So You Want To Know If You Have What It Takes? Part IIa - The Strategic Game
- Key Takeaways -
Set the right intention: External goals are fine — but don’t let them own you.
Know your drivers: Make internal motivators stronger than external ones.
Play the long game: Success is built on discipline, not dopamine hits.
Leverage challenge: Every obstacle can sharpen your resolve.
Ah, you're back!
Good stuff. Now I know that either you actually enjoyed Part I, or you're just a glutton for punishment.
A lil' bit of column A, a lil' bit of column B, perhaps?
In any case, something within you felt compelled to explore this further, and to that, I salute you 🫡 There is something courageous in the human spirit that comes alive when we dare to peer into the unknown.
Quick Recap
In Part I, I spoke about the intrinsic value of contest prep: the pilgrimage into discomfort, how it reveals inner strength, and why even stepping toward the stage can serve as a crucible for personal growth.
Whether your goal is to compete, get in shape, or see just how deep the rabbit hole goes when you're on the brink of physical and mental depletion, the act of prepping for a Bodybuilding show has something to teach you — but only if you approach it with the right intention.
If you're here to build a TikTok following or sell cookie-cutter programs with selfies of you posing with your favourite toilet in the background, well, maybe stick to the more... hash-taggable side of fitness 😉
But for those who are perhaps a little more taunted by the itch they can't quite scratch, and simply must know if they have what it takes to "follow the path less travelled", read on.
Welcome to Part IIA: The Strategic Game
This here article builds on the theme of Part I, and lays the psychological foundation required for a successful prep (or any long-haul pursuit of excellence, for that matter). We’ll call this The Strategic Game.
Part IIB - soon to follow - is all about The Tactical Game: the "boots on the ground" framework that delivers the real world results of being "jacked and tanned", and which will ultimately carry you through the doldrums, or what I call, “No Man’s Land” (the brutal middle stretch of the journey where excitement fades and that finish line-slash-first bite into a donut still feels o so far away).
The Strategy: Understand What Drives You
We Need To Set the Intention
This can’t be overstated, and it goes far beyond simply saying, “First place, please!”. Whilst no one trains for second place, it's important to keep the literal placing of 1st to what it is: an accountability tool designed to help you bring your best - nothing more.
**Thinks to self "as if standing on stage mostly naked in front of a bunch of strangers wasn't accountability enough" **🤦😅
There are two core motivators in any difficult pursuit:
External Drivers
Internal Drivers
1. External Drivers
These are the more tangible desirables, and can include (but aren’t limited to):
Trophies
Titles
Financial rewards
Social validation
Recognition
Material items
Interestingly, these are often maligned in pop-psych circles, but let’s be honest: wanting to be seen, admired and respected by your tribe is hardwired into our biology. It is, in large part, what makes us so successful as a species - they inspire behaviours within us that help us to "earn our place" and propel progress. The issue isn’t having external goals - it’s not being aware of them and the influence they have over your actions. You only need to watch an episode of Jerry Springer to see the bizarre behaviours humans are capable of when "mob-think" takes hold.
2. Internal Drivers
These are the more intangible goals. They might include:
Self-respect
Building discipline
Displaying integrity
Quenching curiosity
Developing courage
Whilst external drivers certainly have their place, the challenge here is to make your internal drivers more potent and more valuable than the external ones, for reasons we will explore in a moment. When the fatigue hits and your brain feels like soggy cardboard, it won’t be a trophy that gets you to the gym - it’ll be the part of you that wants to keep the promise to yourself.
The part of you that needs that question answered: "Do I have what it takes?".
Define Your External Outcome
It's a crazy time to be alive.
Whilst there are a variety of ways one can leverage external outcomes to motivate oneself, let's talk about the elephant in the room, because frankly, it's too damn important notto in today's world, ESPECIALLY in the physical culture space:
Yes, I'm talkin' 'bout social media.
Stages (whether literal or metaphorical) are packed with people "doing it for the 'Gram", not the grind - or perhaps more accurately - using the #grind to leverage the 'Gram. They use their virtual soap-box to virtue signal, showing the world the #hustle they are putting in getting cardio in at 1am, wearing their exhaustion and "suffering" as a badge of honour (you're trying to look good naked guys, not pioneering for civil rights, calm TF down).
