The Power of a Positive Mind
The most successful athletes of our time rely on many strategies to channel their strengths and talents into their workouts, diets, and other aspects or their training in order to become the best of the best the most important of those strategies however is a positive mind. Whether they are trying to accomplish the physical perfection of bodybuilding, breaking the 9.58 second world record in the 100 meter dash or trying to get the lead role in The Nutcracker with the Chicago Ballet without the power of a positive mind progression is impossible. They would give up before they even really started. The ability to connect psychologically with ones goals through a positive mind is a very important, albeit often overlooked, aspect in the quest for physical superiority in any sport.
In today’s fast-paced world full of obstacles we are not in control of, it is difficult to stay focused moving forward. The top professionals, in any sport, however, have few outside distractions, and this, in turn, allows them to concentrate on their training objectives with relative efficiency. In order to do this an athlete must not be pre-occupied with yesterday, this morning or ten minutes ago. They must focus on the task at hand and what is to be accomplished by that task. "Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event." ~Brian Tracy. Having a positive mind-set allows you to leave the outside world on the outside and immerse oneself in the task at hand.
There are many ways to distance oneself from the overwhelming negatives of this world. To accomplish such a large task we must first identify those negatives. One of the most common negatives are the people and their mindsets around you, especially when you start reaching heights they do not know how to reach. Andre Forde once said “One thing I have come to notice in this world is that with success brings all kinds of people who will try to pull you down or make you feel bad about yourself when really its because these people lack the ambition and motivation that you have and it pains them to see you get by. There are many of these people out there. I look at them as a road block. Just walk around and keep going.” A Positive mindset is the tool to help us do this one thing.
Other common negative things to stay away from are going to be sedentariness. It is easy to say this is to hard and want to sit back and relax but that is not what this life is for. We cannot become greatness until we move forward with great speed. Two other very damaging negatives to any athlete are excessive drinking and smoking. The poisonous effects that alcohol has on the body is very draining and can drastically slow down progress and smoking of course can stop you from doing anything athletic due to the lack of ability to breathe.
It has to be said that thinking about ones work-out 24-hours-per-day is probably not conducive to developing a positive mindset. This could, instead, lead to burn-out and disillusionment. Instead we must before each training session imagine exactly what is to be achieved during that set. Also, doing this within the hour before each training-session has merit.