8/15 Mental Toughness Thursday

9am class has fun with the agility ladder. 
​Muhammad Ali once said, "I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was." 
How do you think Ali's self talk affected his training, his practice and his competitions? What words do you say to yourself when you're in the middle of a lift, or a workout? There is nothing more heartbreaking for me as a coach to hear someone say, "I don't..., "I can't...", "Yeah, but I did it scaled." We are capable of so much more than we think. In fact, Coach Glassman, founder of CrossFit said the biggest adaption to CrossFit is between your ears. 
​Have you stopped and listened to the story you tell yourself just before the coach says, "3, 2, 1, Go?" Are the words running through your head positive or do they reflect your self doubt? What if you told yourself a different story?
Our words have power, and a small switch in your vocabulary can go a long way toward changing your mindset. Check out the video below on how one little switch of changing nervous for excited can help you manage your arousal and perform better. 

Here are some other word switches that can have positive impact on your outlook:
Eager instead of anxious 
Curious instead of afraid
Different instead of terrible 
I will instead of I'll try
I get to instead of I have to
We coaches are constantly positively cueing and encouraging, in fact we are downright relentless, because we know for most of you the internal dialog is crap. We know because we've been there. We try to be the voice you want to hear inside your head.
Have you ever noticed how our cues are positive, e.g. we say, "keep going," or "one more rep," rather than "don't stop"? There is a reason behind our specificity. 
When you hear, "don't stop," either as an internal dialog or from a "well meaning" encourager, your brain ignores the first word, "don't" and focuses on the second, "stop." Then you obsess about stoping and taking a break. Instead, when you hear, "keep going," or ,"one more rep," your brain focuses on going and more. ​

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