The Art of Mental Training - a Guide to Performance Excellence (Classic Edition) (3 page)

“How?” asked John.

“He taught me to interrupt any
negative self-talk the instant I noticed it and replace it by firing off positive
self-talk.  Things like: I’m fast; I’m focused; I’m good.  He always said not
to let negative thoughts get in your way.  You have to cancel the negativity
and feed your self-belief instead.  This will improve your concentration, and
lower your level of tension, which will help you to perform better.  Shutting
down negative self-talk, begins by interrupting it, and then instantly
replacing it.”

John was listening.

“That makes sense,” he
admitted. “Trouble is, I still think that this guy is out to get me
personally.”

“OK, so that makes him a
serious opponent.  And with a serious opponent you have to get a clear idea in
your head of what you need in order to beat him.  Once you are clear on what
you must do to win, you have to stay focused on the most important task at
hand, so that—no matter what he throws at you—he’s unable to disrupt your
task-consciousness.

You can’t let him rattle you,
to come between you and what you intend to do.  If he disrupts your
task-consciousness, he wins–and you lose, especially in jet training.  You’ve
got to stay task-focused.  You can’t let your opponent take that from you.”

“That’s exactly what happened
last time we went up,” John admitted.  “And that’s what really worries me.  You
know how crazy it gets up there.  We’re moving really fast. Once he rattled me,
it all went downhill.  Frankly, I’m a little spooked having to fly with this
instructor again.  I imagine it feels kind of like having to fight some guy who
knocked you down before.”

“Anyone can land a lucky
punch,” I told him.  “Snap out of it. The past does not equal the future! Leave
your bad experience with this guy in the past, where it belongs.  Don’t
sabotage your next performance by feeding your brain negative feelings about an
event that is still out in the future.  The Art of Mental Training teaches that
our performance action will follow the mental thoughts and images we
entertain.  In other words: you’ll get what you see in your mind’s eye.  The
brain helps you achieve your goals when you show it the results that you want
it to produce for you, so be sure never to dwell on images or feelings of
outcomes that you definitely don’t want.”

“Meaning?” asked John.

“Meaning that one of the most
important things about competing at anything is learning how to enter a competition
mentally prepared to do your best . . . Beyond shutting down the negative
self-talk the instant it appears, I want you to work on connecting feelings and
images of success with the precise event that lies before you.  You have to
show your mind what you want to have happen the next time you’re flying with
this instructor.  And you have to start doing this type of mental training as
far ahead of the actual event as possible.”

Over the next couple of weeks,
John set some time aside to practice some “Imagineering” (as you’ll learn in a
lesson that lies ahead) during daily relaxation sessions.  During these times
he allowed only images and feelings of victory and success to be associated in
his mind with the upcoming event when he would meet his opponent.

Using his mind’s eye, he
imagined himself, in great detail, as the ultimate military aviation
professional doing his very best under situations of extreme pressure.  He
practiced seeing and feeling himself having an intense ability to stay
task-conscious and task-focused—no matter what. He could even see and feel
himself shutting down any negative self-talk the instant it arose and replacing
it with empowering self-talk.

His efforts paid off!  John
later told me how he had beaten his opponent the next two times they had met
over the next several weeks: and today John is a seasoned captain flying with a
major airline.

What this true story teaches us
is that by using sports mental training techniques you can overcome obstacles
that might otherwise have stopped you from achieving goals that are important
to you outside the realm of sports.  In other words, when used correctly,
mental techniques can help you achieve your dreams.

Remember:  Interrupt
negative self-talk and images the moment they arise, shut them down on the
spot.  Replace them with positive self-talk and positive images.  Concentrate
on showing your brain exactly what it is that you want to achieve, never dwell
on what you do not want to happen.

The
Art of Mental Training

I remember once up in
Washington State, Leo-tai and I were hiking along part of the Pacific Crest
Trail.  Leo-tai loved the beauty of those mountains.  There we met a strange
guy, possibly a young hermit, who bent our ears with wild-eyed warnings of
aliens and UFO’s all around the local wilderness after dark.

That night at camp, after
joking and laughing about the guy’s spooky alien stories, Leo-tai and I sensed
the presence of . . . someone.  We both stood up at the same moment and looked
out into the dark.  All around us at the edge of the darkness were many pairs
of unblinking, yellowish eyes.  I couldn’t figure out what sort of creatures
those eyes belonged to, but they were all around us in the dark, reflected by
the light of our dying fire.  I’m not going to lie: I felt a little nervous as
I counted seven separate pairs of eyes.

Leo-tai was very calm; but I
immediately started hurling rocks—hard.   I figured if they were aliens, I was
going to knock at least one of them out by cracking his skull with my
rock-solid fastball.

Meanwhile, Leo-tai fanned the
fire back to life.

“You better help me out here,”
I urged him. “They’re not going away!”

Leo-tai turned from the fire
and started throwing rocks with focused accuracy.  Not bad for an old guy, I
thought.  Still, we were so outnumbered it was scary, and the silence of the
creatures all around us was very unnerving.  Then, suddenly, we caught a
glimpse of whom we were facing.

A pack of huge, fearless,
marauding raccoons!  They were wild; they were mean; and they were coming
in—clearly wanting some food.  We fought hard as they repeatedly charged us and
tried to intimidate us into running.  They seem to have absolutely no fear of
us at all.  I wondered if they had rabies.

After several minutes of
charges and counter-attacks, Leo-tai somehow sensed who the leader of the pack
was.  And paying no attention to several closer raccoons, he caught him right
between the eyes with a rock travelling at the speed of sound. It was the most
accurate shot anyone could have asked for.

