Last month’s newsletter focused on self-talk and challenged you to determine if your inner dialogue is your handicap or your autopilot to success. This month, we continue to focus on self-talk, by providing practical examples of how to use this skill to make it your autopilot to success.

Positive self-talk is probably the easiest and simplest skill at your disposal to influence and affect your conscious mind and ultimately enhance your athletic performance. Your thoughts affect both your feelings and actions, which in turn impact on your athletic performance. Negative thoughts can lead to poor decisions and performance. The trick is to gain control over your internal conversation.

The first step to learning the skill of positive self-talk is to become aware of your internal dialogue, in other words, become aware of what you tend to say to yourself. Find out if you are inclined to use any negative statements on a regular basis. If you spot any negative statements, begin to replace these statements with positive statements.

When you replace the negative statements with positive affirmations you are actively influencing your inner dialogue. Your mind can only hold one thought at a time so a positive statement works by “filling” your mind with thoughts that supports your goals. The words or statements suggest to the mind what it should be thinking. If you are affirming to yourself “It is going to be a good training session”, your mind will naturally be thinking thoughts about it being a good training session.

Things to remember when you are developing positive statements/affirmations:

You do not have to believe the statement. In fact, if you have previously tried to use positive self-talk but have failed, you have probably been trying to force yourself to believe the statement. This mistake can nullify the effects from the positive statements. Do not worry about believing the statements, just keep repeating them. Your conscious mind will naturally pick up the content of your positive self-talk and it will seep into your consciousness. You do not have to force the process.
Avoid using statements with “not” in it. For example, if you want to have a good race, you would not say “I am not going to blow this race”. The mind does not pick up the “not” and you find yourself programming “blow the race”. Stay with positive statements.
Keep your statements short. Repetition is what will imprint your positive statement into your consciousness, so the shorter the better. It should be like a mantra: short, simple, easy to say and easy to repeat. Try to keep it to ten or less words.
You should ideally find your own positive statements. It does, however, help to be aware of the “winning words or phrases” that elite athletes tend to use to reinforce positive self-talk. Some of the saying or clichés that have been used effectively at Olympic level are listed below. Each phrase is accompanied with a brief explanation. Read through these phrases and explanations, and choose a few to help you to develop positive talk. Or use these ideas to develop your own catch phrases:

Person in the mirror
This phrase is often used as a reminder to an athlete that s/he should only be concerned with the person s/he sees in the mirror, that is, him/herself. Focus your mind on controlling your own thoughts, attitudes and actions.
Anger is ambition without ammunition
This phrase is often used by athletes who tend to get angry at the opposition or circumstances beyond their control. It serves as a reminder that anger clouds your judgment and ultimately your performance.
Finish with a headache
This phrase reminds the athlete of the importance of mental focus. It is generally accepted that you will be physically drained following a good workout or race, but you should also be mentally exhausted, hence the headache idea.
Make a masterpiece
Athletes often use this phrase as a reminder that they start each training session and race with a blank canvas to work with. They have the power to decide what this canvas will be filled with – why not make a masterpiece?
Make a positive statement about myself
This phrase is often used to motivate athletes to maintain a certain consistency across all training sessions and races. If you are going to go out there, you can just as well make a positive statement about yourself with every training session and every race.
If not Me, then Who? If not Now, then When?
The legendary pole vaulter, Surgei Bubka, and the Searle brothers’ rowing team used this phrase to inspire them to world records and Olympic gold medal performances. Brian Miller, the consultant sport psychologist of the British Olympic Association, uses a different motto of the same theme, namely “If it is to be; it is up to me!”
Pressure hurts but sustained pressure kills
Some athletes tend to get the upper hand in a race, but then start coasting. As a consequence, their competitors start to get a sense all is not lost. They raise their game and suddenly the result is in danger. This saying is often used to emphasise the importance of sustained pressure, to motivate athletes to finish the job once they get ahead.
Inanimate objects have no brains
It is worthwhile reminding yourself that your bike does not have a brain. This is an obvious statement, but in certain situations it may feel as if the bike has taken on a life of its own. This is clearly not the case, it has no brain and no say in the matter. It only responds to your instructions. Lance Armstrong’s version of this phrase is “It is not about the bike”.
Water with the Pinkish Tinge
Don Schollander won five Olympic gold medals in swimming. He certainly knew how to push the limits. The aforementioned phrase is often used to refer to his description of how he would motivate himself to try just that little harder, and learn to enjoy the suffering that goes with the experience. He described it as follows:
As you approach the limits of your endurance, it begins coming on gradually, hitting your stomach first. Then your arms grow heavy and your legs tighten – thighs first, then the knees. You sink lower in the water as if someone was pushing down on your back. You experience perception changes. The sounds of the pool blend together and become a crashing roar in your ears. The water takes on a pinkish tinge. Your stomach feels as though it’s going to fall out – every kick hurts like heck – and suddenly you hear a shrill, internal scream… It is right there, at the pain barrier, that the great competitors are separated from the rest (Miller, 1997).
Work harder; Go the extra mile
Athletes use these phrases to inspire themselves to do the little extra it takes to reach their goals. These phases are often linked to statements made by successful athletes such as the following quotations:
Before I get in the ring, I’d have already won or lost it out on the road. The real part is won or lost somewhere far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road long before I dance under those lights (Mohammed Ali in Miller, 1997).
A true champion can push himself to the limit and then go further. A lot of people want to achieve things but never do. A champion gets in there and does whatever is necessary to meet his goal. He will fight one more round, run that extra kilometer, make that last-ditch tackle. The great ones have minds that demand the supreme effort and bodies that can respond (Jeff Fenech in Miller, 1997).

