"I'm feeling good, I'm looking good, I oughta be in Hollywood."

Today I’m drawing inspiration from Commander Mark Divine. Commander Divine is one of the toughest men alive as a Navy seal, but he pairs that willpower with an incredible spiritual awareness. He knows the mind's power to influence reality, and during the difficult times he experienced in Navy Seal Training and beyond, he chanted this quote to himself as a pick me up - “I’m feeling good, I’m looking good, I oughta be in Hollywood.”

Commander Divine understands something about our psychology that I want to elaborate on today, which is the difference between your external and internal environment. The hours of calisthenics and physical punishment he endured were all out of his control, and they certainly placed an incredible demand on his body. But he controlled the story he was telling himself to make everything more manageable.

When you feed your brain with positive messaging, you tell it what to think. It is then primed to structure everything you’re exposed to within that positive frame of reference you’ve created, assimilating new information in a way that is consistent with your positive thought patterns.

While we don’t have to overcome the same challenges Commander Divine did in his training, we do come across stimuli in our environment that we choose to relate with. If something feels like it’s challenging you, convince yourself differently. If something is uncomfortable, give that feeling meaning by acknowledging how it’s generating personal growth. You can pick the story you tell yourself about your situation, just like Commander Divine did, and you’ll begin to better control your emotions, circumstances, and perceptions.

And the next time you’re tired during a workout, repeat this to yourself and you’ll know what I mean - “I’m feeling good, I’m looking good, I oughta be in Hollywood.”