Faith, Not Fear
Faith, Not Fear
Both Faith and Fear paint a picture of a future that has not happened yet. Fear believes in a negative future and Faith believes in a positive future. Since neither has happened, why wouldn’t you believe and act in accordance with the positive future. If you are going to create a self-fulfilling prophecy for yourself, why not create a positive one? Talk to Yourself — Have Faith!
Learn to Talk to Yourself Instead of Listening to Yourself
“I have learned to talk to myself instead of listening to myself. If I listen to myself I hear all the negative thoughts, all the complaints, all the fears, all the doubts, and all the reasons why I shouldn’t be able to finish the race. But if I talk to myself I can feed myself with the words and encouragement I need to finish the race.” — Dr. James Gills
Listening to yourself brings the fear, negativity, and doubt to the forefront of your attention- all the possible reasons why you can’t do this. But when you talk to yourself, you feed your attention the positive words and encouragement you need to focus and complete the task at hand to the best of your ability.
Self-Talk, Attitude, Actions
The person you talk to the most is not your significant other, not family members, not your best friend or even your dog — it’s yourself. This self-talk is fueled by your thoughts which then creates your attitude, and your attitude then influences your actions.
This is a never-ending cycle that determines how you view the world and the events around you. This self-talk reveals one’s self-trust. Self-trust is belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations, also known as self-confidence and self-efficacy. Self-trust is the secret ingredient that can make or break one’s performance in a variety of situations.
Inputting good, positive thoughts from the beginning of this cycle is required for optimal Output. Again, if you are going to create a self-fulfilling prophecy for yourself, why not create a positive one?
Talking to yourself instead of listening to yourself before, during, and after training or a race is much easier said than done. From pre-race nerves to the pain of racing to post-race reflection, where you mind goes so go your actions.
In the middle of a workout or race, your mind begins to sense a growing physical pain from the completed exercise. As your mind begins to sense this pain, it brings your attention to it and eventually zeros in on this sensation. The feeling of discomfort consumes your consciousness and you do not see a way out of it other than giving in and slowing down. The majority of the time, the brain gets in the way of the body. Quite simply, your brain gives in before your body does.
Scientific evidence for this:
Psychobiological Model of Endurance Performance:
The study “Talking yourself out of exhaustion: the effects of self-talk on endurance performance.” demonstrated that self-talk significantly reduces rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and enhances endurance performance. The findings support the psychobiological model of endurance performance and illustrate that psychobiological interventions designed to specifically target favorable changes in the perception of effort are beneficial to endurance performance.
Exhaustion which limits the ability to sustain aerobic exercise is created by the conscious decision to terminate endurance task performance. The model suggests that perception of effort is a critical factor for endurance performance; hence, endurance performance might be affected by any physiological or psychological factor influencing perception of effort exhaustion (Marcora et al., 2008, 2009).
So knowing that the focus of your brain can be the limiting factor, what can athletes do to refocus their attention?
Form and Breathing.
Focusing your attention on making sure that your movements and breathing are both effective and efficient.
By bringing your attention to your Form/Breathing 2 things happen:
- Your mind turns it focus on the actions you are completing and not the pain.
- You end up maintaining your speed or even going faster because you have made your movements and breathing more efficient and effective.
Having and using a mantra that can take your mind off of the ever-growing discomfort and redirect it to a specific executable action is key. The best mantras are short simple repeatable phrases. As with anything, the more you practice them in training, the more effective they will be on race day… Practice Habits Lead to Competition Habits Lead to Competition Results.
A great example is F.A.S.T.
From Brother Colm O’Connell, also known as the Grandfather of Kenyan Running, who has coached more than 25 Olympic and World Individual Champions. F.A.S.T. stands for:
Focus, Alignment, Stability and Timing
This acronym is used to emphasize the basic principles of natural and good form running to ensure the most efficient running style is achieved.
Focus: Focusing on you focus. Talking to Yourself Instead of Listening to Yourself.
Alignment: Alignment meaning “arrangement in a straight line, or in correct or appropriate relative positions.”
Stability: Engaging the core and not wasting energy. Making sure that your movements are both effective and efficient.
Timing: Cadence and Breathing
As a High School Cross Country and Distance Track Coach, I used the mantra “Don’t Give In.”
Why Don’t Give In?
The main objective with this phrase was to help athletes talk positively to themselves instead of listening to themselves. By talking to themselves, they are able to return their attention to the task at hand- making sure that their movements and breathing are both effective and efficient. This helps athletes not focus on how much further they have to go and speculate about how they will handle it, rather focus on that moment in time and their controllable actions. Life is made up of moment after moment. Success is made up of winning more moments than you lose. To win the moment, you have to be in the moment giving effort.
“One of the hardest but most important practices: realize that you are not the stuff inside your head. You are the awareness that decides what to do with the stuff inside your head. The ability to choose which thoughts to pursue and which to leave behind is key to everything.”
- Brad Stulberg
The more you Don’t Give In at practice, the better you get at it and the better you can apply it on race day. Repeated behavior becomes habit. Not giving in over and over again leads to the automation of this behavior both in training and competition. Practice Habits lead to Competition Habits lead to Competition Results. Talent is a Gift, Greatness is a Choice.
So who should athletes not give in for? Most importantly, the Team. Directing athletes to give all their energy and attention to running for their teammates and their team is paramount. This is the ultimate motivation, they are not just running for themselves, rather now for each other. Everything athletes do is for the TEAM. Knowing that if you do give in to that voice you are letting down your teammates is powerful motivation. I like to remind athletes that you did not train hard so that it would not hurt, you train hard so that you can handle it.
“If comfort is your top priority, then anything other than the easier options are emotionally filtered into the category of ‘too hard’. Once you favor the comfortable options and tell yourself the alternatives will be hard, your emotions attack the alternatives and your mind rejects them.”
- Brian Kight
Above and beyond the world of running, I wanted to give athletes a phrase that they could use when life gets tough. A mindset that would help them delay the gratification that comes with choosing the quick, comfortable option and help them see that other choices exist. A phrase that would help them to focus, reflect, and choose the best option for their current situation.
Project on the Outside How You Want to Feel on the Inside
“Project on the Outside, How You Want to Feel on the Inside. It’s so important to understand the communication process between emotions and the muscles of your body. When you’re angry, sad, or fearful the muscles of your face, shoulders, arms, and legs become stimulated in emotion-specific ways. You immediately start looking the way you feel: angry, sad, or afraid.
Unless, of course, you’re a great competitor and it’s competition time.
Great competitors have learned to reverse the stimulation process. To achieve this feat, which is essential to their competitive success, they use the same transmission channels that consistent losers use. However, rather than allowing their emotions to stimulate their muscles in the losing way, they use their muscles to stimulate the emotions they want to feel in the winning way. The link between emotions and muscles runs both ways.”
- Jim Loehr from The New Toughness Training for Sports
