There are not many athletes who can honestly say that their performance is never affected by mental or psychological factors. Almost everyone who competes or attempts to do their best at some important aspect of life has experienced both mental boosts and hindrances. Doubts, confidence, anxiety, poise, courage and fears for example can have a significant impact on how well we perform (1).
In our minds we can create the most delightful scenes or our greatest nightmares, and reality will never be as we imagined it. The future is nothing but a fantasy or a daydream, also only occurring in our minds.
However with the Law of the Present Moment you could have avoided all those traps. When we are fully in the present moment our minds are focused on what we are doing and not frantically jumping from the past to the future.
When we are focused on the task at hand, we do things for the joy of doing them, and not because we expect anything in return for our action. When we do this, even small and seemingly insignificant things can become acts of joy and beauty. The more we understand the complex interrelationship between mind and body the more it becomes clear that in order to perform at our best physically we must properly prepare and use both body and mind (2).
You do not do things for the end result. You do things for the simple act of doing them. You do not wash the dishes so you will have a clean kitchen. You wash the dishes for the art of washing the dishes. When done in this way, the dishes aren’t something to be rushed through so you can go and do something else. It becomes a joyous event in itself. Your whole attitude changes, the dishes are no longer a chore but become a joy.
Research and experience have proven that structured scientific mental training can help us learn to prepare and use our mind to improve our competitive performance. A key psychological ingredient needed to consistently perform at our best is a winning attitude. In this context attitude is defined as those thoughts, beliefs, values, feelings and emotions associated with a specific situation or performance. For example the thoughts and feelings many alpine ski racers usually associate with a second run on a steep and icy slalom course is, for many of us, an overwhelming desire to finish the course! In general if we have doubts about our ability to finish we have trouble doing so (3).
On the other hand if we have confidence we tend to be much more likely to stay in the course and finish successfully. There is a scientific basis for the commonly accepted axiom that confidence in the starting gate leads to successful races. The muscles of the body involuntarily and instantaneously respond to thoughts, feelings and ideas. This phenomenon is referred to as Ideomotor Activity. In practical terms what this means is that negative thoughts and emotions tend to have a negative effect on our muscles while positive thoughts tend to have a positive effect. In almost every situation of equal or nearly equal ability and preparation the winning racer is usually the one who maintains the most consistently positive attitude and pattern of thought .
All athletic competitors can and should learn to shape their attitude and thought pattern into one of predominantly positive and confident thinking. The next article will tell you how to play positive mind games that will begin to shape your thoughts and emotions and help you create and maintain a more dynamic and effective winning attitude (4).
