It happens to the best of us. We decide to take a rest day we don’t really need, make excuses for why we’re not giving our all while we’re there, and we come up with elaborately contorted reasons for poor performance on game days; excuses that shift blame away from us and towards something or someone else.

We minimize the effects of our own bad decisions, justifying them not only to others, but in our own minds as well. Often we don’t even realize we’re doing this. So how can we stop something of which we’re unaware? Our mind can go round and round as we avoid these very obvious pitfalls, but it’s always worth a try. Let’s delve into some types of denial, and take a look at a few standard operating procedures that may help prevent them.

Regimen? What Regimen?

When I brought up this article idea to Greg Everett himself, he had plenty of examples of lies people tell themselves. “Athletes often convince themselves that they’re working as hard as they can, yet they fail to take care of some of the most fundamental elements of being an athlete, like assuring adequate sleep and quality nutrition,” he explained.

I actually had a friend who was convinced her scale was broken when she found her weight slowly increasing. It was actually more plausible for her to believe that there was an equipment malfunction than it was to realize those late night Ben and Jerry’s binges actually had an effect on her body composition. (Sure, it’s all muscle.)

Another line of excuses has to do with the inevitability of lack of sleep or eating poorly. If you’re working two jobs and have a family then sure, cooking three meals a day and getting adequate rest may be a challenge…but often people making these excuses aren’t in that bout. They’ll decide to party at night, acting like it’s not a conscious decision.

Money is another excuse that comes up regularly. Sure, not everyone can afford grassfed beef and organic produce, but that doesn’t mean we have to subsist on Wheaties and French fries…. And many people who say they can’t afford spinach, eggs and tuna will readily kick down plenty of cash at the local bar, the irony lost on them.

How to Deal

Obviously, this is far easier to spot in others than it is in yourself, so you’ll need some standard operating procedures to see where you’re at. Here are some options.


• Keep a log of your meals, even if only for two weeks or a month. Better yet, keep one publicly. If you find yourself making excuses for your dietary choices, or leaving certain items off altogether, you may need to stop and think a bit about what your goals are and whether your diet truly supports those goals.

• Keep track of how much sleep you get each night. You can keep an old-fashioned paper log, but there are a million sleep apps available as well. Make sure to note why you didn’t get adequate sleep on each night that happens, so you can take steps to counter any pattern.

• Plan out your entire workout schedule for the week in advance. Writing it down and then tracking whether you met your goal is one way to hold yourself accountable.

• If money is an issue, track how you spend your cash for a week or a month and look for ways to cut back. Having another person there to help can be useful, as long as this won’t send you over the edge.

• Track your workouts and diet on the Catalyst Athletics forum. We’re all about minimum effective dose, but if you need a bit more guidance, there are plenty of programs out there that will gladly take your money in exchange for support and accountability. (Precision Nutrition runs a year-long Lean Eating program, and we interviewed Adam Gilbert of MyBodyTutor, who provides daily coaching and accountability, last month.)

“This Program Sucks.”

This is the athlete who kicks down a good chunk of change for someone qualified to write them a legit program, and then they complain about a lack of results. Of course the program’s not working. They’re doing it half-assedly or not at all. There’s nothing wrong with the program. There’s something wrong with their attitude.

How To Deal

• If you have someone create you a program, approach it with an open mind. Follow it diligently, put effort into it, and withhold judgment until you’ve worked on it for a certain amount of time. And if you don’t have faith in the coach who’s putting together your program (or that workout you’re following), consider trying something else you can actually put your full being behind.

The Ikea Effect

The Ikea Effect is when you assemble furniture together badly, but love it all the same. (The original study is available here.) Although the study wasn’t specifically about people who write their own programs, the implications may be more widespread. Imagine this: You work on something, fall in love with it, and believe it is much more valuable than what’s assembled by professionals—even when it’s not. This can lead to a loss of ability to evaluate one’s own ideas objectively, and makes people close-minded to outside ideas.

How to Deal

• Look for areas in your life where you feel competent and in control. It doesn’t have to be the gym.

• Try to be as open-minded as you can to any conflicting information you come across… even if that’s only being open to looking at further research.

It’s The Technique, Stupid

We all know people who blame poor genetics and size for any issues that come up, without looking at their own technique, or their own consistency (or lack thereof).

How to Deal

• Again with the logs. If you really think you train every day, except when something comes up, why not start tracking how many times you hit the weights to see how often something comes up? You can check in on foursquare or even mark your paper calendar at home.

• Anyone can go to the gym, but being fully committed to your sport has a lot to do with what you do outside of it. If you’re not willing to shape your entire life to support your sport, that’s fine—but it’s a choice that you should make deliberately.

• Before chalking up any inefficient movements to size, genetics or whatnot, see if you can practice your sport under an expert’s watchful eye. That might be something you can do at your own gym or with a buddy, you may need to visit another gym, or you might even need to post a video for feedback. But don’t write off any issues to factors outside of your control until you’ve addressed all the things you can actually change.

BOTTOM LINE

What ties a lot of these excuses together has to do with what in psychology is referred to as the “locus of control.” A person who has an internal locus of control believes they can control their own life. A person with an external locus of control believes that other factors control their own decisions and life. If you don’t believe your actions shape your reality, you probably won’t take the positive steps needed to make a difference in your life, and instead bask in the downward spiral of self-fulfilling prophecies. The choice is yours.


Resources

Wanna geek out on the psychology behind this article? Here’s some reading material to check out.

Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Caroll Tavris and Elliot Aronson

The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons

Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average by Joseph Hallinan

Don’t Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make In Thinking by Thomas E. Kida

Plato’s Republic (especially the Allegory of the Cave)