Dominant Self-Talk

Recognizing that you must eliminate self-doubt or negativity is only half the battle. Unfortunately, following through can be a tricky undertaking. Try this quick exercise: Don’t think about a pink elephant with blue running shoes. Don’t let a pink elephant with blue running shoes cross your mind. Do not picture a pink elephant with blue running shoes. . . . What happened? Did you think about a pink elephant with blue running shoes? Of course you did. The only way you wouldn’t have thought about a pink elephant with blue running shoes would have been by focusing completely on something else. Cognitive psychology has taught us that the mind can fully focus on only one item at a time. For instance, if you were intently focused on a red and white hot-air balloon, you could have avoided thinking about the pink elephant. In short, if you are thinking about what is going wrong in your life, you cannot be thinking about what it takes to make it right. The most effective way to avoid self-doubt and mental clutter is to replace the negative thoughts with specific positive thoughts. The performance statement is an individually tailored positive self-talk statement. It will keep your mind trained on success and what it takes to get there. I will give you two more examples of performance statements and how they help. I worked with a major-league player who wanted to improve his ability to hit the outside pitch. He developed the following performance statement for hitting: “Relax; look away; go away.” He was telling himself to stay loose (it is important for him to swing nice and easy even though he is a power hitter), look for the ball on the outside part of the plate, and then hit to the opposite field. This player had little trouble hitting the inside pitch, so he thought that if he could train himself to hit better to the opposite field, he would have much greater overall success. He was right; his ability to hit to the opposite field improved, and his batting average rose twenty points in one season. A cyclist client has the performance statement “Weight back and breathe easy.” He is teaching himself to concentrate on keeping his weight back so that he can more aggressively use his legs to turn the wheels. Also, he knew he had a tendency to get overexcited, which sped up his breathing and, over the course of the ride, cost him large amounts of energy. Make sure your performance statement keeps you in a positive mind-set. An obvious way to do this is to avoid using the word don’t. For example, the cyclist who often gets too pumped up before a race does not tell himself, “Don’t get overexcited” or “Don’t put your weight forward.” Instead, he maintains the proper frame of mind by reminding himself what he needs to do.