Bang! “Who wants some!?”
Leo-tai exclaimed. The leader rocked back, stunned, and then quickly took off
running, with his entire pack behind him.

“Great shot,” I said, breathing
hard.  “But what was that all about?   Since when did raccoons run around
behaving like that?”

Leo-tai smiled shaking his
head.  “A very fearless group they were.”

Then he asked me a question,
“Danielsan, did you ever think that we weren’t going to win?”

I thought back.

“Not really,” I said.  “All I
knew was that this was darn serious, that it was time to fight, and that
fighting was exactly what I was going to do.”

My teacher smiled.

“Very good, Danielsan. 
Self-belief.  You must always begin by believing that you have what it takes. 
When the pressure is on, the more you believe in yourself, the better your
performance will be.  Without strong self-belief, the warrior winds up nowhere.
You have to believe that you can win; then that self-belief puts you in a
position to win.”

“Are you’re talking about
confidence?” I asked.

“Not completely.  Confidence is
a by-product of strong self-belief.  The more powerful his self-belief, the
more confidence the warrior is able to summons up when the pressure is on.  And
the stronger his self-belief, the better his performance will be.”

“So self-belief brings on a
confidence that can empower us?”

“Indeed. When you really
believe that you can win, Danielsan, something extremely powerful is set into
motion.

So in order to help build the
strongest self-belief system he can have, a Warrior/Champion learns to use
imagination to see himself in his mind’s eye accomplishing his most desired
success while in a deep relaxed state of awareness.  This is the key to
improving self-belief, the foundation of which lies deep inside the mind.”

What Leo-tai meant was that
while our self-belief system is formed over the years by experiences, memories,
and outside influences—anyone can still refine and build up his own self-belief
system by using the tools of relaxation and imagination. The champion sees and
feels himself succeeding in his mind’s eye, many times over, long before he
actually arrives for the competition.  This is how he improves his self-belief
from inside.

“Teach them, Danielsan, that
the Warrior/Champion goes within.”

And with that Leo-tai
disappeared behind the flaps of his tent.

Hmmm, I thought.  That's kind
of dramatic. What’s he thinking?   He must be very sure that I have no
questions to ask—and that the pack of raccoons aren’t coming back.

“Hey, does that mean you’re
done for the night?”  I asked him.

“Hasta mañana,” said the voice
from inside the tent.  “I am much older than you my friend—and I’m tired.”

I couldn’t help but asking him
just one more question.

“Okay,” I said, “but what if
the raccoons come back again?”

Without hesitation, came the
reply, “Why—the answer is quite clear, Danielsan.  If they attack again . . .
then they shall lose again.”

Remember:  It’s self-belief
that gets everything going.

The
Art of Mental Training

Imagineering—the technique of
showing our minds how we want things to go; and a term first coined by the
legendary dreamer, Walt Disney.  We should all take his advice and allow
ourselves to practice sensory rich Imagineering.  Champions use Imagineering
prior to their events.  It's also often used by people in order to help them
achieve the successful completion of a project or an important goal over time. 
This simple practice has been proven to be so essential and so effective, that
the athlete who fails to practice the technique apparently never plays to his
true potential.  (Interestingly, the same results have been observed with
actors and musicians, as well.)  For performance of any kind, mental
preparation is as important as physical training.  So if you leave “Imagineering”
out of your preparation, you will be hurting yourself and helping your
opponent.

Imagine stepping into
competition having seen and felt the entire experience before; from the crowd
to the coaches, from the venue to your own performance, all in your own mind. 
It’s a fascinating experience.  It creates an incredible feeling of confidence.

What’s really the key with Imagineering
is that you not only see and watch, but that you actually feel yourself
succeeding, over and over again.  Make sure that you bring emotion into your
mental practice.  Practice feelings along with images including those related
to your overcoming adversity and being able to successfully fight your way out
of challenging predicaments or situations.

Never allow yourself to
entertain images or feelings of defeat during your Imagineering sessions.  This
is because whatever impressions reach the subconscious mind it will accept as
being true—and what it believes to be true affects your performance.  Feed it
empowering, successful images and feelings, and it delivers performance, drive,
and motivation from deep within yourself in line with those images and
feelings.

However, if you feed it
suggestions of worries or failure then you will defeat yourself—with no other
opponent necessary.

Success, victory, and your
ability to effectively overcome adversity, is what you must rehearse, rehearse,
and rehearse again.  Relax, be still, and in your mind - you must see it, feel
it, and accept that it is coming your way.  This process of conditioning for
success set's things in motion.  It creates confidence and confidence is one of
the most significant by-products of good mental training.  The most powerful
confidence comes as the result of both physical and mental preparation—and
winning and achievement has everything to do with preparation.

If you think you’re confident
now, and you’re not using mental training techniques, then you really can’t
even begin to know what you’re missing or understand how much you stood to
improve with mental training—that insight comes only through its practice.

Remember:  Imagineering is
vital because it leads to greater self-belief and greater confidence, which in
turn leads to better performance and achievements.

The
Art of Mental Training

Breathing, relaxation, and
imagery are mentioned throughout the lessons so often because they’re such
fundamentally important tools for the Warrior/Champion.  I call them “The
Critical Three.”  I remember how often Leo-tai spoke of all three.  They’re all
crucial in order to help create the Ideal Mental Climate from which peak
performance springs forth.

Sometimes clients tend to get
over-analytical about the “right” way to practice breathing or the “right” way
to go deep into relaxation.  It’s always fun to show them that in reality, it’s
much easier than they ever thought it could be.

First let’s learn about
breathing.