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