In order for the physical transformation to truly act as the vehicle for the greater good in your life, you need to go through at least one period where you really embrace the suck and throw yourself into the Grind. It’s a place you’ll never have been to before, and liberating in a sense that you begin to understand what matters to you, who you are, and where you want to go. It has the power to alter your perception of reality, and if you’ve not gone through it, it’s difficult to describe without ultimately calling it a spiritual awakening.

It’s why after ten years of training I still regularly diet down to the extreme to gain new insights, allow introspection, and develop new ideas for myself. It’s the ultimate self development tool, and anyone looking to take their life to the next level should go through this.

50 Reasons Why You Should Grind

I recently posted a question in the RNT Family group:

“I’m putting together an article on why everyone should go through the grind phase of a diet, and I’d love your input. Outside of the physical outcomes of pushing yourself to the extreme, for those of you who’ve past their first Transformation Checkpoint, or are deep in the midst of the Process phase right now, what benefits have you experienced that go beyond the physical? Why should you grind? What did you learn? What is it teaching you? What benefit is it giving you?”

The answers that came back were very interesting, and along with my own reasons, here’s 50 reasons and benefits why you should go through the Grind:

1. It teaches you how far you can push yourself.
2. It forces introspection.
3. You develop deep insights about yourself.
4. You start thinking deeper, bigger and more holistically, and come up with great ideas.
5. You become an essentialist.
6. You identify your flow state in life.
7. You begin to answer life’s most meaningful questions. What do I want? What’s my purpose? What do I want out of life?
8. It’ll break the walls and barriers you’ve held up for years and force you to confront your inner core.
9. You’ll develop the confidence to do anything.
10. You build a winning mindset.
11. You ask yourself, ‘what can I accomplish when I’m at my lowest?’
12. You question old habits, clutches and escapism strategies.
13. You’re forced to dump, delegate or automate parts of your life.
14. You experience true levels of gratitude for the simple things.
15. You’ll build self esteem.
16. You’ll become more empathetic.
17. You’ll connect with yourself on a spiritual level.
18. It’s the ultimate self development tool.
19. Your career will sky rocket.
20. You’ll experience the power of solitude in your day.
21. You prioritise yourself again.
22. You confront all the demons of your past.
23. You learn to master your emotions.
24. It builds character.
25. You understand delayed gratification.
26. You learn the power of routine.
27. You create the ultimate structure, systems and strategies for your day to day life.
28. It teaches you the power of ruthless consistency.
29. You cut the bloat from your life.
30. You expose your true support system around you.
31. You learn self control, self discipline, and true hunger.
32. You understand how much further the mind can push compared to the body.
33. It teaches you more about you than any book, guru or teacher can.
34. You heighten your level of self awareness.
35. You become more in touch with your emotions.
36. You build resilience for all aspects of your life.
37. You learn how to push through the ‘dip’.
38. It teaches you to say no.
39. It highlights how susceptible we’ve been to social stigmas and pressures.
40. You understand your why.
41. You realise this is all a journey.
42. You appreciate your food and meals more.
43. You appreciate those closest to you and the love/support they give.
44. You become more creative.
45. You inspire those around you.
46. You build stress resilience.
47. It becomes another ‘win’ and accomplishment that you can look back on.
48. It is something that no one can take away from you.
49. You realise what the body is truly capable of.
50. You end up in the shape of your life!

The First Time You Grind

The first time you go through this is an absolute shock to the system, and your life overall. It’s impossible to describe the feeling you have when you’re in the middle of this, and the only way to truly understand is to experience it. A word of warning – be prepared for what’s to come! You won’t expect it, and it will force you into some dark places. The ‘muck’ that comes up won’t be easy to deal with, and it’ll constantly try to drag you down, and tempt you to quit. The ‘muck’ is the devil on the shoulder that will play tricks with you. Your job is to dance with the devil, lean in, and outlast it. The ‘muck’ will continuously throw negatively perceived feedback loops at you. Hunger, social stigmas, fatigue, mood swings, emotions, you name it. If it’s your first time, you’ll only see the negative in these. What you don’t realise just yet is it’s teaching you a lesson. It’s actually being your friend. It’s exposing the real battles. It’s telling you what you need to work on. It’s giving you an objective audit on your life. While you’ll feel low, and question whether it’s healthy or normal, the benefits are all on the other side. And it’s damn worth it. The physical is the vehicle, and if you utilise the vehicle for all it’s worth, your life will completely transform.

Be Aware of Being ‘That Person’

As you dance with the devil and the ‘muck’ they bring, you run into the danger of becoming ‘that person’. Be aware. The ‘muck’ will strain your relationships, your work and your life if you let it. You absolutely have to stay self aware and understand that this is your choice and your journey, and no one else should have to suffer because of it. The problem is, you won’t even realise it’s happening before it does. It’ll hit you all of a sudden, and it’s only when you’re told by your family, friends and colleagues that you understand. You have to be self aware enough to hone in on your expressions, emotions and actions, and put a stop to it. Always remember, this is your choice. A choice that you’ve made for yourself, and a life changing one. But one which if you don’t control it, will impact other areas of your life. No one or nothing should have to bear the brunt of it. At the same time, it’s absolutely imperative you explain to those around you what you’re doing, and bring them on your side. Strengthen your support system, don’t fight them and push them away. ‘That person’ who lets the devil win on the small battles will lose the war. ‘That person’ who lets the devil walk all over them and negatively impact their work, relationships and life will struggle to fight to the end. You have to avoid being ‘that person’. You have to take control, create understanding around you, and remember to draw emotional boundaries in your life so that the Grind remains a journey of self discovery, not destruction. A successful Grind is one where you come out not only in the shape of your life, but with relationships that are stronger than ever, a career that’s growing to new heights, and a perspective of life that’s a complete level up to before.

The Power Of The Shoot

The Grind is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, and it will take everything you have in order for you to cross the line. That’s why you want as many layers of accountability as possible, and why marking the Transformation Checkpoint with a photoshoot is so powerful.

The photoshoot is never for the vanity of the pictures. It’s to create a big deadline, massive amounts of accountability, and ultimately a memory of what you’ve achieved. It’s to document the journey you’re on, and have something tangible to remember it by. It’s to assess your progress, and give you a platform to build upon, reference back on, and aim to beat in the future.

My recent photoshoot experience was exactly this. My reasons were all internalised, and specific to the stage of my life, but the photoshoot allowed me just that extra little bit of accountability to embrace the Grind for what it is, and to never let my foot off the gas. If you know you’ve got a photoshoot paid and booked in, there’s no hiding. You have to face your demons right there and then, and ride the rollercoaster of the Grind without falling off.

The Role Of The Facilitator

This specific part of the RNT Transformation Journey is very short lived when you consider the bigger picture and context. It’s to help you reach a checkpoint you can then build further on, and create a lifestyle solution around. The Grind is all about going to the next level across all aspects of your life. What you’ll notice is that so far, I’ve not even mentioned a training plan, a dietary method, a cardio prescription, a sleep goal or a step target. And that’s where we come in as facilitators of this journey of self discovery you’re on. Our role is to mentor you on the blueprint of your individual physical transformation success, and hold you accountable to ticking all the boxes that ultimately enable the ‘vehicle’ to be activated, and for you to make the change you want.