9 ways to develop a habitual mindset practice for triathletes
/
Here’s my question of the day for you – do you have a habitual mindset practice? Are you optimising your mindset on a daily basis? If not, you should. A daily habitual mindset practice is SO important - and not just for improved speed and endurance.
If you’re a pro triathlete, that’s cool, but you’ve gotta prepare and hone your brain. If you’re an amateur triathlete with a full-time career and family, that’s cool too, but adding a habitual mindset practice will be even more beneficial.
A habitual mindset practice not only improves your speed and endurance, but helps with positive self-talk, resilience, stress response, maintaining motivation, confidence, your physical health (as I learnt first hand) and about a million other things. A habitual mindset practice is the bomb.
Because what distinguishes the winners in business and sport? You’ve guessed it, your brain.
With that in mind, here’s 9 ways to develop a habitual mindset practice:
1. Why do you want a habitual mindset practice?
It’s not good enough to know just what you’re going to do. You need to know why you want to do it - what’s your purpose, cause, reason and belief around the importance of creating your habitual mindset practice? This is the foundation of being consistent with any new habit. Here are some questions to get you started:
Why do you want to develop a habitual mindset practice?
Are there any mindset weaknesses you’re looking to address?
What results do you want to experience?
What mindset improvements do you want to make?
Write down your answers and pin them up somewhere visible for you to see every day.
2. What mindset practices do you want to complete daily?
This blog is specifically looking at mindset practices to help you in sport, the ones that will help you improve your speed, endurance, results and physical health. I recommend evening and morning routine, and rituals right before and after training sessions. Here are some examples to include in your practice:
Morning ritual examples:
Start positive: what am I most excited about today?
Make your bed
Gratitude practice
Journalling
Visualisation
Affirmations
Reading your goals
Mobility session
Meditation/Box breathing
Read my blog for a clear and detailed example of a morning routine: Triathletes: Feel faster, calmer and happier with this morning routine
Evening ritual examples:
Turn off electronics before bed
Get ready for tomorrow
Reading your goals
Gratitude practice
Journalling
Visualisation
Meditation/Box breathing
For more detailed and structured bedtime routine, download my PDF and checklist here:
Before/after training session:
Set intention
Know your goal(s)
Know mental game plan
Get into best emotional state
Evaluate training sessions positively
Meditation/Box breathing
3. Where can you fit your mindset practices into your schedule?
This is one of the most important things you can do. Study your calendar and make sure you can integrate your habitual mindset practices into your schedule easily. If there’s too much friction, you won’t stick to your practices.
Study the things you have planned for each day. Look at where it would be really helpful and powerful for you to have a habitual practice. I love having mine in the morning and evening. It means that I have minimal distractions and prime myself either for the day ahead or for sleep.
Study the white space of your calendar. Where do you have space to include your habitual mindset practice?
If you’re a pro athlete you might prefer three mini mindset practices before your morning training, midday while you recover and in the evening before you go to bed.
One of my amateur athletes used the first 15 minutes of his workday to get his head into work mode and know his game plan for the day. His evening practise wound him down and prepared him for the morning.
Study your sleep. Your extraordinary day starts the night before. The consequences of sleep deprivation are UGLY, including immune system failure, poor cognitive function and depression. Ritualise your sleep to get a blissful night’s sleep, every night.
4. Create a habit machine for your mindset practice
A stable and daily structure and plan are essential for a high-performance environment. Having a habit machine, a simple system that helps you build powerful and positive mindset practices and habits, is key to helping you increase your physical and mental performance.
Once you’ve outlined the rituals you want to include in your daily mindset practice and when, the first step is to start small. Just spend a minute on each one the first day, two minutes the day and slowly build up. Tick them off each day to ensure consistency and positive momentum.
5. Challenge yourself
Challenge yourself to 35-days of consistency with your new or updated mindset practice. Create a checklist and tick off each task as you complete it every day. If you’re 80% or more consistent at the end of the 35-days, treat yourself to a reward.
It can also be helpful to have a negative consequence if you’re 79% or less consistent, like donating £50 to Trump’s presidential fund. This will give you the added drive to make sure you don’t miss a day!
6. Focus on your daily practices (and eliminate distractions)
Pro golfer Doug Sanders was standing less than three feet away from the whole, if he putt this, he would win the 1970 British Open Championship in St. Andrews Scotland. It was an easy shot for any pro - but he missed. It cost him winning his first major tournament and millions of dollars in prize money and sponsors.
But why did he miss?
Because he wasn’t focusing on the key processes that would ensure him the putt. His mind was focused on which section of the crowd he’d bow to first and what his victory speech would be.
What you focus on, pay attention to and give intention to, will shape your life, whether you want it to or not.
If you're focused on the distractions or the end goal, and miss or poorly execute your rituals, your reality will reflect this. Pay attention, focus and concentrate on what mindset practices you need to complete to the best of your ability on a daily basis, so you turn up on race day with the best prepared and trained brain and mindset - so you don’t miss that putt.
7. Accountability
Having an accountability buddy or community is key to ensuring you hit your practices on a daily. If you don’t have someone to buddy up with or a community to engage with, then use your bathroom mirror for accountability.
The accountability mirror was the key to success for ultra-endurance athlete David Goggins (@davidgoggins), and it can be for you too. Every day talk to yourself in the mirror and hold yourself accountable.
8. Commit
Sign a contract to yourself:
I, [insert name], will complete 35 days of mindset practices, from [insert start date] to [insert end date], because I want to [insert 3 reasons why its important to you].
This may sound silly, but committing to yourself will help ensure that you actually complete your challenge. At the end of the 35-days celebrate your achievements, write down all your successes and what your daily mindset practice will look like for the next 35-days. And repeat the process.
9. Is this realistic?
My clients are often like me, we think we’re superhuman and want to achieve everything in a fast timeline, no matter how big the goal is. So I also ask my clients (and myself):
Is this reasonable for you to achieve?
Is it ok to have this change in your life?
If your answers are no, reflect and refine your practice - and remember to start small.
