The Positive Mind VS. the Negativity

In a previous post, I mentioned how setting micro goals is able to assist us in forging out mental toughness by focusing on the present.

Forcing our monkey mind to pay attention to what is happening right now, rather than what it hopes to happen in the future or what happened in the past. Collapse your focus to the near present, such as making it to the next yummy diet meal or through that miserable exercise and you achieve victory where it is at - right here, right now.

The wandering mind is the devils playground. The nature of the outer, conscious mind (the 12% brain) is to dwell on the negative and obsess about it. Often that which is the obsession becomes the reality. Once you begin to focus on the present, the requirement then is to keep your mind in a Positive State. 

We call this Positivity.

Positivity can be likened to an electrical charge. Are you positively charged, or negatively charged? How big of a difference would it make in your life if you learned to keep your mind and body positively charged all the time? My guess is a big difference. 

Back to basics. Ensure that the mind is focused on the present and propelling us forward with Positive Self Talk. Positive Self Talk is similar to a battery that positively charges your energy, emotions and the very air around you; so that you attract the positive success you seek. At the basic level, it keeps you feeling good, strong and able to set a "positive example" for your teammates (who draw strength from you and vice versa).

First, you must learn to pay attention to your energy, whether it is positive or negative. Use a simple question to draw focus to this: "what dog you are feeding?" This question refers to the two dogs we have in our outer mind vying for feeding: The dog of FEAR and the dog of COURAGE.

Our minds are energized with either courage (positive) or fear (negative) which manifest their influence in our lives in different ways. Our basic emotional "feeling" states can be generalized into these two broad categories. We could actually replace "courage" with "love" but for this discussion courage is a more powerful descriptor.

Fear is the dominant energy in most because the outer monkey mind is generally negative in nature. It is constantly filled with negative programming from numerous sources - friends, family, news, TV, and our own self talk. By paying attention to what dog you are feeding, you will start to notice the patterns.

Next, as soon as you notice negative patterns, you must use a pattern interrupt to immediately stop and re-direct them. Use Power-statements as pattern interrupts for this purpose. Power statements we use include some classics such as: "Hooyah," "Easy Day," "Get some," and "Aint Nothin but a thing."

These power statements interdict negative thinking and replace it with a powerful and positive mood.

Finally, power statements are not enough to do the job alone. Our bodies must also get in the game. A Power Posture reinforces the power statement. Saying "I am going to crush this" while slouched in a defeated, slouching position just doesn't work! Your subconscious mind will call it bullshit and continue to feed the negative pattern. You need to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and mirror the power statement with a power posture.

Often in the middle of a grueling workout (In the past when i was running my training company and also currently when we are having our training - Hey, we still try to keep in shape!), I or one of my coaches will shout power statements, coupled with powerful gestures, when we notice the fear crawling at the trainees. Everyone's mental attitude and bodies respond immediately as if jolted by a bolt of positively charged electricity. It is great to watch and be part of. Soon we are all laughing and cranking away at the workout, having left the worst behind us. We have learned to allow positive self-talk and powerful body postures to condition our minds for positive outcomes.

One final comment about Positivity: the mind will easily slip in and out of negative situations based upon external stimuli. You must trick your conscious mind to remain positive by reciting Powerful Mantras. A mantra is simply a short statement that has positive meaning to you.

When I was in Class 2 Diver's course, on long runs I would recite over and over "feeling good, Hooya!" Corny as hell but it worked. The power of positivity cannot be underestimated and I highly recommend you start practicing these techniques now if you are not already.

Are You Making These Interview Mistakes?

Forging Mental Toughness

Be it throughout our career, be it in sports, in work or in anything that requires a certain amount of effort (and by certain amount, it usually means huge!); the "quit option" always seems easier to choose BUT is more complicated than it appears.

It is easy to tell yourself "no way will I quit" when in reality your belief systems driving your subconscious mind are telling you quite the opposite.

This would have us looking at the comparison of short term pain of suffering VS. long term pain of regret. 

In short, the higher the risk and the stakes, the higher the suffering required to prevail. Also the higher the regret associated with failure. (This is another topic which i would cover in another post)

As with Aaron Ralston who chopped his arm off after 127 hours of being stuck between a rock and hard place, quitting is simply not an option. I highly recommend you see his movie "127 Hours" or "Into the Void" to observe outstanding psychological profiles of mental toughness. We also looked at how our belief systems limit our physical performance, something we call the 20X factor. We are capable of at least 20 times what we think we are. The only thing standing between us now, and the 20x us, is our "knowingness" of this fact. Again it is our subconscious mind, not our "thinking" mind, which either supports or torpedoes a belief such as this.

During a seminar that i attended about 2 years back, i found that research shows that 12% of our brain-power is handled by our conscious "thinking" mind while 88% is handled by our subconscious mind.

Wow! I want to know how to tap into that 88% don't you? (I call the conscious or thinking mind our "monkey mind" because it is always grabbing for the next thought or stimulus and doesn't take time to pause or digest what it is already chewing on!) Here are some more tactics to help guide us. Set Goals the right way

Yes, I know. Goal setting is mundane isn't it?

Have you reviewed yours today? Have you worked on the #1 thing today that is going to move you closer to your major goal tomorrow? What happens when your goals fail to be realistic? Do you have a method for checking it against reality? Are you tracking them?

Goal setting is a very powerful tool, and it is useless when done in a silly way. Goal setting helps us to maintain a positive and forward momentum, a way to track our progress, and a way to focus our efforts on the important, rather than just the urgent, things. Proper goals are stated in precise and positive terms. They are measurable and have a modest time frame associated with them. Too short and either they are not meaty enough, or you are setting yourself up for failure. Too long and you lose the urgency and they fall off the radar.

Goals must be achievable, in that you have the potential to accomplish them with the skills and resources available. Also they must be realistic, even if achievable, are they realistic for you to even go for it?  When the going gets tough, goals take on a whole new level of importance.

In Hell Week, we were not setting our sights on "being a Naval Diver" or even "getting that badge." Either of these is a SMART goal when I was preparing for Class 2. But during Hell Week or any arduous situation, we require a different method.

In the tough spots I recommend to collapse your goal setting to the very near term. I call these "micro-goals." The great thing about micro-goals is that they lead to "micro-victories." You stack up enough micro-victories and pretty soon you have achieved a huge milestone! Back to the Hell Week example. A terrible goal would be to "make it to Friday." When you are in the depths of despair on Monday morning at 4am, sleep deprived and depressed, Friday seems a very, very long way away.A better goal would be to make it to sunrise. The sun has a remarkable ability to both warm you up, and cheer you up. Things suddenly don't look as bad at 7am as they did at 4am. Micro Goal. Micro Victory. Next. The hidden secret with micro-goal setting is that it forces our monkey mind to focus on what is happening right now, rather than what may happen in the future where it wishes to be. Focus on the next meal, the next event, or even the next footstep. These short and achievable goals help to enlist our monkey mind to be an ally versus enemy in our fight.

IF They Must Leave, Make It a Smooth One

Moral of the Story: Learn from past exits, find out WHY your stars leave and prevent it from happening again!