Gratitude

Goal

Gameplan

Go

Gratitude

©2025 Nathan Baxter

Stop grinding. Find flow.

You can be happy. 

This process is meant to be fun. Getting fitter, stronger, and more productive is fun; here is how.

Enjoy the ride.

My 5G process for flow

How to be happy while becoming awesome at everything. Make the game autotelic to make everything you do feel awesome

Gratitude—Goal—Gameplan—Go—Gratitude

Scalable method for hitting flow at all levels of enquiry. This is the how part of training. Training is more than just the program. From my perspective, a training program is simply one method we use to focus. A great program helps us focus on what we think is essential in a very externally driven way. To go to the next level, we have to internalise the process of directing attention. This is a “how-to” for any program you have available. It’s a way to deepen the process. Rather than “push harder” or “more” - the standard approaches available in high-performance today - this process refines the processes of proprioception, interocpetion, internal validation, intrinsic motivation and reward, and develops deep concentration.

Try not to be put off by the simplicity, as many often are. Sometimes, athletes look at these five steps and think that there has to be something more. There is. This process is an inch wide and a mile deep. The deeper you go, the more you flow. Flow follows focus. This is a plan to increase focus rep by rep, set by set, daily, weekly, yearly, until you don’t recognise yourself and you torch every goal you set for yourself. Bruce Lee once said, “Do not fear the one who has practiced a thousand kicks once, fear the one who has practiced one kick a thousand times”.

This is your welcome to deep mastery. It takes time. The early rewards are small. However, with daily practice and consistency, the improvements compound like interest. When asked, “how do you identify a future champion?”, Paralympian Ben Wright quipped, “Find the people that don’t mind waiting 3-5 years to be good”. This is the process that will keep you motivated to continue that 3-5 year journey.

Lean into deep embodiment with gratitude journaling

Simply write down five things that you are grateful for. It can be anything to start with—five people, things, events, activities or ideas that bring a sense of gratitude. At first, this may feel clunky and forced. It’s ok if it feels like that. Most people tell me it takes about a week on average to feel at ease with this part. I can tell you that “coffee” appears frequently on my gratitude list, even after all these years.

Try not to overthink it. It should take about a minute or less.

Learn more about the flow trigger of Deep Embodiment.

Embedding Gratitude Practice into a Daily Routine

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A modern wooden house on a grassy hill with a mountain lake and mountains in the background, during sunrise or sunset.
A modern wooden house on a hillside overlooking a lake with mountains in the background during a sunset.
Stone pathway with stairs, grassy plants, and mountain landscape with snow-capped peaks in the background.

Make a goal.

Make it clear.

Flow follows focus. Clear goals are a well-known flow trigger. Knowing precisely what you are aiming for reduces cognitive load, significantly increasing the likelihood of success. As Yogi Berra said, "If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else."

Starting with what you are grateful for makes goal setting that little bit clearer, and as we know, the clearer the better. Humans are goal-oriented animals, and the clearer the goal, the lower the cognitive load. Lowering cognitive load is essential for high performance and balances the challenge-to-skills ratio. What is the purpose of what you are about to do, and what success looks/feels/smells/sounds like?

Weirdly, this will make you super effective at ordering from a menu that has loads of options, too. A happy little bonus!

Learn more about goal stacking for success

Read about clear goals

Learn how “flow follows focus”

Gameplan: seperate strategy from execution

Separate strategy from execution. Become relentlessly single-tasked. With a clear goal established, setting a strategy is relatively simple. Write down the steps involved in achieving the goal. Small, granular steps support laser-like focus. This is the step that the highest performing athletes turn into a mantra. For a powerlifter, these are your cues. This is also where visualisation can enter the scene. Know what you are aiming for, and know the steps you’ll take to get there. Detail is your friend.

The rationale behind Separating Strategy From Execution

How a Game Plan Can Defeat Procrastination

Modern house with wooden exterior in a mountainous landscape at sunset, stone stairs leading up to it, surrounded by grasses and stone walls.
Modern wooden house on a hillside overlooking a lake with mountains in the background, autumn grass in the foreground, and a few trees nearby.
A modern wooden house on a hillside with tall grass, overlooking a lake with mountains in the background, during sunrise or sunset.
Scenic view of a landscaped garden with stone steps, tall grasses, and a wooden fence, with mountains in the background and snow on some peaks.

Go!

Enjoy the ride.

You know what you have to do. You know how you’re going to do it. You know your values, your strengths and your motivation. You are present, in this moment, and you are ready to go.

My mantra as an athlete was, “You’ve been here before. You know what you’re doing. Enjoy the ride.”

Right there, right now, is precisely where you are, and there is nowhere else you’d rather be, and nothing more important than the task you are currently engaged in. Just do it.

Six characteristics of flow

What is flow?

STER of flow

Gratitude: complete the cycle

Completing the cycle may just be the hardest of all the steps. Our natural tendency is to seek external validation and judge our performance. We aim to make the process internally rewarding, to self-validate and transition to internal feedback. We are trying to reduce the gap between action and awareness (prediction and feedback). The point at which action and awareness merge is flow - and this is where new PR’s are made.

Find one thing that you are grateful for. One moment of awe, delight, something that went well, stimulated some excitement, made you proud of yourself, and demonstrated a core value. Pay attention to the strengths. We learn whatever we pay attention to. So pay attention to what is working and look for signs of success.

This is all feedback… no failure. Clarify the goal, and refine the game plan based on the feedback/gratitude you just gave yourself. Why wait to ask your coach later when it is more effective to give yourself feedback in the moment?

Feedback cycles and flow

Complete The Cycle To Beat Burnout With Active Recovery

A modern house with wooden exterior on a hillside, surrounded by stone steps, pavers, and native plants, with mountains in the background
A modern wooden house on a hillside with tall grasses, overlooking a lake with mountains in the background during sunrise or sunset.

It begins almost undetectably, barely noticeable.

The real battle is to do this often enough that it becomes a habit. Try it once, and you’ll notice some improvements in your focus and concentration—just a little boost. After a week, finding things to be grateful for becomes more natural, and you notice that your workouts are starting to fly by. One month in, you love the process and begin to apply it to other areas of your life. You notice that you generally feel more grateful, and making choices becomes easier. Three months down the track, and you can’t remember the last time you had a “bad” workout. In fact, you no longer believe in “bad” workouts. Six months from today, you barely recognise yourself. Confidence soars, motivation is deep and sustaining, execution is buttery. You fell in love with the process.

One year from now…

…you’ll be grateful that you started today.

Start your journey today