Or - my personal favourite - showing us how they are carving out #stillness at 5:30am by posting about it with a "candid" photo of them watching the sun rise (after trying for 20 minutes to get the perfect one).
Now this is all well and good, sharing a little glimpse of our lives here and there with others... except for when it's not - which is becoming an alarming amount.
The consequences are real, and not isolated to the fitness scene (although it does seem to be rife throughout it). Some pay for that with their health — physically, mentally, and emotionally. In truly tragic cases, even their own life.
Point being: social pressure and/or validation is an incredibly powerful force, which we can use to our advantage - or which can become our undoing.
While social media and fitness trends have helped popularize body recomposition and physical culture as a whole, they’ve also blurred the line between health and performance; between art and attention-seeking. Without doing a full deep-dive (more on that in a later article), I feel it worth touching on, given the gravity of the consequences if left unchecked.
The combination of millions of years of human evolution, addictive devices & software, and the sense of power & control that comes from turning your body into something that turns heads have led to some interesting developments in this space, to say the least. One could say that this has provided a space for The Dark Triad to come out and play - the crossroads where narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy intersect.
And whilst The Dark Triad has been around a lot longer than social media, it has never had such a pedestal with which to be glorified from, and reach so many people. And, whilst it reaches everybody, a vast majority of users are young, impressionable people who are just starting to navigate forming their identity and independence.
And - for better or worse - social media platforms and abs seem to go hand-in-glove.
Who knows why this is, specifically. My theory comes back to the fact that… well… sex sells! And the power that the combination of sexual appeal AND money (specifically, the ability to make money on such platforms from looking good and sharing photos of ones "body of work") has over the human psyche can't be ignored here.
Let's go one layer deeper: we are, objectively speaking, inherently visual & status-aware creatures - thanks, in no small part, to our inbuilt survival & procreation needs. As such, we are always on the lookout for things that can either threaten or support our chances of survival. Or - in the case of procreation, and specific to our topic here - potential mates with which to ensure the propagation of our genes.
While we like to think we are more "evolved" than that, we ignore these hard-wired, largely subconscious instincts at our own peril. Whether we like to admit it or not, there is something about a well-built rig that just grabs our attention, in one way or another.
The portrayal of self-discipline, of work ethic, of strength... the broad shoulders with which to carry more foraged goods on, or the wide lats that serve as a handy shade in the height of summer 🤷😅
Whatever it is, those instincts are there, and they are not likely to go anywhere. And whilst I'm aware that not everybody who shares a scantily-clad photo of themselves is simply giving into primal urges, I've seen enough of it in this industry to know that those people are the exception, not the norm - hence why I'm banging on about it here.
It is a veritable case of monkey see, monkey do.
Because of course these drives can be overridden, but it takes genuine effort, acceptance and humility. The kind that you display when no one else is looking, not the kind you virtue signal about on an Insta-Story. And it also requires a certain degree of gravitas, to go against the grain and say "No, I'm not going to do that", when everyone else around you appears to be revelling in success following the same M.O.
I can't tell you the number of times a young person has come off stage after their first show and, after not placing, has decided it's time to get on the gear, all before their 22nd birthday - and in some cases, with tragic consequences.
So, what to do?
When it comes to defining external outcomes, instead of chasing vanity metrics, we would be wise to set skill-based outcomes - things we can measure, improve, and control. Here's a few examples to get you thinking:
Achieve “X” level of leanness,
Pose like Francis Benfatto (Google him — you're welcome),
Track macros with 100% adherence for 30+ weeks,
Maintain strength within 5% across the prep, and
Don't kill anyone when you get to the gym, only to find every machine is in use by someone doing more scrolling than lifting 😉.
These are more concrete targets that turn prep into an art form — your art form — instead of a popularity contest.
What's more, they are largely within your control. Setting 1st place as your goal is going to happen anyway, simply because you want to give your best - but there are a lot of variables outside of your control that will influence that outcome. Work towards it, but don't make it your only goal.
Define Your Internal Outcome
Ah, the real shit. Your "magnum opus". Much harder to quantify. More important in the long-term.
