The dreaded diagnosis.

When you are told what’s ‘wrong’ with your body. Delivered a cause for all your issues in a nice neat diagnosis shaped package.

These diagnoses usually end up becoming a death sentence.

That make us believe we can’t overcome chronic pain & injury and reach our athletic potential unless we ‘fix’ it.

Then we get stuck on the roundabout of injuries & average progress chasing fixes to different diagnoses for years.

And if the ‘fixes’ don’t work, then the journey is over. Your story stops here.

I’ve worked with hundreds of clients, and a lot of them have received certain ‘diagnosis’. The one that always pops into my mind when I talk about this topic is Jack.

A lad in his early 20’s who was in a car crash. Just feel how afraid he was, as he describes the healthcare route’s approach to helping him overcome chronic pain & injury to return to Gaelic:

“I had been struggling with injuries the previous 2 years after a car accident. I spent a lot of time on physio tables and meeting consultants trying to solve my issues but with no sustainable success. I was diagnosed with bulging discs, osteoporosis and degenerative disc disease and this scared the life out of me as everyone I spoke with said I was too young to have these issues”

You can read Jack’s inspiring journey of not settling, and regaining his Physical Freedom to play championship football in Kerry here. 

Just like I would have explained to Jack at the start, these diagnoses don’t have to be a death sentence. You don’t have to settle for that ending.

Diagnoses As A Death Sentence

Here’s how it usually goes:

We go to ‘experts’ and get ‘diagnosed’. We get told what’s ‘wrong’ with our bodies. And what we need to ‘fix’ it. Or that it can’t be fixed at all.

This leads us to believe that we are like a computer with broken parts. We just need this ‘fix’, and then we will be brand new. Or else we are f***ed.

Like humpty dumpty who fell off the wall. Glue him back together, or throw him away.

This right here IS the problem.

You are led to believe that your body is like a computer or a car that can be broken and fixed, but in reality this is not how your body works at all.

Diagnosis are just a snapshot in time of what someone ‘thinks’ is an issue with your body.

It’s like someone saying a photograph of your past will define your future.

But that’s not the case, because we are constantly changing as you will see in this newsletter.

These diagnosis lead to a distortion in your thinking which messes everything up going forward. And prevents you from getting on the road back to your Physical Freedom.

This false view of the body bestowed upon us by (a lot of) the healthcare ‘experts’, lead to a myriad of issues:

• False beliefs about the human body (which keeps us in the dark about the truth, and hence we’ll always be fooled)
• Nocebo effect (opposite of placebo – which links to increased pain levels)
• Traps us in a prison where we are searching for the wrong answer (so we will never get the result we want)
• Takes the locus of control away from us, and puts them in control (hence you need to rely on them forever to ‘fix’ you)

And where does this lead?

For me, it led to looking for the fix for my multiple diagnosis for 10 years, which never happened.

I would go to a different healthcare practitioner thinking they have the ‘fix’, to only be given a new diagnosis. Another thing ‘wrong’ with my body.

The goalposts kept moving. And the cycle went on and on. Like chasing down a mirage in the desert.

It took getting 5 different ‘diagnoses’ from 5 different ‘experts’, for the penny to drop for me.

I had told all 5 the EXACT same issues, but yet they all gave me a different diagnosis. It didn’t make any sense.

This is when I started thinking critically for the first time in my life with my body, instead of blindly following the ‘experts’.

If they really did know what was going on, then they would have all diagnosed me with the same thing wouldn’t they?!

But not even 2 of the 5 diagnoses were the same. It was like throwing darts at a dart board. The Russian roulette of quick fixes.

This was when I had a huge realisation which is very important to understand. It changed my body and life forever.

All anyone can tell you, is their opinion based on their education & experience.

That’s it. Me included.

It doesn’t matter if they have 10 doctorates or haven’t a single qualification, all anyone can give you is their opinion. Their hypothesis. Based on their education & experience.

Diagnosis aren’t divine answers of truth for your destiny, they are just opinions.

