Why it’s a bad idea to repeat phrases that mention things you want to stop doing and/or feeling.
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The words you use are the structure and architecture of your thoughts, feelings and experiences.
They can make the difference between you hitting your PB, having an enjoyable training session and/or race and achieving your potential - or not.
This is why it’s so important to use positive, productive, powerful words and become a pro at guiding your thoughts to achieving your training and race goals.
How your words impact your performance:
Imagine you’ve just landed at your race destination, you’ve loaded up the cart with your bike box, and your precious luggage containing your wetsuit, trainers and super fast trisuit. You’ve had a long flight and just want to get to the hotel.
But there’s a problem.
Your cart-pulling donkey won’t budge and there’s no other way to your hotel.
You try really hard to move your stubborn donkey, you use the whip and jab him with a stick. He finally starts to crawls forward, but it’s like you’re being pulled by a giant snail.
You whip him a couple more times, but the pace doesn’t change.
You jab him some more with the stick, but still he moves like a snail.
As you’re crawling forward, you slowly move past a vegetable stand laden with juicy carrots.
This gives you an idea!
You buy a bag of carrots and tie one to the end of your whip, which sits just in front of your donkey.
His pace suddenly quickens so he can catch the carrot!
Once he’s eaten that one you attach another, and another, and another, he’s now going at a pace a race horse would be proud of!
You arrive at your hotel in no time at all!
Your words can be the carrot or the whip.
I see and coach athletes who use the whip language, thinking it’s helping them optimise their performance, and it works, as we’ve just seen, but it’s not the best for performance.
For example, last week Pro cyclist Payson McElveen used a new mantra ‘Are you weak?’ to power through 90 miles of heavy rain and hail (enough for cars to stop!) - and it worked! He completed his training session in crazy weather:
But as I’m about to explain and as my clients, like pro-Norwegian triathlete Allan Hovda have experienced first hand, this isn’t the best mantra for optimal performance.
[Read how Hovda’s self-talk transformation helped him knock up to 40-minutes off his race times here: How to change your inner voice]
Here’s how to use positive, productive, powerful words when you’re training and racing:
The words you say and use trigger the feelings, emotions, actions and physical manifestations associated with that word.
For example, when you say ‘I’m a slow a runner’, this triggers all of the stuff you consciously and unconsciously connect with being a slow runner, so you run slower.
If I asked you, what do you want instead?
And you answered, ‘I don’t want to be a slow runner’, your brain doesn’t here the ‘not’ and it still triggers all of the stuff you connect with being a slow runner.
This is because in order for your brain not to think about something, it has to first understand what you don’t want it to think about.
For example, if I asked you not to think about Einstein riding a pink woolly mammoth juggling 5 green monkeys, you immediately form that image and/or video in your mind. As your brain is understanding what you don’t want it to think about.
This is the same with saying ‘I don’t want to be a slow runner’, your brain creates an image and/or video of you being a slow runner and triggers all of the stuff connected with you being a slow runner, because it’s understanding what you don’t want to think about.
Unfortunately, your brain can’t differentiate between what’s unhelpful and helpful to you. It only understands which brain pathways you use the most and the least.
If you often repeat to yourself, consciously or unconsciously, ‘I’m a slow runner’, your brain will strengthen the neuropathways associated with being a slow runner. This means they’ll become easier to activate and the state of being a slow runner is easier for you to enter.
But there’s good news!
You can use your brain’s powerful way of working to your advantage!
By saying ‘I’m a fast runner’, ‘I’m getting faster every day’, ’I’ve got this’ or ‘I can run one more minute’, you’ll trigger all of the feelings, thoughts, actions and physical manifestations you associate with these words.
And the more you stop yourself saying ‘I’m a slow runner’ and replaced this phrase with powerful, productive and positive words, the more you’ll activate and strengthen those powerful neuropathways. And being a ‘fast runner’ will become your new default setting.
And the old pathways?
The less you use them, the weaker and weaker they become, making it harder for your brain to activate.
Why you should really use powerful, positive, productive mantras instead when training and racing:
You are the creator of your own reality, both consciously and unconsciously, and one powerful way your brain does this is by ‘Editing’.
Continuing with the ‘I’m a slow runner’ analogy…
If you’re repeating this to yourself often, most likely your brain is highlighting to you everyone who you think is a faster runner than you. Your brain will ignore all of the people who are slower than you.
This reinforces your belief that you are a slow runner, because your brain isn’t showing you anything to contradict this.
Your reality therefore becomes that you are a slow runner and this is true because everyone else is a faster runner than you.
However, if you start saying to yourself, ‘I’m getting faster every day’, your brain will start to highlight to you all the evidence around you that you are getting faster every day. So this then becomes your new reality.
Please share your thoughts or/and questions below—I’d love to hear.
