“I’ll never make this shot”
“I can’t win this point”
“I’m not be able to hold this pace”
“I’ve never lifted this much before, there’s not way I can do this”
Do you find yourself saying these types of things to yourself (in your mind) when you exercise or participate in the sport? Do you do a great job of telling yourself all the things you can’t do or excuses why you can’t, as opposed to telling yourself what you can do or making reason why you should?
It becomes very difficult in achieving your athletic goals when you bombard yourself with negative message that you can’t succeed. To make matters worse, most people are unaware of the negative internal dialogue and don’t see the link between self-talk and performance.
I read about a study involving swimmers and looking at their self-talk in training. The swimmers were not aware of the study, just that they were being observed. The swimmers were asked to complete a test of 6 X 200 meter swims on increasingly faster intervals. They were then asked to try to recall yourself talk on each of the 6 intervals. The self reported feedback was shocking…to say the least!
The swimmers turned in the completed forms and were embarrassed and amazed at how they talked to themselves, saying things like:
- “This hurts”
- “I hate this”
- “There’s no way I can continue to go faster”
This type of self-talk certainly doesn’t help performance and actually inhibits it. Can you imagine how performances would be improved by self-talk such as:
- “Keep your strokes smooth and steady” or
- “My strokes are smooth and steady”
- “Be quick off the wall” or
- “I’m quick off the wall”
- ”Keep it up I feel great”
Instead of setting yourself up for defeat, let’s look at how you can take better take control of your internal dialogue using your mental strength to support your efforts, whether in sports, business, or your quest for personal success,.
Step 1: A Critical First Step – Increase Your Awareness: of both what you say and the situations that trigger negative self-talk. Our mind is always in motion and random and not so purposeful internal ramblings are going on all the time; the challenge is to become aware of the times when negative, defeatist talk rears its ugly head. For example, you may find that negativity is triggered by missing a free throw, hitting a slice off the tee at golf, a new challenge like attempting a personal best or even the anticipated discomfort of an upcoming hill when you’re biking or running.
Step 2: Figure Out What You Would Rather be Saying to Yourself in These Situations: Instead of telling yourself “I hate squats”, “My legs are weak” focus on being powerful and keep your proper form by saying “I have great form.” Or, instead of “This hill was going to kill me!” Telling yourself, “Slow and steady wins the race”. The key is to identify more productive self-talk that supports you in endeavor and goal. Figure out the internal dialogue that is more likely to help your performance. Yes this will take mental strength to be conscious and aware and they are your thoughts after all, so why not control them, so that they don’t control you?
Step 3: Replace Your Negative Self-Talk With More Productive Self-Talk You’ve Identified: Again, you’re doing the thinking and you can be proactive in use the identified positive self-talk. Especially when you find yourself in of those trigger situations. The key here is to use start to use the supportive self-talk before the vent trigger and the negative self talk manifests itself. For example, every time you ride a run towards a hill, tell yourself “Slow and steady get’s it done.” throughout the hill. Leave no mental room to tell yourself how much hills hurt.
Even if you’ve already started the pity party and you find yourself engaged in negative talk simply shout to yourself “STOP!” and then immediately replace this mental “void” with the positive self talk you’ve identified. It is much more productive to replace the negative self-talk with positive self talk, rather simply trying to clear the mind of the negative set as this leaves a void and nature adores a void and you’re mind will fill it again with other negative self-talk.
Now it’s time for you to give it a try. I suggest writing out some self-talk and affirmations that you’d like in program into your mind BEFORE you need them. This way you can practice under ideal circumstances. Then when you need them, you’ll have instant access to them.
Discipline your thinking so you are your own best friend. You heard the saying, “If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Start thinking that you can.
I have a section in “Mental Strength in Athletic Performance” that goes over in detail self-talk and positive affirmations along with an audio.
So, let me know your thoughts about self-talk in the comments below.
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Success in life is not about luck! It’s about managed thoughts, focused attention and deliberate action. Personal success and personal failure all start in the mind. Tap into the power of your unconsciousness mind and eliminate negative beliefs that have been holding back from reaching your personal goals.
Take back control of your thoughts and your life! Grab a copy of Develop the Mental Strength of a Warrior” today so that you can start living the life you’ve always dreamed of.
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Thanks for the inspiration Doug! I’ll keep them coming
Gregg, another great article on psychological skills for athletes! Self-talk is such a powerful tool in sport and when it’s used well can really produce some great results. However, as you rightly point out, it is easy to misuse self-talk and when that happens you can often find yourself with a heavy workload!
Turning negatives into positives is one great method of using self-talk but as you rightly say, you can’t do this unless you have enough self-awareness to identify that the thoughts you are having are negative and reducing your ability to perform. Often the challenge with self-talk is in finding out what these negative thoughts are so I was wondering what methods you use to identify the self-talk in the first place?
Keep these articles coming!