A lot of us tend to see our own thoughts as a nonsensical series of images or inner voice that that doesn’t have much meaning. The truth is our collective of thoughts has a very real bearing on the reality that we create for ourselves and our collective of thoughts can either be used as a tool to create a reality that we desire, or an anchor that will drag us down.
Our collective of thoughts is what programs the subconscious mind, and the subconscious mind has nowhere to hide in high performance sport. Examples of negative thoughts might include.
“I can’t compete with these opponents, they are more talented than me”
“I have a terrible set shot at goals”
“Why bother training so hard, its not like ill make it professional anyway”
These thoughts aren’t serving our goals so why do they need to be there anyway? By practising mindfulness and being aware of negative thoughts that don’t serve our greater purpose we can learn to block them out before they occur and build a robust strong mind that has no seeds of doubt come game day – Just you in the present moment and knowing exactly what skill to execute with pure focus and no delay. Also, with mindfulness we can practice self-love by understanding that mistakes are a part of the learning process and can be used as motivation to be the best athletic version of ourselves, not to beat ourselves up.
From here on when a negative thought process starts to come up think “stop” “Is this thought serving me and my goals” “is it going to get me where I need to be” and then replace it with the feeling of elation when a young fan asks you for an autograph or shivers down your spine when the crowd roars after you kick a goal from the boundary. If you believe in your goal with so much intent that you can visualise it so vividly then you better believe that goal is a reality for you! You just haven’t manifested it yet.
