Most of an athlete’s ability to realise their own potential is wrapped up in their own attitude toward their potential.
Attitude is a by-product of belief.
What you believe, so will you receive.
I’ve had very few athletes that I have worked with that, on their own, will truly look into the state of their own belief structures.
We tend not to understand the full weight of the polarities of positive and negative thinking and belief, nor the fact that what we project on wards and reflect outward will draw more of the same energy inward.
Belief is a little like electrical circuitry, unless you interrupt the current, it will continue.
Interrupting it doesn’t even mean you need to stop it and like all energy it can be converted, diverted and transmuted into something else.
What is the first step? Just become aware of what you believe and how you believe it, become the watcher of it.
Write down all the thoughts you have around your goals, yes the deep ones you don’t want the competition to see or know.
Now examine them and see if are they moving in the flow of your goal or against it?
Most are shocked to find out just how much their own inner state is moving against the flow of their own goals. Don’t make that another problem though, just notice it.
Now realise every time you train there is a golden opportunity to wedge in a circuit breaker. Here’s a few to practise:
- Acceptance
- The present
- Non judgment.
- Visualisation.
These are just a few of the currents of reality that you can use as a wedge in the circuitry of belief to transmute the energy into something that is helpful, possibly even personally revolutionary.
Acceptance
From a training perspective, when you turn up for a session, give yourself fully to it. Accept it warts and all. Weather conditions, feelings, emotions, fatigue levels. Accept them all like you invited them for a cup of tea. Watch how that down regulates your circuitry.
The Present
There is no transmutative energy like the present moment, because it is pure reality as it is arising.
A successful performance is simply a whole bunch of present moments stitched together.
It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that if you can stay with the process in training, then it’s logical that the same will appear on race day.
You are what you practice here and now, and if your noggin is all over the place, past and future based in training then that’s where you'll come race day.
Non judgement
This does not mean that you can’t log speeds, intensity’s or measure performance post session.
What it does mean is that you stop labeling it and tagging it while you are in the process of it. You stay with the process in the body and stay as intuitive in that process as you can possibly be.
If you are mentally putting labels and judgments on everything, you are not in the body, you are in your head.
Keep in mind it’s your head and belief system that tells you that you are not good enough, which leads me to the last point.
Visualisation
Even scientific research proves the power of visualisation, simply because the subconscious doesn’t know the difference between what is real and what isn’t in a calm state that reaches into the dark corners of the subconscious mind.
So a great practice is to get yourself into a quiet space and visualise the race unfolding the way you want it to “feel”! Keeping in mind here the key word “feel”!
So you visualise yourself performing the way you want it to unfold, feeling the feelings, see yourself feeling strong and moving with flow.
In essence what you are doing is training yourself to become present in the process and the performance. At the same time you are rewiring your brain and rerouting around old worn out patterns and beliefs that hold you back.
Four very simple practices that will do far more for you athletically than you could ever imagine, if you just give a consistent try.
I’ve been in coaching a long time and 100% I can assure you that this can change your whole game.
You are what you believe.