Mind control is real. It certainly is when it comes to controlling our own mind. I'll start by warning you now, this will be one of my longer posts, but probably my most valuable and important. I could write a book on this stuff but for now I have done my best to distill it into a few easy to deploy techniques. Please read on... Performance psychology is a huge field, and one I have studied and worked around for many years. I have been my own laboratory experiment on and off for decades now and can outline the techniques that I know work... as long as you are prepared to do them! And they work when it comes to achieving ANY goal. A physical challenge. A business or work goal. A personal goal.
I have 4 weeks remaining running into the main event. It's an unspeakably large challenge for me, and i know that the ONLY way I complete my goal is with getting my mind right for it. You can have great fitness, strength, endurance, etc but if your mind isn't right for it, the chances are you will fail when it gets hard. And it WILL get hard.
People get this shit wrong so often. They visualise the wrong things. They have a cluttered view of what they actually want to achieve. And they don't apply them anywhere near frequently enough. What follows is my approach. It works. I won national titles when young (against technically better fighters, I might add), I've got myself out of financial strife, I've won major deals and awards in my career, and I've got through some awful times in my personal life using this approach. So listen up, as you're in my house now.... So here is how I look to build a mindset that get's to the finish line...
Step 1 - Clarity
Most people think they know what they want. Most people are wrong. Many people are very quick to know what they don't want, but ask them what they actually want, you'll get a bunch of vague nonsense. I want to be rich. I want to be thin. I want to be successful. The list is endless, and it is without context. You can want many things. But clear your mind of all extraneous things you might like and ask yourself this one question "at this point in time what is the ONE thing you want to achieve right now?"
For this challenge mine is: 'To run and complete the Jurassic Coast 100km ultra in 24hours or less this May'
It's a moon shot in terms of the time target for me. But given it took me 34 hours to hike that distance non-stop two years ago, I'm stretching myself to reach it but even getting close to that will be an astonishing outcome for me.
Now answer that same question for you. If your answer is not in line with the challenge or target you are setting, then your risks of not achieving it increase dramatically. Don't panic though. You chose to take on a challenge (just like I have) and you can set your goal around that, and supercharge it quite easily. BUT YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT CLEAR.
To set a clear goal:
Pick the ONE thing.
Make it challenging and a bit scary,
don't make it impossible because your mind will know and your goal will be pointless. Make it measurable
Write it down
Share it with someone you trust (this makes it real and makes you accountable)
The Demons and Doubts
A side-note here (I've talked about this before so worth reading this again). The minute you do this clarity exercise, you may well experience a mild anxiety and the demons and doubts of your own mind will start whispering about all the things that can scupper your chances. That you're not ready. That you're not in shape. That you have an injury. That you've never done this before.
Make a note of what your inner doubts are saying. If they're particularly strong then put them on paper, then burn them and picture it as burning them out of your thinking. It helps. Turn any fear in your thinking of this goal into excitement. Doing something challenging is an adventure. Embrace it. I'll come back to how to let the doubts and fears go in a minute as there is an easy technique to do this, later in this post....
Step 2 - Make it Matter
Nietzche was largely insane but has given me one of my favourite quotes here. And this forms Step 2 of my process. 'Make it matter'. For many, most very challenging goals (even clear SMART ones) largely mean fuck all in terms of 'Why' we choose to do them. Unless we MAKE them matter! So often, they represent vague, wooly notions. They have little emotional substance and investment to achieving them.
Let me give you an example... I want to run 100km in 24hrs. So what? Why does that matter? To say I did it? To raise some money for charity? No. I've made my goal matter upon three reasons , and these are the incredibly powerful:
I want to help my charity save more lives and give families their loved ones back, just like they gave my family my wife's life back.
I want to show my children how they can achieve so much when the cards are stacked against them if they work hard enough for it; and to be their example and permission for them to be anything they choose to be.
I want to see how far I can really push myself against the odds
Simple. Effective. Meaningful. Energetic.
Now look at my goal again. - To run and complete the Jurassic Coast 100km ultra in 24hours or less this May'
Now, knowing my deepest reasons for doing this this goal, does it feel different to you? You know my 'Why', and in knowing this do you think I have less of a chance, or more of one, in completing this goal, rather than it sounding like an arbitrary target? Now imagine your challenging goal, with your true reasons for doing it? It doesn't matter what those reasons are. It only matters that they MATTER to you, and elicit a deep emotional response to them. It is that emotional energy that you will need to see you through the most challenging moments and doubts you will certainly encounter! Take the time to quietly and deeply explore why you want your goal to matter. The real reasons. It could be from something in your childhood. It could be you want to feel powerful, inspired, alive. It could be to feel safe as you've been unsafe in your life. Whatever your 'why' check with yourself that it will give you that little spark of courage and resilience as you will need this.
Step 3 - Visualise (or 'Visualize' if you are American)... Properly
"Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere"
Einstein was right. It is a long standing premise in performance psychology that visualisation is incredibly effective. Visualisation has been used for millennia in one form or another. Prayer, meditation, life. The problem is in modern day challenges and the way the world is, we tend to visualise incorrectly. Look at a goal, like the one I have written, and people will mostly go to the finish line and simply picture that. Only the outcome. Only the success. They will likely watch a goal in their mind's eye like they watch a movie. Slightly detached from it. And this wastes so much of the mind's potential to help you achieve something you really want (especially when you've made it matter to you).
The mind is exceptionally powerful. Think of a very intense dream or nightmare. You are in it through your own eyes as the 'First person' (like in a Virtually reality computer game), not as the observer of you in the dream - the ' Second Person' (like you were watching yourself on a home movie). And notice how you can wake up from a vivid dream hurting, shivering, sweating, heart racing, simply because of that dream. Your body responded to your imagination! You can harness this. Using my goal as an example I will outline a process I use to visualise properly. It will be a summary of the actual event played out in my imagination.
Look through my own eyes. See my hands, feet, environment as if it's me looking out (not me looking at myself as if I'm watching a video)
Ground myself and visualise the senses. Smelling the air, the grass, feeling the cold morning. Feeling light and with energy in my legs as I'm in the start area
Visualise the strength, the warm up, the muscles absolutely ready to go
Visualise running easily, and walking easily. Everything feeling like it's connected and working perfectly
visualise the hills. The effort and putting the power down to get up them. The quick hit of water and energy snack, to top off the tanks after each intense climb. The deep breathing and the oxygen getting back into my system.
Visualise the weather, all of it. Experience the heat, the cold, the wet, the windy, the sun. All of it.
Picture The beginning of stiffening up and things hurting. How the muscles respond positively to some on-the-go stretching, massage, etc Visualise overcoming it!!
See the rest stops and flowing through them doing what I need to and taking the time to ensure I'm reset for the next leg.
Imagine The dark, the tiredness and the solitude of the night stretch. Flowing lightly through the pitch black trails with just my head torch light.
Experience The pain, the sickness, the nausea, etc and imagining taking a moment to run my tapping technique to let it go. Visualise overcoming it!!
Imagine the demons whispering in your ear to quit, and that it's OK. I Picture how I dismiss them by some self-talk and with a pumping music track, or simply with controlled anger (a lot of energy in anger) and demanding more of myself.
Feel The heavy legs that don't want to run any more, but that still allow me to. Visualise overcoming it!!
Experience The shingle, how I will move quickly and lightly on my feet across it, noticing how it gets harder if I trudge and sink. Pushing the pain out but utterly relentless in moving across this section. Visualise overcoming it!!
Picture The final rest stop and the hit of energy knowing I'm nearly there
Run The final couple of km's on the road, moving easier running to the finish
Visualise Crossing the finish line with the timer saying 23:00:00
All of these visuals need to be rich and using all my senses. Feel the body, the weather, the smells, the breathing, through your first person perspective. Fell the pain, the stiffness, the fatigue and visualise easing through it.
Will it go like this? Perhaps. I've done the work and trust the training. But you'll notice that I visualise the tough parts of the process. Why? Because they absolutely WILL HAPPEN, and I want to KNOW that I've already been through them and I have already overcome them. If I can overcome them in my mind, then my body will overcome them when faced with the reality. You HAVE TO visualise the journey and the setbacks in order to be certain how you will respond to them.
By the time I get to the start line, I will have run this sucker 15 times already. I will be prepared for what is to come (good and bad) and my body will already KNOW how to achieve it, adapt to challenges and push beyond any limits I might encounter. I aim to start this event with zero doubt in my mind that I will finish it.
Just know that this technique can be applied to ANY challenging goal to ensure you are as ready as you can be in your mind!
Tip: before you visualise map out the process TOWARDS achieving your goal. What are the stages? What will you encounter? Good and Bad. What will you feel, hear, see, sense, etc? Once you have this then you can visualise the outcome you want when you go through and encounter every step. Once you have this, within a few times of visualising you'll be able to do it easily. Just make sure it's through your eyes and is as colourful and real as you can imagine it!!
Step 4 - How to Visualise Deeply
Now you have the map of your visualisation clearly you need to find a quiet place, uninterrupted for 10-15 mins and where you can either sit or lie down comfortably. I tend to use the couch late in the evening just before I go to bed (if my wife has already turned in), or I take myself to the bedroom earlier.
This is simply about grounding yourself and breathing. You can listen to meditative music, or silence. It doesn't really matter. Just take a minute or two to settle into your breathing and feel your body relax. This helps your brain get into 'alpha state' where your subconscious is more accessible. This is where you want to put the visualisation. Breathing is simple - in for a count of 5 through the nose, out through a count of 7 through the mouth. do that 5 times then just let your breathing revert to normal and easy. Personally I find music helps (Einaudi is a favourite here LOL). At the end of your step by step visual, you finish with the successful outcome. Take a moment to feel the buzz of that. The feeling of success. And then open your eyes and do whatever you was going to do next. It's that simple. Chances are you will feel good afterwards.
You can also do this the night before, and the morning of, an event like I'm taking on. In fact I recommend it!
Stick with it. The more you do it the more natural and easy it will feel.
Step 5 - Reinforcers
On a challenge like this one, you will absolutely need to reinforce all of the mental work you have done. Points where you hurt, doubt, and want to quit will show up. And when they do you will benefit from bringing out the reinforcements to push through it all. Pain is temporary, after all (unless it's achilles tendonitis, in which case 'temporary' becomes quite a while).
I use something known as a 'pattern interrupt'. This is to break the pattern when the doubts come in, and you need to get them out of your head fast. It's a bit like hitting the next track button on your music playlist when a song comes on you don't want. It is designed to switch you out of one pattern of thinking into another. It's like the slap across the face to snap you out of a panic and get you back on track. They are instant, and they can be very effective indeed....
When the pain, anxiety, doubt, challenge kicks in hard have a few of these Pattern Interrupts well prepared: 1. Snap Statements - Simple statements to snap you out of a mind set. My go-to's are:
Come on! (as a quite aggressive statement)
You've got this!
Now!
Put the power down
just one foot in front of the other
(not exactly original, but effective when said with energy)
2. Mantras - Repeatable statements that you can run in a loop in your head
Trust in the training
Love the hills
no pain, just move
Put the Power down!
Unbreakable
3. Meta State Switches - Triggers that allow you to get that burst of energy to snap you out of pain and doubt
Music - Pick a few epic tracks that give you goose-bumps and enable you to associate relentless progress against adversity with the music. I like a few Dance music tracks that lift the energy bar high and they work wonders!
Physical Power-Anchors - a powerful physical move that helps reset and anchor you in the moment of changing your mental state. The proverbial slap across the face, basically. It can be a fist pump, a stamp, a punch into your hand. I tend to use a very Japanese style 'ready pose' (a bit like the gif below but both with arms down) that I've used for 40 years in martial arts. VERY powerful energetically. It's a physical shift that helps with the mental one. I remember using these when attacking very challenging hills during my challenge 100k hike to great effect, and are great when you combine with a snap statement!
You may think it's cheesy, but I can tell you now, that when I used to compete I was undefeated in every single tournament I ever fought in from this type of move to set me up. Without going into the physics, psychology and physiology of it, this instant snap of dynamic tension with aggression is remarkable. It does something magical to your mind and makes you feel unbreakable. Just look at Keanu here... would you fuck with him in that moment? :-)
Step 6 - Releasing the doubts, the fears and the pain!