Paddy Cloete (Psychologist & Ironman)
paddycloete@mweb.co.za

Paddy Cloete (Psychologist & Ironman)
paddycloete@mweb.co.za

In last month’s newsletter, I stated that the key to being motivated is answering the “why”-question. Why are you doing Ironman? Hopefully, you have given some thought to this question and generated some answers. If you did, then you have started your journey. Congratulations!

Motivation is not enough to get to the finish line of an Ironman race. By definition, motivation is motive in action. You need to know where you are and you need to know where you want to go. You need to focus and dominate your thoughts on the desired result and then move towards it. YOU will have to make it happen. Motivation without goals is like knowing where you want to go without knowing how to get there. Goals act as the road map to the desired destination.

If your desired destination is to complete an Ironman then you need to break that goal into smaller steps. Maximum success is built upon smaller goals. Any goal can be achieved, but first it must be broken down into a series of smaller goals. Each smaller goal should lead you, one day at a time, to your overall goal. By setting smaller goals, that are measurable and relatively easier to achieve, it is easier to make corrections when you get off target. Achieving goals step by step also build confidence: While smaller, the successes are experienced more often. This provides the positive feedback and reinforcement necessary to sustain your desire to reach the overall goal on race day.

In short, once you have broken your major goals into smaller goals, you can tame them – and then claim them. You tame your goals by:

Focusing most of your energy on taking little steps that are within your control – to improve your skills, your preparation, your execution, your routines, your attitude, your focus. Many outcomes in competitive situations are not within your direct control because you do not control competitors, referees, officials, race conditions or the weather – all of which can influence your performance. When you set goals that require control over elements that are beyond your control, you set yourself up for frustration and needless anxiety. It is challenging enough to manage what is within your control.
Setting your own goals, rather than having someone else set them for you. When you make the decision, it increases your commitment to that goal. This also implies that you do not set goals that compare yourself to others. Competition should be viewed as a way to maintain excellence, to keep yourself performing up to your own potential. Success should be defined as doing your best, based on your unique skills and goals.
Setting challenging, yet Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time limited goals (i.e., SMART goals).
Allowing your goal setting to be dynamic and fluid. A temporary setback does not mean that you have to quit or give up on your goals. It means you draw out the lessons, work on setting more short-term goals or more appropriate goals, and readjust goals as you come to know yourself and your present situation better. When there is a discrepancy, the goals are usually off target. Adjust the unmet goals by bring them inline with you, rather than trying to force yourself into line with them.
Delaying gratification. If your overall goal is to finish an Ironman, you cannot expect to continue to perform at your best in an Olympic Distance Triathlon after a long training week. Go and do your best, but when others pass you, remember to keep your eyes on the overall goal. Research has proven that athletes who are able to delay immediate pleasure for long-term results will ultimately demonstrate the highest performance.
Once you have tamed your goals, YOU need to CLAIM them. Don’t wait for that miracle or that break or the “right time”. This is real life, not a movie! You need to create your own miracle. Today is your day. Start now and set your goals to help you reach your overall goal on race day.

Refer to the September Newsletter on www.ironmansouthafrica.com for tips on how to use mental imagery to assist you in realizing your goals.

You must MAKe it happen, only you and no one else. In order to MAKe it happen, we will need to break it down into three parts: Motivation, Action and Knowledge. Some people understand that the number one key to achieving their success is action. Is action the first step or is it knowledge or perhaps even motivation? Action is well known as a number one key to success and it would seem rightly so. If you don't take any action, you're not going to get any results no matter how much motivation and knowledge you have. This is true, but it does not mean that action comes first; actually, motivation comes first. Motivation however is not the number one key to all success. Motivation is the number one constant to all success.

If you have a car and you get in it to drive, putting your foot on the gas pedal is action. Knowing how to drive the car is knowledge. But what's going to happen if you have no fuel in your tank, no motivation? You're going to end up pushing your car down the freeway of life. Why? Because you lack motivation. Everything starts with motivation; your car, your life, your action and your goals. You will not get up in the morning to exercise without first having the motivation to do so. So the first thing we want to do is be able to get motivated.

