Socratic questioning is a technique used by teachers and other experts to force their students to examine and validate their beliefs and ideas.
Socratic questions take a handful of forms (five or six, depending on the source), and they’re typically used together in structures with varying degrees of rigidity. However, these processes all essentially amount to asking “Why?” and “What?” over and over again until the student discovers the truth or their brain explodes.
Why is this relevant?
Well, considering the New Year is bearing down upon us like a runaway freight train, now is as good a time as any to uncover the real reason why you train.
Because, if you lack clarity here, you’ll stop trying as hard or maybe even quit altogether the moment life gets busy. After all, something you do “for fun” or, worse, for no particular reason at all is something you won’t think twice about putting on the back burner when work gets intense or you run into a bunch of family commitments.
Scene adequately set, we continue with an example Socratic questioning process. I’d encourage you to consider how you’d answer the questions posed below.
To be clear: This is an illustrative example. You will have to apply critical thinking to adapt the questions, and probably ask yourself more questions than those shown in this email. The key is to keep asking “why” and “what” until you get to the truth. Sometimes this takes two questions, sometimes twenty but when you get there, you’ll know.
Onward:
Q: Why do you Train?
A: Because I want to get into shape.
Q: Why do you want to get into shape?
A: Because I want to look good.
Q: Why do you want to look good?
A: Because I don’t right now and it makes me feel bad.
Q: Why does it make you feel bad?
A: Because I feel like I’m letting my family down.
Q: Why do you feel like you’re letting your family down?
A: Because my wife and kids deserve a strong, fit, and healthy husband and father.
Q: What does a “strong, fit, and healthy husband and father” look like, in real terms?
A: Having enough energy to keep up with the kids, maintaining the physical “spark” in my marriage, and being able to provide for everyone not only right now, but also ten or twenty years down the line.
And there we have it. The real reason our hypothetical man goes to the gym.
It’s not some nebulous notion of “getting fit” or “losing weight”. Nor is it something he does to kill time.
His reason is deeply personal and profoundly important.
And believe you me, when you have a reason for training that’s as significant as this, nothing will stop you from doing the work and getting results.
Before I go, I mentioned earlier that New Year will soon be upon us. That’s why January’s issue of The Phil Tyreman Letter contains the exact system I use to programme an entire year’s worth of training.
When you use my system, you’ll never again find yourself aimlessly pinging from programme to programme, sometimes getting results and never keeping them. Instead, you’ll train with structure and purpose, and enjoy results commensurate with that.
You’ll also get access to me via email if you need help applying what you learn and with anything else I’m qualified to assist you with.
A subscription is £100 per month (£3.29 per day – just 44p more than a Grenade bar from my local Co-Op, to put the price into context).
However, it’s not for everyone, so I urge you to read the below information carefully:
www.philtyreman.co.uk/information
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman