{"id":15150,"date":"2020-12-10T08:07:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T16:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/?p=15150"},"modified":"2020-12-10T08:07:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T16:07:49","slug":"inside-the-tri-mind-keep-positive-self-talk-in-your-mental-toolbox-during-training-and-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/inside-the-tri-mind-keep-positive-self-talk-in-your-mental-toolbox-during-training-and-races\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Tri-Mind: Keep Positive Self-talk in Your Mental Toolbox During Training and Races"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Perhaps the most powerful mental tool to build your confidence is positive self-talk. What you say to yourself away from triathlon, when you\u2019re training, and during races impacts what you think, how you feel, and how you perform in training and on race day. Whatever you think more of\u2014whether positive or negative\u2014will determine the road you go down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negative self-talk involves thinking or saying anything that reflects a lack of confidence, for example, \u201cI\u2019m going to do lousy today,\u201d \u201cI stink,\u201d and \u201cI can\u2019t deal with these conditions.\u201d If you say these things, you\u2019re convincing yourself that you have little chance. With that attitude, you really have no chance because you are now your own worst enemy. Your motivation will disappear, you\u2019ll get nervous, lose focus, and feel frustration, anger, and despair. You will definitely not be having fun out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your talk is positive, your thoughts and feelings will be positive. Don\u2019t say, \u201cI don\u2019t have a chance today.\u201d Say, \u201cI\u2019m going to try my hardest today. I\u2019m going to perform the best I can.\u201d That will get you positive and fired up. By using positive self-talk, you\u2019ll be your own best ally. You show yourself that, the course may try to beat you, but you aren\u2019t going to beat you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Positive self-talk helps you in many ways. It increases your motivation to work hard because you believe that your efforts will be rewarded. You\u2019re relaxed and focused because you know you can handle anything that is thrown at you in training or competition. Your emotions reflect your positive self-talk with feelings of excitement and inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most importantly, positive self-talk helps keep your mind strong and your body going, especially when your body starts to weaken. As your body wears down late in training and races, it will communicate to your mind that it has had enough\u2014\u201cI get the point! We can stop now.\u201d If your mind listens to your body and responds with negative self-talk\u2014\u201cMy body is so tired I can\u2019t go on,\u201d \u201cThis hurts too much to continue\u201d\u2014your body will take over your mind, your body and your mind will give up, and you will fail to achieve your goals. Positive self-talk can help your mind assert itself over your body, so when your body is yelling at you to stop, your mind can say, \u201cNO! Keep going. That\u2019s an order!\u201d And your body will almost always keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retrain Your Self-talk<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Positive self-talk is a simple, but not easy, strategy. It\u2019s simple because all you have to do is replace your negative self-talk with positive statements. It\u2019s not easy because your negative confidence muscles may be strong, and your positive confidence muscle may be weak. You begin retraining your self-talk by looking at the situations in which you tend to become negative, for example, when you\u2019re doing a really painful track workout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, figure out exactly why you become negative in these situations. Common reasons I have found include fatigue, boredom, pain, frustration, and despair. All triathletes have \u201chot button\u201d issues that trigger negativity. Finding out what yours are is essential to changing your self-talk. Then, monitor what you say to yourself. I\u2019ve found that triathletes tend to rely on favorite negative self-talk when their buttons get pushed, for example, \u201cGosh, I suck,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re such a loser,\u201d and \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of even trying.\u201d Realizing what you say and how bad it is for you is an important first step in changing your self-talk. For most of the triathletes I\u2019ve worked with, there is a consistent pattern of the situations in which negative self-talk arises, the causes of the negativity, and the specific self-talk they express.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before you go out and face those hot-button situations again that typically lead to negativity, choose some positive self-talk with which you can replace your usual negative self-talk. The positive self-talk should be encouraging, but it must also be realistic. If you say things like, \u201cI love being out here\u201d when you really aren\u2019t or \u201cI \u2018m feeling so strong\u201d even when you don\u2019t, there\u2019s no way you\u2019ll buy what you\u2019re saying. Acknowledging the hot button, but putting a positive and realistic spin on it will make it more likely you\u2019ll believe what you\u2019re saying, such as \u201cIf I keep working hard, good things will happen\u201d and \u201cThis really hurts, but its money in the bank for my race.\u201d By putting this new tool in your toolbox before your buttons get pushed, you\u2019ll have more ready access to it and have a better chance of responding more positively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, training yourself to use positive self-talk depends on your ongoing commitment to and focus on it. Because negative self-talk may be so ingrained, you\u2019ll have to constantly remind yourself to be positive. Realizing when the hot-button situations are approaching will prepare you for your buttons to get pushed and help you focus on what you say when it happens. At first, you will probably \u201cfall off the wagon\u201d and slip back to your old, negative ways, but just accept it as part of the process and return to being positive when you realize it. With time and persistence, you\u2019ll see a gradual shift away from negativity and toward positive self-talk until you realize that you just went through one of those hot-button situations and you stayed positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balance the Scales<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I work with triathletes, I have them chart the number of positive and negative things they say during training and races. In many cases, the negatives far outnumber the positives. In an ideal world, I would love to eliminate all negatives and have them only express positives. But this is the real world and any triathlete who cares about their sport is going to the \u201cdark side\u201d on occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In dealing with this reality, you should start by balancing the scales. If you\u2019re going to be negative when you perform poorly, you should also be positive when you perform well. The immediate goal is to increase the positives. This means rewarding yourself when you have a great workout or show improvement in some area of triathlon. If you beat yourself up over a disappointing effort, why shouldn\u2019t you pat yourself on the back when you have a great effort. Unfortunately, too many triathletes are perfectionists and, as a result, beat themselves up when they fail to live up to their extremely high expectations, but don\u2019t congratulate themselves when they do. Tell yourself \u201cnice effort\u201d when you gave a nice effort. Give yourself a \u201cjob well done\u201d when you have done the job well. You worked hard and you deserve a reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve balanced the scales by increasing your positives, your next goal is to tip the scales in the positive direction by reducing the negatives. Ask why you\u2019re so hard on yourself when you perform poorly (use the steps I discussed earlier in this article). Also, ask yourself if that negativity helps or hurts you (hint: It hurts you!). The world\u2019s best triathletes don\u2019t always perform their best. Why shouldn\u2019t it be okay for you to have down periods in your performances?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This step of tipping the scales toward positives is so important because of some recent research that found that negative experiences such as negative self-talk, negative body language, and negative emotions carry more weight than positive experiences. In fact, it takes 12 positive experiences to equal one negative experience. What this means is that for every negative expression you make about yourself, whether saying something negative or screaming in frustration, you must express yourself positively 12 times to counteract that one negative expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, you want to tip the scale heavily in the positive direction. Sure, you\u2019re going to say some negative things periodically. That\u2019s just part of being human and being a triathlete who cares about your sport. You get tired, sick, and injured. You get frustrated, angry, depressed. The conditions get the better of you. So, you get down on yourself occasionally. But, when you tip the scales in the positive direction, you will find that, in contrast to the past, you are far more positive, you have much more confidence, and, most importantly, you are your best ally rather than your worst enemy in training and on race day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use Negative Self-talk Positively<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though I very much always emphasize being positive, the fact is, you can\u2019t always be. You don\u2019t always perform as well as you want and there is going to be some negative thinking. This awareness was brought home to me by a group of highly-ranked junior triathletes I worked with some time ago. During a training camp, I was constantly emphasizing being positive and not being negative (they gave me the nickname, the Wizard of Pos!). One night at dinner, several of them came up to me and said that sometimes things do just stink, and you can\u2019t be positive. I realized that some negative thinking is normal when you don\u2019t perform well, and some negative thinking can actually be healthy. It means you care about performing poorly and want to do better. Negative thinking can be motivating as well because it\u2019s no fun to perform poorly and not achieve your goals. I got to thinking about how athletes could use negative thinking in a positive way. I came up with an important distinction that will determine whether negative thinking helps or hurts your triathlon efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two types of negative thinking: give-up negative thinking and fire-up negative thinking. Give-up negative thinking involves feelings of loss, hopelessness, and helplessness, for example, \u201cIt\u2019s over. I can\u2019t win this.\u201d You dwell on past disappointments such as a poor swim leg. It lowers your motivation and confidence, and it takes your focus away from performing your best. Your intensity also drops because basically you\u2019re surrendering and accepting defeat. There is never a place in triathlon for give-up negative thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, fire-up negative thinking involves feelings of anger, of being psyched up, for example, \u201cI\u2019m doing so badly. I hate performing this way\u201d (said with anger and intensity). You look to doing better in the future because you hate performing poorly. Fire-up negative thinking increases your motivation to fight and turn things around. Your physical intensity goes up and you\u2019re bursting with energy. Your focus is on being aggressive and attacking the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fire-up negative thinking can be a positive way to turn your performance around. If you\u2019re going to be negative, make sure you use fire-up negative thinking. But don\u2019t use it too much. Negative thinking and negative emotions burn a lot of energy and that energy should be put in a more positive direction for your training and competitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you want to take the next step in training your mind to perform your best in training and on race day? Here are four options for you:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n