Motivation
Have you ever experienced days when you slowly wake up in the morning, slump out of bed and you're just not ready to go? Where's the clock? "Smack" you strike the snooze button for another 5 minutes of sleep. Then there are days when you wake up with lots of energy ready to take off. This flip of the coin is the result of motivation. Are we excited about getting started on something this morning or not? Motivation is obviously very important since it is the basis for all your decisions. If we want to take action, we need to know where our motivation comes from and how to maintain it.

How can you stabilize motivation? When you are born, you don't get a workbook for the brain and a 1-800 number for achieving success. In addition, the important aspects of our lives are not taught in school. They don't teach you how to survive in the real world, how the mind works, how the left brain and right brain correlate or how to recall. They don't teach how to get into states for better ways of performing at school. Motivation stimulants are important because we need to know what stimulates us, what is it that gets us going. What gives us vitality and energy to take action. One of those things is understanding why you do something. Ask specific questions such as: how will this help me? Find out all the reasons perhaps using the Pain Pleasure Principle: what will happen if you don't learn this and how will that make you feel? What will happen if you do learn this and how does that make you feel?

For example, you might be watching a commercial that gets you motivated to take up self-defense. You turn on the television and a gentleman comes out and says, "This could happen to you!" The screen shows Billy, a nice young man, getting beaten badly by a street thug. The camera pans back to the spokesperson who asks some very intense questions : "What will happen if you don't learn to defend yourself? How does that make you feel?" He then goes on to inform you that the chances of being attacked are the same for everyone."It doesn't matter where you work, where you live or who you are. The chances are equal that you could be attacked, mauled, beaten, molested, shot, or mugged. This is all a reality."

After a short pause the camera shows Billy returning to the same situation yet this time with the knowledge of Martial Science, he has learned to defend himself. With his new skill he takes care of the assailant with little difficulty and walks away happy and unharmed. The announcer comes back with one last blow to your emotions and says, "What if you could defend yourself, what if you knew in your heart and mind that you could protect yourself and others, how would that make you feel?"

Motivation can be based on how it makes you feel. If you feel frightened about not being able to protect yourself, it may be just enough motivation to get you going. So next time you are about to embark upon something and you want to dig up some reasons or motivational gas, you can ask yourself the following questions:

What will happen if I don't achieve this? How does that make me feel?

What will happen if I do achieve this? How does that make me feel?

This is called the Pain Pleasure Principle or PPP. By using the carrot and the stick, we can motivate ourselves to get up and go. Every decision we make is based on the Pain Pleasure Principle.When we are asked to make a decision, we ask ourselves if we associate pain or pleasure to the answer. If I ask you, "would you like to go jump the Grand Canyon with me next week?" Your brain might scream "PAIN" and you say, "no thanks." Or your brain might yell "EXCITING" and you say, "I'll be there." Or your brain might at first indicate "PAIN" and you think, "no thanks, but wait...if I don't do it, I may lose my friends which is GREATER PAIN," and you say, "okay...I'll go."

The "don't" is a stronger motivation than the "do," i.e., pain is a greater motivator than pleasure. We will do more to avoid pain than we will do to gain pleasure.

To make this principle funny and easy to remember we can call it the Pee Pee Principle. What is Pee Pee? You guessed it, the urge to release your natural wonders. Think about it...you have pressure that makes you want to go and you have relief that gives you pleasure when you do. So when you want motivation all you have to do is link enough pain (build pressure) to not doing it and pleasure to doing it.

Motivating Goals
Have you ever had a new goal and woke up early in the morning totally excited to get started on it? Well that's one of the greatest ways to get going each day, have a goal. Get a goal that gets you out of bed. If you're still in bed and sleeping away the day, you have the knowledge but no motivation; you're a "lazy genius." If you have the motivation but no knowledge, you're an "excited idiot." Balance is the key.

Action
With the right amount of motivation, we have the drive to take action. Without action, nothing happens; there is no reaction. We take action before knowledge because to gain knowledge we have to experience and to experience, means we need to do something. You will not learn by sitting in the corner of your room all day. In order to make your life the way you want it you have to take action. Your life is your own movie and no movie is made with the director saying, "lights, camera, let's wait to see what happens."

Knowledge
Experience comes from the actions we take. If we make a plan, it is usually good to balance motivation with knowledge and then take action. However, experience is gained by failing and learning from it. None of us are born with this knowledge. We have to take action and learn from it. Intelligence is the ability to learn, ability to solve problems, the ability to grow, and the ability to survive. It is doing what you need to do, not simply knowing the square root of the world's circumference. Some people seem very intelligent, yet they can't pee without a guidebook to tell them how to find the bathroom. People are intelligent when they do what they do to survive. There can be two highly intelligent people who know absolutely nothing about what the other one does. Does this make them any less intelligent? No, it would be foolish for them to waste time learning something they are not going to use to improve their lives. I believe that you need to get a black belt - that is, a black belt in what you do. If you're an accountant don't just be average, be a black belt accountant.

http://www.ninjitsu.com/Mind_Martial_Science/MMS_-_MAK/Mind_MAK/mind_mak.html