And through acts like journaling, self-reflection, meditating, and tracking how you show up (not just what you weigh), you can stay aligned with these deeper goals - even when you’re fantasizing about eating an entire cheesecake in one bite.
Here are a few examples to get the juices flowing:
To test your mental resilience,
To develop ironclad discipline,
To model integrity for your kids, colleagues, or clients,
To build long-term habits that support health, and
To confirm once and for all that biting into a fish oil capsule at 5% body fat is absolutely not euphoric.
For a lot of people, making the internal outcome larger than "the self" is just what the doctor ordered. and this would be an example of leveraging social validation/pressure in a constructive way, for worthwhile internal outcomes like self-discipline and self-respect. For example:
Honouring the courage and resilience of your ancestors by giving your best effort on this set,
Paying respect to the former champions and legends of your chosen path,
Giving your best effort as a means of showing respect to your fellow competitors,
Going to "Mass" and praying at the alter of the Quad-Gods (Bodybuilder speak for "Say your prayers and squat 'till you see God").
Adopting such a perspective transcends the mere act of building muscle into a more spiritual experience - your very own musha shugyo. This is deeply nourishing for the soul for the muscularly-inclined high achiever, and has the ability to light a fire deep within that empowers the individual to really"bring the thunder".
Whatever it is you choose, you want to tie it to emotions that are powerful for you, so that you can leverage those emotions when the going gets tough - because it WILL.
Keep Your Internal Compass Visible
The tricky thing with internal outcomes is that they are more "long game", and usually only reveal themselves with the benefit of hindsight, when the fog of prep lifts and you can actually think again.
But they matter in the moment too:
When a friend offers you cake → you practice discipline.
When someone cuts you off in traffic → you practice restraint.
When the pub calls your name → you practice clarity of purpose.
Just like in the weights room, every challenge becomes a rep, and every rep makes you stronger. Makes you more unshakeable in the face of adversity or temptation; better able to choose between vice and virtue.
After all - isn't that what you're really here for?
And here's the cherry on top...
Defining your internal outcomes gives you an edge because you will be able to experience victory well before show day, because you will experience it every time you choose to say "no" to something that doesn't directly align with your goals.
That feeling of having stayed true to yourself is both reassuring and galvanising for your nervous system... once the initial knee-jerk reaction of wanting to throttle your colleague who just offered you cake for the 40th time passes, of course.
In turn, this becomes a stress-management strategy, and one that will serve you well beyond the stage...
The impenetrable Inner Citadel, as the ancient Stoics would call it. The one place where - no matter WHAT happens to you - you always, ALWAYS retain control over.
Instead of seeing things as being in the way, you see them as on the way. Instead of getting irritated at others for offering temptation, you invite it, because you know it's just another stone with which to sharpen the blade of your will on.
This inner sanctuary can be a wellspring of resolve that you can tap into at any point, and the process of prep can help to widen it's ravine, so that you may drink deeply from it when the other areas of your life inevitably start to challenge you, during prep or otherwise.
**Re-reads last sentence: "Damn that was poetic" **
Final Word
Whatever you choose as your motivation, aim to make your internal drivers more potent than your external ones. The latter can be taken from you - or worse yet, gain control over you, compelling you to operate from a place of desperation.
The former are yours, and yours alone - they transcend desperation with inspiration.
And no, this doesn’t mean you have to go full monk-mode and disappear (though that is my preferred M.O personally). Share what you want to share, but before you do, just stop and ask "what's my real intention here?". Don’t let applause be your main fuel.
Let it be what it is: a "nice to have" - not a "must have".
Because in this game, you can win and still lose - or lose and still win. And if your goal is to leave the stage a stronger, more self-assured version of yourself - something you'll be able to carry with you long after the high of winning a trophy wears off - then you’ve already won before they even call your number, because here's the bottom line:
Anyone can feel proud when they win. But the real champion is the one who can stand tall in defeat, and turn it into its own victory.
"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." ~ Marcus Aurelius
👉 Ready for Part IIB?
If you want to explore this further, check out the final article in this series: The Tactical Game — where I’ll lay out the elements that help you endure the long haul, both on stage and in life.
