#55- Empowered Comp Prep
Hey, hey ladies. How are you? You guys. It's almost the end of September. I feel like this year is just going by at a pace that, it's weird. That's the best way I can describe it because I don't know if you all follow astrology, but there are six planets and retrograde right now. So I feel like I'm moving extremely slow and nothing is moving as fast as I'd like it to. And all of my projects are taking longer and all of it, but every time I look at my calendar, I'm like where did that month go? So,If you are feeling something similar, know that it is not just you it's like universal planet alignment.
All right. You guys. So, what do we have to talk about today? We have lots. I have been going through all of the podcasts with the newest member of my team. I have a new assistant and she's in the process of training right now. Her name is Delyn. She's amazing. And she has been doing a project for me, which has her listening to all of my podcasts from episode one and redoing the show notes on each episode with more detail. I also thought it was the best way to immerse her in what I coach and how I teach and my philosophies and all of the things. So we've been going through all of her show notes and I've been like listening to pieces of my podcast, over again and I'm just so freaking proud of the body of work that we're putting together.
And I have to say you guys that the reviews that I've been getting on the podcast and the emails you guys are sending in as part of the one year celebration of Lady Sculpt Lifestyle. They're filling my heart with so much joy and pride and just all the good feels. So keep them coming, if you guys don't know what I'm talking about. I released a bonus episode last week and talked about this on episode 54, but we're running a contest right now and we're running it all month. So it is not too late. You need to email [email protected] with your favorite episode of Lady Sculpt Lifestyle so far, and why. And then at the end of the month, we're gonna pick randomly a winner. We'll put them all in a hat. Literally cause that's how I roll. And we'll pick a winner and get an exclusive Lady Sculpt Lifestyle tank top in your size and have it shipped out to you so you can represent you all.
All right. You guys. Let's get on with episode number 55, we're going to talk about empowered comp prep today as part of the empowerment series, right? So we've talked about empowered mindset, empowered micro-nutrition and empowered muscle development. And now we're going to dive into empowered comp prep because I think that this is an important topic.
Now I want to say, I don't think that there's a ton of new content going out in this podcast today. I feel like, we talked a lot about empowered comp prep in the competition prep series that we did back, sometime earlier this year. I think repetition is a key and I just want to kind of sum it all up into what does an empowered comp prep look like? So just a reminder that the meaning of empowerment is to take responsibility. Now, some of you are like, wait what?
So when you really think about what empowerment means. It means that you are in total power off yourself, right? And what that means is taking total responsibility for your thoughts and your feelings and your actions, right? As soon as we place blame on something outside of ourselves on another human or a circumstance or something different, we are giving that circumstance or that person all of our power, the power over our emotional state, right or over our thoughts. So when we take back our power, when we empower ourselves, It means we're taking responsibility for all of it.
All right, now with comp prep. This is a little tough because most of you, hire a competition prep coach. So you're like, wait a minute, Lylas. I can't take full responsibility because I have a coach and I have to trust in my coach. And absolutely that is part of your empowered comp prep. Is doing the research and making sure that you hire a coach, that you can put your trust fully in so that you can show up in a way that you are empowered to do the best you can with what that coach provides you with. Now, know that coaches are human too, right? And the comp prep process looks different for everybody.
So if you and your coach are working together for your first show, it might be a bit of trial and error that is totally normal, right? The coach may try something. And if it doesn't agree in your system, it's up to you to empower yourself to speak up and say, hey I'm not feeling my best on this meal plan or hey I'm getting some bloat or hey my GI track is a bit distressed or hey I'm feeling a little bit tired. You bringing how your feeling to your coach is you showing up from a place of empowerment, right? And then your coach and you should be able to create a new strategy.
I want to talk a little bit about the empowerment of the journey of competition prep itself because this is where most people, most athletes kind of get stuck, looking at all of the circumstances and all of the things that are outside of their control, looking at all of the people that they could be competing against or all of the other athletes on social media or what everyone else is doing and what everyone else is eating and how everyone else is training and how everyone else is posing.
And I really want to encourage you in order to empower your comp prep, you need to focus inward. You need to focus on your journey and your best self. It's fine to look at what other people are doing for ideas especially, when it comes to posing and stage presence. That is how we learn the first time we go through it. And if you're doing your own prep, if you don't have a coach.
It is a good idea to take a look at what other people are eating and how they're training to give yourself an idea of how you should be moving forward. It's the comparisons that get us in trouble. If you have a coach that has given you a nutrition plan and you're comparing it to another athletes and you're thinking. I should be doing it differently, that is a very dis-empowered position to be in, right? It's going to leave you feeling like you're not doing it right. Questioning yourself, dis-empower, right? So let's talk about what a dis-empowered comp prep looks like. I picked three things. So a dis-empowered comp prep looks like, blaming, which is blaming people outside of yourself for why things aren't working for you, maybe it looks like blaming your coach for the nutrition plan that isn't feeling great in your body or that isn't doing what you expected it to do on the scale, It’s maybe blaming your boyfriend for distracting you and for you not getting to the gym or maybe blaming your kids or blaming your job or your life circumstances for why you're not showing up as your best self in that comp prep. So if you notice yourself blaming, and I don't want you guys to turn around and start blaming yourself or blaming other people because we don't want to amplify the blame. I just want you to notice and be aware if you are dis-empowering yourself by blaming your circumstances. For why you're not doing the things that you need to do to bring your best self to stage. Okay.
