Mental Skills and Self-Talk Richard I Jontry, Ph.D.,
MAC, CAC Diplomate |
Tony Robbins, Wayne Dryer, Deepak Chopra, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen all do it. The Equestrian Olympic Team, professional athletes, and professional sports teams all do it. Do you? What I am referring to is the use of “Mental Skills” to set goals, create and sustain internal scripts of self-talk for success, and internal visual images depicting steps to the achievement of challenging performance and personal goals. Recent research has significantly demonstrated the positive impact Mental Skills training has upon performance and goal attainment. Most, if not all successful athletes regularly use some form of Mental Skills in their training program. Mental Skills Training involves several interrelated activities. Any of these activities may be used alone, however, the most successful outcomes are achieved when all are combined. The Mental Skills successful athletes use include the following: 1. Goal Setting - Goal setting involved creating realistic goals for where you want to be in the future. The best goals include specific measurable steps defining the specific result(s) desired. The results need to be under your control. Thus winning first place in an equestrian event would not be a “good” goal for this process. Winning first place is not entirely under your control. The state of your horse, the performance of other riders, and the possible mood of the judges are all relevant factors that you have no control over. Focus on the specific skills you need to improve in order to ride better. These may include balance, following you horse's motion, better feeling in your legs, etc. The goals are action oriented, attainable by the individual, and include defined time lines for achievement of the steps necessary for completion. 2. Visualization - Visualization is a process whereby you create internal images of yourself achieving each of your desired goals. Visualization is different than fantasizing or day dreaming in that it is directed at specific outcomes or change. Visualization is most powerful when all sense organs are involved. Thus, if you were creating a realistic goal for a 20 meter canter; you might see yourself sitting forward in the saddle, feel your hands lightly give aids, hear the sound of your horses' breathing, and smell the leather reins. The practice of visualization can be applied to each step of the long term goal you are striving for. 3. Relaxation - Relaxation as a skill involves learning how to relax your mind and body to reduce tension and stress. Relaxation helps you in the process of visualization and naturally helps you to ride with more balance, and more congruently feel your horses' motion. 4. Self-Talk - We all talk to ourselves. Unfortunately, most people give themselves more negative messages than positive messages. Research has demonstrated that the words we tell ourselves about ourselves affects our performance, our self esteem, and our relationships. Learning how to recognize negative self talk and change it into positive self talk is an absolutely necessary skill required for advancing one's level of performance. The Mental Skills referred to above can readily be learned by everyone. The difference between a successful athlete and a not so successful athlete has less to do with athletic ability than it does with attitude, determination, and consistent application of Mental Skills combined with a realistic training program. The difficulty is not in learning the skills. The difficulty, or more appropriately put, the challenge, is in using the skills on a regular, consistent basis. When you change negative self-talk to positive self-talk you are in effect reprogramming your brain's Reticular Activating System (RAS). Your RAS is like an airplanes automatic pilot control. When you set yours with negative ideas and images that is where you go. When you reprogram your RAS you are re-setting your automatic pilot. Opportunities, solutions and success are only possible when we are open to seeing them and welcoming them into our lives. I invite you to seriously begin listening to yourself.
Are you telling yourself encouraging positive statements?
Are you creating goal directed winning images? I
challenge you to consider the implications of your self
talk upon your performance and consider changing your
internal scripts for success. |
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