Athletes and sportspersons all over the world spend a large amount of their time in the gym. Getting fit, building condition, and training all the muscles we can physically see. But it isn’t just the muscle groups on the outside that contribute to their sporting success. Top athletes know that the key to achieving their goals, raising the trophy, or wearing the medal, comes from an area that we can’t see or train with heavy lifting.
Your mindset is a powerful tool ready and waiting at your fingertips, designed to help you achieve your dreams. Our minds view and process the world around us and creates our own unique realities. It has the power to make things happen and put your goals just an arm’s stretch away! Like muscles, the brain is an area that needs constant exercising and attention to help it become as strong and resilient as possible. With regular training, your mindset can become your greatest asset, forging a reality in which your dreams and aspirations are in your direct path. All you’ve got to do is think! And I’m going to talk you through how to do it…
How do our thoughts work:
Although it may be invisible to the eye, or intangible to touch, thoughts are in fact a real substance. Their power and influence over our daily realities and long-term achievements should not be overlooked. We spend every day with our thoughts, they are the first thing we associate with when we wake up and the last conversation we have before we go to sleep. So, that’s a lot of time spent with what’s going on inside our heads! That’s why it’s so important to make sure your thoughts are working for you and not against you.
Our thoughts have the ability to control our emotions and behaviour, and therefore our experiences and opportunities. For example, if you start thinking about yourself as a failure, you’ll feel like a failure and soon enough you’ll be acting like a failure which reinforces the belief that you must be a failure! When you have this perception of yourself, you’re less likely to attract opportunities or put the same energy into achieving things… which in turn creates a self-perpetuating cycle. So, thinking about yourself in a positive way is super important to raise your energy, maintain motivation, and attract likeminded people and opportunities to help further your sporting career.
How to think your way to success
Build a routine
Regularly flexing your mental muscles is the best way to get them strong, just like working out in the gym. And we all know the best way to see results in the gym is consistency. It’s exactly the same for your mindset training too. Establishing a consistent routine is how you will fortify your mind and develop resilience whilst you’re on the pathway to success. It can be as simple as a few exercises or activities in the morning to get you in the right headspace for the day ahead. Or you might prefer using the evening to reset your mental state. Whatever it is, try to stay consistent and practice it every day so you start developing muscle memory (pardon the pun!).
Practicing morning affirmations is a great example of a morning mental workout that you can slip into your routine easily. Spending just 3 minutes on affirmations has been shown to reduce stress levels AND improve performance.
Practicing visualisation
Because our minds are so powerful, it’s important that you’re visualising yourself as the successful person you want to be. If you start believing you’re incapable of reaching your goals, then you’re less likely to succeed. Visualisation is a powerful tool to help guide your reality to match your desires. By creating a mental image of yourself overcoming hurdles, smashing targets, and meeting your aspirations your actions and behaviours will follow suit and soon enough you’ll be living in your perceived reality.
The key to successful visualisation is believing it. That means you have to live as if you’ve already made it. Your actions, behaviours, and interactions will begin to adapt to match the person that you’re mind perceives. As a result, you’ll be able to attract new opportunities and gravitate to likeminded people. In order to really believe what you’re seeing in your mind’s eye; you need to get vulnerable with it. Picture yourself achieving some of your biggest goals and allow yourself to feel all the emotions in that moment. Experience it as if you’re looking back on a wonderful memory, see your face in that moment and the rush of happiness, adrenaline, excitement, pride, or whatever the feelings might be. Picture it like you’ve already lived it and keep that image in your mind as you go about your day.
Overcoming setbacks
One of the best ways to utilise our mind to think your way to success is how we overcome any hurdles that might get in our way. The road to success is rarely smooth and setbacks will rear their ugly head from time to time. The fear of failure should never hold you back because failure doesn’t mean the end of the road! Think of it as an opportunity to adapt, reroute, and test out some new skills along the way.
Stepping outside of your comfort zone can be a daunting step to take, but it’s a necessary one to elevate yourself to new levels. Use a setback as the perfect opportunity to test the limits and push yourself that little bit further. It also helps to change the narrative around a negative experience and reframe it into a positive learning exercise. Whether that is learning a new skill, learning a little more about yourself, or learning a few things about those around you, any opportunity to learn is never a negative experience! If you want to find out more about dealing with a crisis or overcoming hurdles then head over to the blog: Building a Game Changer Mindset!
Giving your mind a much-needed workout and building your mental muscles is just as important as hitting the gym or doing some cardio, whatever sport you do. Without a positive mindset and mental resilience, working towards your goals will feel like running on a treadmill. Establishing a consistent routine, practicing visualisation, and stepping out of your comfort zone are the necessary ingredients to create a winning mindset that takes you to the top.
Remember you can always get in touch if you want to create a mindset plan that’s a little more personal. We can work through your setbacks and analyse your goals to help build the healthiest, strongest mindset possible to help you achieve all your aspirations.