Forward!

Jimmy Hensel

Moving the Truth // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

I coined the phrase “Moving the Truth” to describe what I believed was an integrity problem in my life. I wasn’t an out right liar, but I would move the truth if I got uncomfortable or felt like I wasn’t enough. I had a habit of moving the truth so that I did not have to deal with all the hurt inside me.

At my rock bottom, I remember being depressed, feeling alone and wondering if life was worth living. A good friend of mine tried to help me by pointing out some of the hard truths I needed to face, and I remember hating him because the truth hurt. Real growth in my life started when I quit blaming others for my problems, started to work at forgiveness, and fully accepted responsibility for my own life.

I believe that the amount of success, happiness and purpose I will experience in life will be largely determined by the amount of truth I can handle. I’m a work in progress for sure, but now I live my life by a clearly defined personal code that helps keep me anchored by my core values. Living by my code is now a habit, and it reminds me to re-aim at my truth every day.

It is always challenging to pause and get reorganized when you realize you need to face the truth. Cleaning up your thinking process and developing the proper mindset is hard work. However, with the proper perspective, language and mindset tools in place, you can play offense in life, face adversity with confidence and become the person you were born to BE.

Keep Coming Forward,

Jimmy Hensel

How To Deal With Fear and Anxiety Before A Workout // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

I hate it when someone asks for mindset help on how to deal with fear and worry before a work out and the advice they get is “just choose not to be afraid, it’s easy!” The truth is choosing not to be afraid isn’t easy for everyone. Let’s quickly break down what goes into developing a mindset before a workout or competition that’s not based in fear. 

First, Fear lives in the future; it’s an imagination about what might happen. Worrying or being afraid is not the same thing as planning. 

Danger is different. Danger is real, and you mitigate danger by planning for it and by growing your confidence by training and successfully overcoming it. 

So, when facing a challenging workout, especially when you don’t have much experience, you must focus your energy, thoughts and action on developing a specific plan for the workout with someone qualified to help you break it down and create a realistic plan based on your knowledge and experience. Get control of your thoughts and get present by developing and focusing on a plan that attacks the more challenging or dangerous parts of the workout, not by allowing yourself to spend time lost in imagination about failure.

Focus your energy and effort on executing the plan instead of worrying or being afraid about the outcome. Your brain can’t be thinking about executing the plan and be afraid at the same time!  

Remember, putting a plan together only needs to take a few minutes. It’s ok to talk about how you will approach and attack challenging skills in the workout, but it’s NOT productive to spend time talking about the negative things that might or might not happen. What might happen isn’t written. Be where your feet are! Get present, and stick to your plan as you grow your experience. As your skill level grows, so will your confidence. You will see your level of anxiety diminish. 

Capture your thoughts about what might or might not happen. Scale appropriately, then approach the workout in a planned, purposeful manner that will allow you to take the risks necessary to bring the energy you need to give your best effort. 

Keep Coming Forward,

Jimmy Hensel  

Reaching Your Physical Potential Requires... // Mental Conditioning by Jimmy Hensel

Reaching your potential physically is indisputably connected to character development and your ability to create a plan based around a vision for your life (I wonder how many of you will quit reading here).

 

Mindset matters. When you are clear and intentional about why and how you make choices, and when you can capture your emotions and learn to use momentum, it becomes possible to stay motivated, set proper goals and establish and execute a routine that will move you forward. You ask, why can’t we just focus on our physical ability and train that? Simply said, it’s just true; your ability to control your thoughts, emotions and your desires will be the determining factor in maximizing your physical ability. Your mindset will be the determining factor in maximizing your training program. 

 

I can prove that your personal Character matters, the details matter. One of the key characteristics of any physical failure is directly connected to what you believe about yourselves as a person (Identity). The choices and decisions you make in every area of your life are directly influenced by your strongest beliefs (Core Values). Maximizing your physical ability will be determined by your mental strength and capabilities, that is, to be human. It’s also vital to forming an opinion about what you believe spiritually, so your performance isn’t hampered by any spiritual indecision and inconsistency. In the end, you want to improve your performance intentionally and not sacrifice your relationships with the people in your life that are counting on you.

 

Living consistently in a purposeful way will require you to know how to define and exert your Identity first as an individual. You have to know who you are as an individual first so that you can understand your place in your family, on your team, and in society as a whole.

 

Becoming 100% of the person you were designed to be will require you to get good at controlling your emotions so you can create and influence the momentum that moves you forward instead of allowing that emotion and momentum to push you off your course. It’s just true any mature person is trying to make their biggest choices and decision based on their strongest beliefs. What does that mean? It means you are clear about what your Core Values are, and you know how to use them as force multipliers in your life. 

 

The last part of the Mayhem Mindset equation is living out your Identity and Values inside a Great Routine, meaning creating habits, setting goals, and staying motivated intentionally and consistently. Here is the kicker, improving, growth, winning or success, will mean you can do all of this under pressure! 

 

Mayhem Mindset: IDENTITY + VALUES + GREAT ROUTINE = the ability to create a vision and plan for your life that’s complete and actionable. Reaching your physical potential will be the result of that plan consistently executed over time.

 

 

Keep Coming Forward!

 

Jim Hensel

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