2 key ways to double your athletic performance this Summer

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What if there was a straight forward and instant way you could double your performance in your next competition?

On top of this, imagine achieving this without having to do anything substantially new and instead, doubling down on components which already exist within your psyche, but usually get overlooked or played on an unconscious and unintentional way (by the way, read the last sentence again because it’s so key).

For example, as opposed to more volume of training or buying new equipment, you decide to focus on your mindset and train and become the master of influencing it (to be discussed in this article).

So, if you’re not too interested in staying stuck at the level you are, but definitely want to increase your performance, then let’s read on.

adelaide goodeve master mindset athlete

The two key skills you need to master in order to live your life with crazy amazing performance results and happiness are:

  • Changing states

  • Performance-enhancing language

If it wasn't for learning and mastering these two mental skills, I would still be in bed with severe chronic fatigue syndrome.

By understanding how to transform the way your nervous system controls your body, empowers you to promote your health and performance, and turn off ones that aren’t so great for you.

1. Starting to change your feelings in response to situations

Feelings of motivation, tiredness, pain, fatigue, dis/comfort, energy, excitement, relaxation, calmness, super sleeping are all states.

Every feeling you have is essentially the result of a state that is either useful or not useful to you.

Often your responses to certain situations do not achieve your desired results and usually, you'll do these inappropriate responses (states) on an unconscious and unintentional basis.

What can be even more frustrating is that you RECOGNISE this is not the way you want to respond to that situation, but at the same time, you're like, ‘Ah, I'm just powerless to change this response.’

At the end of this blog, you’ll be feeling MORE powerful. So you can respond consciously or unconsciously in the best way possible to any situation.

You have the power of influence. You can positively change how you feel and respond, thereby positively influencing the situation in the best way possible.

For example, if you’re used to doing anxiety around cycling on your time trial bike in races, you can learn how to stop and transform your response for a powerful, positive and productive response instead.

What’s influence?

Influence is NOT about finding fault or blame or thinking I should have influenced the situation differently (you’re still just blaming yourself)

Influence IS about looking beyond who or what was to blame or at fault.

It’s about how you can positively affect a situation by making life-enhancing choices.

I prefer the word influence because you can always help move what’s going on around you in different, more positive, productive and life-enhancing directions.

I do not like the word control, because it has negative connotations and when you think about controlling a situation, you’re thinking that you are the puppet master, but you can never 100% control the situation.

However, you can influence the situation by changing how you act and feel, you can push, nudge and shove it in more life-enhancing directions.

  • How can you influence your life to go in a more positive, life-enhancing direction when a challenging situation occurs?

  • What can you do about a situation to make it good or better?

  • If you used to do high anxiety around a race, what can you do to feel more calm and relaxed e.g. 20-minutes box breathing?

  • If it's a meeting with your boss, how can you think and act to help it go as well as possible?

2. Sentence structures keeping you stuck

“C-19 is making me feel stressed, anxious and down.”

  • Describes an issue you can't change or control: global pandemic

  • Other events are also appearing: stressed, anxious and down feelings

“I always hit the wall during the marathon of an Ironman triathlon.”

  • Describes an issue you can't change or control: marathon part of an Ironman Triathlon

  • Other events are also appearing: hit the wall feelings.

Due to these sentence structures, it feels like these feelings are:

  • Linked

  • Dependent

  • Caused

by these unchangeable things e.g. pandemic and marathon.

If you want to CHANGE how you experience these situations and a SOLUTION to be created, the only thing left to transform is…

YOU!

3. Become present to your feelings for unstoppable athletic performance

STEP 1: Spot when you're unconsciously and unintentionally entering a non-performance enhancing state.

Ask yourself questions like:

  • Am I in a helpful or unhelpful state?

  • Is feeling and thinking this way helping me be a better athlete?

  • Is feeling and thinking this way empowering me to take my performance to the next level?

  • Is this taking me towards my goals?

  • Do I want to act and think this way in this situation?

STEP 2: Ask yourself: What state/s (feelings) would be performance- and/or life-enhancing?

STEP 3: How can I enter that state/s? How can I positively change how I’m feeling?

Examples might be:

  • Meditation/Whim Hoff/Box breathing

  • Signing up for Brain Endurance Training or sports/nutrition coach

  • Visualization

  • Grabbing a monster drink or making a cup of tea

  • Chilling with your family to Netflix

  • Reaching out for help

  • Take a recovery day

4. How to access Champion States

One of the most straight forward, instant and powerful ways to change state is by accessing champion states.

You can create champion transformation by getting in touch with powerful, resourceful performance and life-enhancing states (a.k.a. champion states!), from your memories or imagination.

This is because your brain can't differentiate between what's true and what's made up, so when you visualize you create a memory!

There are three ways you can access champion states:

1. Take yourself back to…

The first way is taking yourself back and immersing yourself in a past powerful memory:

  • Fully step into that you in that moment using all 4 senses

    • What do you notice around you?

    • Do you hear anything or is it silent?

    • Is your inner voice saying anything?

    • What can you feel? Any textures?

    • What feelings are you feeling?

    • Do you smell anything e.g. chalk or lavender?

    • Do you taste anything e.g. sweat or chlorine?

  • Use present tense e.g. I am feeling really confident.

  • Performance- and life- enhancing language. Examples include:

    • If you want to stop feeling pain, say ‘I'm feeling comfortable’

    • Want to stop doing tiredness, say ‘I'm feeling energised’

    • I have this really awesome, strong, powerful body and it is going to take me through my training/competition

    • I hit the targets consistently.

2. Borrow from someone else

If you really admire someone’s qualities or their feelings, you can borrow and take them on:

  • Step into that other person's shoes, wetsuit, feet, body and paws (animals are popular for self-love)

  • Imagine in detail what it would be like, in present tense, for you to be them with those really amazing resources? Again, use all your senses.

  • How does it change how you go through situations in your life having these new amazing resources and qualities?

3. Imagine your desired Champion state

This is when you create a powerful place in your mind where you instantly feel these incredible feelings.

You can either:

  • Do this by going into the future where you are this amazing new you

    • For example; compete in your competition in the exact way you’d love to, what did that feel like? What did you hear? What was your self-talk like? What did you feel? What else did you notice? What did you taste and smell, if anything?

  • Imagine and create a place in your mind where you can’t help but feel the feelings you want to feel

    • For example; if you want to be a super sleeper create a sleep Palace where you can't but fall asleep quickly and easily. What would that look and feel like? How would you get there? What's inside? Colours? Sounds? Smells? Etc.

In conclusion…

Sure enough we’re always one session or competition away from our best ever performance if you just focus on the physical, but for me, I’m all about the mind and brain.

I like to know that my athletes brains are fine tuned and ready to really push their bodies to the limits - because without their brain there is no performance.

For the many athletes I’ve worked with over the years, I’ve never seen more powerful and instant performance results than the steps (and similar steps) to the one’s shared today.