Doubts, anxiety, fear and pain will come up. It's inevitable. Even with the above techniques, when you are at a low ebb, it can get under your skin and wreck your thinking. There are a couple of things you can do both before a challenge like this, and during it.
Find evidence to support your success - I'll be thinking about how I've completed this distance. How I got through a 50 and my training is on target. How I succeeded when my body hurt and felt like there was no more left. I will find the evidence of how i got through the toughest times and prove to my mind that because i got through those, i will get through this.
Tap it away.... Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
I'll talk in a bit more detail about this tool. It's beautifully simple and works well for an instant release of anxiety, fear and even physical pain. I was taught a very fast version of this by a dear departed friend, Sidra and it goes like this....
Take a moment to notice the anxiety, pain, fear, etc that is reaching overwhelming levels and let yourself experience it fully and feel it in that moment.
Notice where you are feeling it in your body (e.g. stomach, leg, chest, head)
Give it a number out of ten for it's intensity
Describe it (sharp pain, sick feeling, tight chest, pressure in head, etc)
Then start to tap the blade of your left hand (edge of palm beneath the little finger, in the meaty part) quite hard with the longest three fingers of your right hand. Tap it fairly quickly, but also deeply. (this is an acupressure area)
Tap for a minute or so, while experiencing the issue in your body
Keep tapping, then say (either aloud or in your head and replace my example with your own issue but it must be said with energy):
"This #7 sick feeling in my stomach...I release it now. I release it now. I release it now" {keep tapping, don't stop)
"I release it to the earth, I release it to the air, I release it NOW!"
[you can then just keep tapping for a few moments for a crescendo feeling to build, while repeating in your head 'I release it now' for 3 to 5 times]
Then STOP TAPPING, and take 3 deep breaths in and out (slowly), picturing breathing out the issue and it releasing with each breath
Then see how you feel.
This remarkable little technique is for bringing you back to centre quickly and you can repeat for as long, or as many times, as you need. It is designed to ground you when you feel unsettled and you feel you are spiralling.
You can do it almost anywhere (just saying the words in your head). The tapping interrupts your body's energy meridians and interrupts your nervous system. Don't believe me? Simply tap on this area of your hand for 60 seconds then stop. It will tingle like crazy, but you are most likely to feel a faint tingle in the other hand as well. It's all connected.
You can tap areas such as above the eyebrow, and below the collar bone as well, but the side of the hand is quick and discreet. It works. I use it. I've taught family and friends this and it gives you an instant focal point for releasing negative energy and put you back on firmer ground for success. It's a process that you need to feel where the points are to build up to and to breathe it out; and imagine the issue physically leaving your body when you do (which is why I connect it to a physical feeling in the steps). There are different variations of the same process, but I've found the one that works for me is this one. It's also used by the National Heath Service in the UK as an anxiety treatment, just so you know.
Step 7 - Final word - Be Certain - Know you've got this
Some of this stuff will seem like it's mumbo-jumbo. Believe me, it's not. This is well documented and tested psychology, and is used considerably in athletic performance. You'll have seen Usain Bolt, listening to music on his headphones, minutes before he breaks another world record. Or talking quietly to himself. Or run through some particular physical movements to 'shake it off' and run a focus routine to set himself up for the start. Or quietly close his eyes to visualise every facet, movement, and step of the race he is about to run. Watch one of his races and you'll see it. It's all about getting the mind right. Above all, know that you've got this. Whatever 'this' is. Having certainty that you will achieve your objective goes an incredibly long way to delivering it. It is the difference between success and failure. Of that I have no doubt. Even if you've not accomplished it before, be certain that you will (not that you 'can' but that you WILL), and remind yourself of it constantly. You can't take something like this in a 'maybe I can' or 'I think I can' mind. It will leave you weaker. Don't give yourself the excuse to possibly fail before you've even started!!
I'm reminded of one of my all time favourite movie quotes from the late, great, Mr Miyagi....
Choose to do it. And then just do it. Embrace it and your feet will carry you there.
Good luck with your own challenge and hoping this helps you achieve the things that really matter to you too.
Thanks for reading.
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