Photo Credit:
KAI YORK
Having a community of like-minded athletes is very helpful. When
negative thoughts come up, you can reach out to people who
understand what is going on and can talk you off the ledge. Some
resources that have active forums which support athletes are:
bodybuilding.com, fitocracy.com, and SparkPeople.com.
Another thing we advocate in The Athlete Mindset Workbook is
finding an Amateur Personal Mentor. Two Blessed Bodies teammates
who read the book decided to check in with each other via email
weekly, clarifying their goals together and keeping themselves
accountable for what they’d given themselves as a task the week
before. Having another athlete on speed dial when self-sabotaging
thoughts come up can be a very helpful tool.
The most important way to combat self-sabotage is to notice when
it is happening. Sometimes self-defeating behaviors can seem so
normal that they don’t even register as self-harming even though
they are. The first step in handling self-sabotage is to notice the
emotions you are feeling. If your emotions are anywhere from mildly
to strongly negative then there is something worth investigating.
Use the resources available to you to identify what is causing negative
thoughts, and be ruthless in your commitment to improving your
self-talk. At the same time, be gentle with yourself, and recognize
that changing longstanding patterns takes time. Give yourself credit
for every effort in the right direction. Appreciating your Successes
and Getting Back On Track quickly when you go off-plan may be the
two most important skills you practice, and they can really take years
to hone. Trust the process and keep moving forward.
Grab a notebook and a pen and give yourself 30 minutes in a quiet
place to answer these questions which are adapted from Chapter 4
in our book.
Your honest and thoughtful answers to these can change the course
of your training and your life. Please let us know how doing this
exercise helps you. The mind can be the most important to muscle to
work sometimes.
We all deserve to be the best we can be. Physique Athletes live at a
higher level of awareness than the ordinary mortal because of the
focus required in training and nutrition. Getting your mind right will
serve you well. We wish you the best in your journey.
ASSESSMENT FOR
SELF-IMPROVEMENT
1.
What do you most want to improve at this time in
your fitness journey?
are you doing that you don’t want to do, or
2. What
failing to do that you would like to do more often?
Specifically, what would you like to do, change,
make better or act on more consistently?
what situations does a problem or distraction
3. Inusually
come up?
the problem or less-than-best-performance is
4. When
happening, what are you usually focusing on?
do you think you COULD be focussed on in
5. What
that context? What would be a better or ideal focus
for you at that moment? What is the goal that got
you interested in doing this work in the first place?
Think back to a moment or time when your
6. thoughts, focus or behavior was working against
you or not what you wanted it to be. What
would you prefer to do in that moment? What
is your preferred focus? What is your preferred
action? Write some options on how you could
have improved your focus, your performance, your
actions or inactions. What do you WISH you’d done
in that situation? What will you do next time to
make sure your focus is working FOR you and not
against you?
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