Hi,
How’s it going?
I hope you are doing well.
I wanted to tell you about my friend who does strongman competitions and the GREAT bipolar lesson you can take away.
What are strongman competitions*?
A typical strongman competition consists of six events. The first three events are used to qualify eight finalists for the last three events. There are about fifteen different events established so far.
The promoter of a particular competition chooses from among these. Many of these events are adopted from traditional, centuries old contests like Scottish Highland Games and the Basque contests in Spain. Variations of regular power lifts are used to test pure strength.
Some of the most common events are:
Farmer’s Walk, Car Walk, Loading, McGlashen Stones Truck Pulling, Log-Press / Stone-Press, Hercules Hold, Stone Lift, Log Throw / Caber toss, Weight throw, Tug of War, Pole Pushing, Crucifix and Car Rolling
About 2.5 years ago my friend decided he wanted to compete in these.
I was kind of strange to me. The events are really odd. Something I would not be into. I used to power lift years ago but not any longer. I only body build non-competitively.
Anyway, so my friend signed up for his first contest.
His entire family went, including me.
So we went there and my friend who is SUPER strong, I mean really strong, went through the entire competition.
Guess what happened?
Take a wild guess! Then scroll down for the rest of the story….
He got destroyed. He didn’t do well at all. Despite being really strong and a good athlete he got destroyed!
It was amazing. I couldn’t believe it myself.
He was really bummed out. I immediately saw the problem because of my consulting background and my background with mental health, especially bipolar disorder.
Guess what he didn’t have that you need for bipolar disorder in order to manage it?
Take a guess and then scroll..
He didn’t have a system. That was the problem. I noticed the people who won had systems. What kind of systems?
How to get there and what time (most go there the day before, my friend got there the day of the event…hmmm) What to eat before the competition What to drink and eat during the competition Ways to keep cool How to conserve your energy for all the events
People had special coolers, food, special seats, tents, cooling devices, supplements, special food and drinks.
You could tell that the people who won had a plan and a system. It was kind of amazing. My friend didn’t pick up on this.
NOTE-They also had great technique. To be a successful person in these competitions requires some amount of strength but way more technique.
Usually the smaller guys beat the bigger guys because they had better technique. Some smaller guys made winning look effortless.
Anyway, so I told my friend to ask everyone lots of questions about what they did.
He did.
Fast forward 2.5 years.
Over this past weekend, my friend did EXTREMELY well. He is on track to be a major champion.
He has come a long way. He did very well. He took 3rd, which is incredible, and just missed 2nd. I asked him, “What was the key?”
He said, “I remember 2 years ago you told me about systems and that’s what made the difference. I now have a system to win. I know how to eat, what to do and when to do it.”
When he told me that, I immediately thought of bipolar disorder.
In my courses/systems below:
SUPPORTING AN ADULT WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarsupporter.com/report11
SUPPORTING A CHILD/TEEN WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
http://www.bipolarparenting.com
HAVE BIPOLAR DISORDER?
Visit:
I talk over and over again about the importance of systems.
They are super important. Something that you Can’t just fly by the seat of your pants and do well helping a loved one with bipolar disorder or managing the disorder yourself. I don’t believe this is the case at all.
YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED A SYSTEM AND A PLAN
It’s important to note that you will have like a master plan and sub-plans that go along to helping you with your master plan. For example if you are a super, your master plan is to help your loved one become stable, productive and be able to work.
Your sub-plan may be, getting your loved one into the “5 percenter club,” finding a job your loved one can do from home and also making sure your loved one takes his/her medication. You will have 3 plans that lead to your 3 objectives that make up your master plan.
Make sense? I hope so.
Hey I have to take off now, catch you tomorrow.
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David Oliver is the author of the shocking guide “Bipolar Disorder—The REAL Silent Killer.” Click Here to get FREE Information sent via email on how and why bipolar disorder kills.
Post responses below
Thank you David for all the effort to keep us posting. I was sad for the temporary blog’s shut down.
I agree that life, in general, requires planning. But plans do not always happen as you have planned them because there are always variables that change our plans. Things happen that there is no way anyone could have anticipated such as my Mother passing away in the hospital on the day she was to be released. She was only 45 y/o. It definitely was not in my plans to fly from Arkansas to Michigan to attend my Mother’s funeral because when I had talked to her the day before she told me she was being released the next day and had already been moved to a private room. The hospital called my Dad about 5 AM that day and told him he needed to get to the hospital ASAP as my Mother was failing quickly (I suspect they did a routine check and found her already dead). My Dad had plans of going to the hospital that day, but certainly not under those conditions. My point is that the best laid plans and systems can often back fire on you because we are not in control and can never really be in control of everything. I have learned this the hard way, as well, when it comes to Mood Disorders, primarily Bi-polar, because our bodies are constantly changing and what may have worked to keep a person stable, say 2 years ago, may not work so well now and constantly (so it seems anyways) be adjusted or changed to something different. My plan and systems in place is to keep my daughter’s (and mine too) Psychiatrist (who also provides counseling) on speed dial and when he sees my phone # come up he knows it is really important or an emergency. My plan is to watch my daughter carefully for the early signs of Manic, keep my daughter going to see her psych (as many app’t as I can get her to keep), and call him in case of problems. Oh I forgot, when I see the first signs of manic I sedate her with Clonazepam (generic Klonopin). My husband denies that he has Bi-polar, he says he has a bad temper! Fortunately, I have talked privately with his PCP, and he is taking meds that keep him fairly stable most of the time but I also have to keep an eye on him so he doesn’t get so manic he moves out of the house and once again, good old Clonazepam to my rescue and my daughter keeps an eye on me because I can’t recognize a manic episode starting in me so she tells and you know what I take, Clonazepam. So my daughter and I have a system that works for now. But I have no way to guess when that system will change and we all 3 have a pretty bad manic episode at the same time, and believe it does happen at least once a year. Then there is, and I really mean it, HELL to pay before one of us gets back to somewhat stable. And I can plan and do what ever, but I can’t predict what we will do and how bad it will get before I (and it is typically me) realize what is happening and gather enough sense to call our Psych.
I am desperate to help my girlfriend, cannot keep job, talks of suicide gets mad at me for trying to be honest with her. I was married for 43 yrs. and wife died, My girlfriend is wonderful when she’s not in one of these awful moods. Hasn’t worked since March 08 and no one will hire her. Sjhe has 2 college degrees and is a councellor, but all she does is submit resumes and wait for the answer, which doesn’t come. I have tried to help her all I can, now she resents that.I lost all my money of a lifetime when I got staff infection in 2005. I cannot afford your book right now, but will accept any help you can suggest. Just your little stories have helped me so much. If you would care to talk to me My Ph. No. is 765-854-1053. I don’t know which way to turn. If there’s anything you can do to help her I’ll try to fill in the middle. I cannot abandon her because she has this awful problem.
Sincerely Harold Newby hebjhappy@hotmail.com
Dave, i am not receiving my daily e-mails, i haven’t gotten one since the 8th of june. i really miss them, what do i need to do in order to get them back? Thanks