So first thing for dis-empowered is not taking responsibility for our thoughts, our feelings and our actions in our prep. Second part of a dis-empowered comp prep is that thing I was just talking about in terms of comparisons. Comparing ourselves to other athletes, other people, other comp prep journeys.
Your journey is uniquely yours. So comparisons can really lead to a dis-empowered comp prep. And the third is feeling out of control of your results. So if you're really focused on your end result being winning the show or placing top three. You're going to go through comp prep with a dis-empowered energy because you have no control over that, right?
So those are my big three. You're going to experience a dis-empowered comp prep, if you're placing blame outside of yourself, you're comparing yourself to your fellow athlete or your placing a lot of emphasis on the result of winning, okay.
Now I want to talk about this, placing a lot of emphasis on the result of winning because really we have zero control over who else shows up and what the judges are looking for, the only thing we have control over is what we bring to the stage, how we present it and how we feel about it along the way, right? And it feels good to win, there's a reason we want to win, there's a reason why we have the goal to be the best or to place that top five it's because of the way we think it will make us feel. We think it will make us feel successful and proud and worthy and all of the other feelings, right? If you can pinpoint why you want to win, you're ahead of the game. So once you can pinpoint the feeling that you're looking for. I want you to shift the result that you need to feel that way. So if you want to win because you want to feel proud of yourself. I want you to think for a minute, what can I be proud of myself that I have control over And something we talk about a lot in team sculpt is you versus you and I there's a whole podcast on this in the comp prep series. You versus you is the mentality of your only job, your only result goal is to bring your best self to stage.
So if you're getting onstage for the first time, the you versus you mentality is setting you up for success because literally your only job is to get onstage and do the best you possibly can, in the best body you've ever had. That first competition is you just setting the bar for your self, for your future self, right? You're getting on stage. You're doing the thing.
There are so many athletes you guy, that say they're going to compete and never follow through. So you saying you're going to compete and then doing the work and then having the courage to actually get on stage for that first time is a huge accomplishment and you should be so proud of that. You should feel so successful at doing just that. And then once you've gotten onstage, And you've set that bar the next time you compete, your only job is to beat your past self. Again, you have no control over who else shows up on stage and what their presentation is going to be like. You can only bring your best self to stage, know that you've put everything you can, into that prep and that you're displaying your body in the best possible way you can, you put all that time and energy into your posing practice and then you get onstage with a big ass smile on your face with all the self confidence in the world and you present for the judges and then it's in their hands and when sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. But, as long as you've brought the best version of you to stage in my opinion, you have one. I actually feel like I get more out of not winning competitions than I do out of winning. When I place second or third or, you know, 13th, I can take a look at everybody in front of me and go, okay. Now I know what I need to work on. When I win or when I watch my athletes, especially my first time athletes when, often they walk away with how can I improve. What do I need to work on because there's no example of what is better. So then we have to go looking for it , we have to go looking for athletes who are in a different federation or in a higher level and what they're doing, and we can work on that.
I feel like when an athlete places second or third, it actually lights the fire under them, the desire to work harder, to dig into improve more compared to taking home the title, taking home a title is fun for a second. But then there's the pressure of holding that title too, right? And that adds extra pressure. Remembering that no matter how we place, there's going to be 50% positive and 50% negative feelings. That is the 50:50, that is life that we are promised as human beings whether you take home a pro card or not. See, when you take home a pro card, you guys, it feels good in that moment. You're like I won the show. Yay. And then like a couple days later, it sets in that now you're at the bottom of the barrel of the pro class and you're working up from that bottom place again, right. It's like being a seventh grader in school and being like king of the castle to going into eighth grade and being, you know, the youngest in high school. So, know that no matter what you place, It's 50:50. There's going to be positive and negatives attached to all of it. So how can we really ensure that we have the best possible experience. And in my opinion, this comes from empowering your comp prep, focusing solely on your journey, bringing your best self to stage and the understanding that it's going to be 50:50 and if it feels better than 50:50, you are winning at life, my friends, it means you've mastered your mindset in a way that a lot of people have not.
So paying attention and bringing awareness. When you notice your brain. Looking outside you for an excuse. Noticing when your brain is comparing you to someone else and noticing when we're placing emphasis on the results that we have no control over, all right? Just starting with that and bringing yourself back to that empowerment place of taking responsibility for all of it, taking responsibility for your thoughts about your prep, about your coach, about other athletes, about your federation, about the experience as a whole. You have a hundred percent control over your thoughts. You get to choose which thoughts you want to believe, which thoughts you want take action from, Your thoughts create your feelings. So if you notice yourself feeling dis-empowered or disappointed or not good enough or any of those kinds of feelings, know that your thoughts are creating those feelings and sit down and journal them out. Talk to your coach about them. Get them out of your head and replace them with thoughts that create empowerment and then making sure that you're taking action from a place of empowerment. And what this looks like is showing up to the best of your abilities. And I'm not saying this is, you know, training 17 hours a day. This means listening to your body and resting when you need to rest. This means., paying attention when cravings are coming in and deciding to follow your nutrition plan anyway. This means, pushing through that last set even when you don't really want to. And this means spending that time, working on your posing every damn day, not specifically for my athletes who are currently five weeks out. Every damn day ladies, put your posing shoes on. All right my friends. That is what I have for you today in empowered comp prep.
Remember empowerment is just a feeling caused by the thoughts in your head. You have the ability to empower yourself in everything you do. Have a fantastic day. My friends make sure you email me with your submissions for the lady sculpt lifestyle one year contest, and I will see you next week for more in empowerment. Bye for now.