People have different education, and people have different experience. And through this combination they will have different opinions.

This explains how an osteopath gave me a different diagnosis than a physio (different education). And it also explains how 2 physio’s can still give me a different diagnosis (different experience).

The whole allure of the ‘experts’ was now shattered for me forever. I finally took them down off the pedestal society put them on.

I could see behind the veil now. The mirage was gone like a puff of smoke. And hopefully it is now for you too.

Then I went looking for better answers. One’s that actually made logical sense.

Like last week’s newsletter on how to not be fooled, I started from first principles.

Reasoning from first principles removes the impurities of assumptions and conventions.

(i.e lets you see through the bullshit and find the truth)

I took ownership of my body for the first time in my life, instead of outsourcing it to the experts.

I followed the results, over doctorates & degrees.

And this is when things finally started to change for me.

Through this new approach free of dogma and falsity, I ended up going to a mobility coach who had no ‘formal’ education on the human body. No doctorate on the wall.

He helped me more with my chronic back pain in 1 month, than 10 years down the healthcare route with the most ‘qualified’ people I could find.

I knew I was finally on the right path after so much pain & heartbreak. I felt it in my soul. And I had the results to prove it now.

From then on, I only follow the results.

Who actually cares if someone has 10 pieces of paper hanging on their wall or none? As long as they help you get the results you want?

So if we aren’t like a computer, like a car, like humpty dumpty. If we aren’t broken and then fixed, how does the human body work then?

Let’s get to the truth.

Your Body Is An Adaptable Organism

Humans don’t have ‘fixed’ states, we constantly adapt to whatever environment we are in:

• If you start climbing hills, your body will adapt and become more cadiovascularly fit.
• If you start lifting rocks outside or iron in the gym, your body will adapt and become stronger.
• If you start sitting all day and push through injuries, your body will negatively adapt and become tight & stiff

We adapt to our environment and change in ways that make us more likely to survive.

This is how the human body works. Diving into evolutionary biology showed me this truth.

Humans have been here for around 6 million years. The species of humans that you, I, and the whole world are: is homo-sapiens.

There were others species of humans just like cats & dogs, but they all died off. For the last 200,000 years, there have only been us homo-sapiens.

Over all these 200,000 years, the human body has adapted to its environment.

That is what we are designed to do: to adapt to our environment to help us survive & reproduce and keep the species living on.

If we weren’t adaptable and constantly changing, then we simply wouldn’t be here.

Homo-sapiens would have become extinct like all the other species that have.

EVERYTHING we have now in terms of our body, was chosen through natural selection because it had an advantage in keeping us alive:

• The shape of your nose
• your eyebrows
• the fact we walk on 2 feet
• our ability to think abstractly
• our cardiovascular endurance
• our ability to sweat to cool down so we can endurance hunt animals that overheat with their fur

You could go through it all.

The point here is the human body is always adapting. It’s always changing.

It has been for the last 200,000 years, and it will be until our extinction.

The irony is that we think we ‘can’t change’ (i.e my hip mobility is terrible, I can’t change. I’ve always been tight and stiff etc).

But in reality, you are changing everyday.

It’s literally the opposite of what you are led to believe with these diagnoses.

Yes you may have a certain issues/injuries, but you will continue to change into the future. It’s not a dead end.

I always like to bring the high level theory down to the practical. And it comes down to 2 paths here.

1) You are either adapting & changing POSITIVELY
(i.e slowly becoming more mobile)

OR

2) You are adapting & changing NEGATIVELY
(i.e slowly becoming tighter and stiffer).

This is all happening slowly. Each and every day in the background. But you just don’t realise it.

It’s only after an accumulation of years/decades, that all these (negative) small gains have added up to the (negative) big gain.

And now you feel like the tin man looking for the fix.

But you are blind to the actual problem. The problem wasn’t ‘your’ body like you are told by the healthcare ‘experts’.

The problem was your lack of education on how your own body actually works.

