By World Fitness leader in Women’s Health. Hattie Boydle World Champion and Coach

When you first started your fitness journey you may have used pain as a tool and it probably worked.

Negative self talk pushed you to run harder, train longer, eat less.

And it worked.

Your brain got a hit of reward.

So you used it again.

And again.

And again.

But here’s what you may not realise- every time you used that tool,

You reinforced it.

You wired it in.

That voice got you to the first summit.

But now, as you climb higher, as you try to move the last 5kg,

As you struggle to see what you have achieved…

That same voice blinds you,

Blocks you.

Breaks you.

No matter what you achieve, it’s never enough.

You crave self-love,

but you fear letting go of the pain because it’s the only tool you’ve ever used to move.

But let me remind you what got you here, won’t get you there.

You can’t bully yourself into self-worth.

You can’t punish yourself into peace.

Pain may have been the start, but it’s not the path forward.

Each new level demands a new tool-,

Not a sharper knife,

But a stronger sense of self.

Because the greatest version of you isn’t built through punishment.

She’s built through love, through grace, through a belief in your capacity to grow.

And that’s the upgrade. The Mindset shift.