Terminator mentality. Cyborg mindset. Military mode.
I’ve written about this before, but this is my go to method when doing something I don’t want to do.
Some people react to stress by hyping themselves up.
You see this in cold water. People do breathing exercises, scream at the top of their lungs, chant, or dance around. People do this a lot. Especially in Austin.
This is not that.
The problem with screaming is eventually you run out of air.
These techniques are temporary spikes, but require you to expend energy and you can burn out or quit fast if this is all you actually know how to do.
Terminator mentality is the opposite.
You don’t react. You just act.
It’s a little hard to describe if you haven’t done it before, but I call it dropping out.
You remove emotions from the equation. Non-factor.
You numb the feelings.
And whatever residual ones exist – they don’t matter.
Think Terminator having the bullets bounce off him.
Or Neo fighting Agent Smith after he finally levels up.
He’s not amped out of his mind. He’s bored.
When you drop out, you sort of move from “this is happening to me” to “this is happening to my meat suit” but it is not interfering with my mission.
You drop back from your eyes into your head, almost like you’re looking out of a character’s suit in a first person player game.
Instead of tensing up, you let the slack go.
The first time you read this, it sounds a little wild – but everyone has this inside them.
Why do I say that? Well, the the training wheels version of this is working a job you don’t like.
Everyone’s done this.
You weren’t thrilled with your job. Maybe it was just dull. Maybe you actually hated it.
But you showed up and did the work. Regardless.
You zoned out and droned through it.
You can do the same thing with goals – but instead of focusing on a job you hate, you apply it to things you don’t want to do, but will make you better.
Are you actively conscious for every moment of moving stuff around on a spreadsheet? For every late night shift at the bar? No, but you do it.
Or, when you’re on autopilot on the drive home. Are you conscious every second of the drive? Maybe. But you’ve probably driven home a couple times and been like “how did I get back here.
Terminator mindset is like that – but towards ends you actually want to achieve.
If you can show up to work and do a job you don’t want to do for a boss you don’t like – you can show up for yourself for a workout you “don’t feel like doing.”
If not, no you need to ask yourself:
Do you care about yourself less than you cared about that job? Or, more accurately – do you care less about showing up for yourself than you do for that boss you didn’t like but delivered for every, single, day.
You can put in the extra hour of work on your side hustle.
You can figure out how to start a blog on the side.
You can do the extra hour of cardio.
You drop out of the world, focus on the mission, and do the task.
Tired? No factor.
Emotions? Don’t matter.
Deadline? Acknowledged.
Drop out of your senses. Go military on your goal. Adopt the terminator mindset and go do what needs to be done.
Charged!