You can’t stop the small gains. You can’t stop our body from adapting to our environment.

The small gains are constantly working either FOR or AGAINST you. You decide.

You can focus on what’s in your control. You can work on building a resilient body.

People who are unaware of what I have explained:

• continue to sit most the day
• with no focus on mobility
• while hammering themselves with sport

….and end up adapting negatively, thinking they are broken.

People who are aware of what I have explained:

• have movement snacks throughout the day
• focus on a mobility plan for their movement limitations
• check the ego and just do what they can until they prepare their body to handle the demands of their sport

….and end up adapting positively. Empowered by understanding the truth about the amazing adaptability of the human body.

Your Body Is Always On A Journey

Think of how your body adapts and changes every day like a car journey.

You HAVE to go on the journey. You can’t stop the car.

If you can’t stop the car, and you are forced to go on a journey, what can you do?

You can decide what direction the car goes. This is in your control.

Do you want to end up somewhere in 10 years that you hate?
(not able to do sports you love/unable to play with your kids)

Or do you want to arrive somewhere you love.
(regain physical freedom and keep it as you age)

I know you would pick option 2 there. But what are you probably doing?

Sleeping in the backseat of the car. Not even aware that you are on a journey.

The driver is on the route towards tin man city and you are in the backseat oblivious to the pain and suffering coming your way. You have no idea the destination you will arrive at.

It’s only when you get there 10 years later, that you realise your mistake. “Driver can you fix this and bring me back instantly please?!”

Doesn’t work that way. You can drive, but you can’t teleport to a different destination overnight.

Your past decisions got you here, but your future decisions can get you out of it.

Once you are educated on how your body works, you know better. You are empowered.

You wake up from your slumber of ignorance in the back seat. You tell the driver to pull the car over.

You kick that motherf***er out of the car like you’re playing GTA, and YOU take the wheel.

You are in control of the car journey. You are the captain now.
You decide where this car will end up in 1,2,5,10,20 years.
You decide how your body will adapt and change going forward.

It doesn’t matter how far you have drove in the wrong direction. I went 10 years in the wrong direction. Jack and most of my clients spent years/decades going in the wrong direction too.

All that matters is now.

That you make the decision to get on the right path.

As a previous business mentor told me – “every breath is a chance to start again”.

Your future self will thank you. Your future family will thank you.

Why do I make all this content?

Because I finally found the motorway to physical freedom, but I see so many people on the other side of the motorway towards tin man city. I feel for them.

They have no idea where they are heading. I try to tell people but they are blaring the same old tune so loud they can’t even hear me. Nothing I say will help them.

So I try to set up my own communication channels. I put out info on a radio station that each car can choose to listen to. And if they do, I can change their path and their life trajectory.

If they choose to listen and implement what I’m telling them, they can turn off the motorway to tin man city, and take the ramp towards physical freedom.

There are 6 lanes but not many cars. There’s room for us all but barely anyone knows about it.

They don’t even know their body is on a journey.

They think their diagnoses are a death sentence.

They are still out there looking for the ‘fix’.

Don’t Settle,
Mark

3 Different Ways I Can Help You

1) Physical Freedom Program

• My 1:1 coaching program on how to overcome chronic pain & injury, and reach your athletic potential
• I have worked with 100s of clients, across 37 different sports/activities, over 3 separate continents. Covering injuries to all joints in the human body
• Join those not settling for their movement limitations here

2) Mental Freedom Course

• My self-awareness course that teaches you how to stop looping & suffering, and skillfully navigate your own mind
• Most people are a slave to their subconscious, constantly playing out the same undesirable patterns in their life
• Here you will understand why you are the way you are, and how to break free to become who you always wanted to be

3) Lifestyle Design University

• From must €49, you can have the blueprint to design the life true to yourself
• You will learn how to create a vision, how to use my self-development system, and how to move the levers to freedom which close the gap towards the life you want
• Now you will avoid the biggest regret of humanity in the process: “not living a life true to myself, living the life others expected of me”