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The Mental Toughness Visualization

Hi Fabulous Traveler,

James Hunt was a British Formula One driver who won the World Championship in 1976.

Hunt, himself a brash Englishmen, had a bitter rivalry with Niki Lauda, a quantitatively minded technical genius from Austria. Always clashing, in both sport and reality, the two were intensely competitive.

Despite their rivalry, Niki Lauda spoke well of James Hunt: "James was the only driver I've ever seen who had the vaguest idea about what it actually takes to be a racing driver. We were big rivals, but I respected him because you could drive next to him—2 centimetres, wheel-by-wheel, for 300 kilometres or more—and nothing would happen. He was a real top driver at the time.”

Rush, a movie depicting their rivalry, showed how James Hunt would train. He would lay on the floor with a steering wheel in hand and act out a lap in his mind with vivid detail. Moment by moment, turn by turn, he raced around the track in his head.

Hunt would rehearse every race in simulation, and it turns out he knew what he was doing:

Visualization prepares your mind and body for the real moment. When the time comes to perform, you’ve already done it 100’s of times, you’re perfectly prepared. You can visualize and prepare for potential surprises, practice confronting hurdles, and surmounting obstacles.

Visualization isn’t snake oil however, many studies have proven its effectiveness in improving both the mind and body. In a study on Russian athletes, a group who did regular exercise and visualization of their activity performed better than a group who only did regular exercise.

In another study analyzing muscle strength, a group that only performed visualizations of using a muscle showed an increase in strength, while a control group showed none (obviously). Brain scans have highlighted the fact that when athletes visualize an activity, the brain actually uses the same areas as when it performs the activity, and each area is being trained for actual performance.

Since this research has been released, simulation training has become a staple for professional athletes, and soon it will for you too.

But first, let’s agree that we will always make a full effort, even when we’re just practicing for something.

Re-program your thoughts

The key to thought replacement is identifying what thought would be most helpful to our performance. When facing any given situation, if you determine what you want to accomplish and then focus your mind on what it takes to achieve that goal, you will have a much better chance of success.

This is true of any situation— business, sports, and even social.

Choose to think about the path to success rather than the obstacles. First decide what you want, then put your energy into acquiring it.

The only reliable method of overcoming self-doubt and negative thoughts is by keeping your mind busy with something positive and constructive. That is where the performance statements come in.

Your performance statement

The performance statement serves two principal purposes. First, to prevent self-doubt, negativity, and mental clutter from filling up your head. Second, to help you perform your best by directing your thoughts towards areas that need improvement.

Performance statements allow you to stop dwelling on the elements that make it harder for you to perform and start thinking about what helps.

A cyclist, for example, can use the performance statement "Lean back and breathe easy." With this, he is teaching himself to concentrate on keeping his weight back so that he can use his legs more aggressively to turn the wheels. Also, it can help if he has a tendency to get nervous which could make him take fast shallow breaths, decreasing the amount of oxygen available for his muscles.

When designing a performance statement, make sure it supports a positive mind-set. For example, avoid using the word “don’t”. The cyclist who gets nervous before a race does not tell himself "Don't get overexcited" or "Don't put your weight forward.", this would only make him more likely to do those things or to get nervous about them. Instead, he stays in the proper frame of mind by reminding himself of what he needs to do, not what he needs to avoid.

To create your own personalized performance statement, you need to isolate your unique formula for success in any given task.

You might, for example, shape your statement around effective communication if you manage others. If someone finds himself in charge of a team, he could utilize this statement: "Listen first; then decide; be swift and confident." In this way, he’s reminding himself to listen to his team and his clients before making decisions, and to then make a confident decision moving forwards.

Similarly, if you are using Fabulous primarily to help maintain a personal fitness routine and get in shape, then your performance statement should highlight your commitment to getting in shape,  or perhaps aspects of the routine itself. “Whenever I feel like not exercising, I’ll listen to my power song and put my exercise shoes on.”

We will use your performance statement to build your self-discipline, but first we need to come up with one.

This Week’s Plan

We have a one-time action and a goal for you.

One Time Action

We’re going to help you create a few unique performance statements.

The best way to figure out what your personal formula for success is in a given area, is to answer the following question:

Imagine that you are about to compete in the biggest game of your life, and the best coach you have ever had is standing right next to you. Sixty seconds before the competition begins, your coach looks you in the eye and tells you that if you stay focused on this one thing or these two things, you will be successful today. What one or two things would the coach name?

Now picture yourself in a high stakes situation for the skill you’re focusing on. Maybe asking out someone you like if you want to improve your social skills, or running a race if you want to be a better runner, or getting along with your family if that’s a goal for you.

Right before the big moment, your best friend or coach or therapist pulls you aside, looks you in the eye and says “Remember, stay focused on ____, if you do that, success will follow.” Fill in the blank to create a performance statement.

It’s important to personalize your performance statements, but here are some examples of great ones you can model yours after.

For when you don’t feel like exercising:

“Just start playing my power song, and put my gym clothes on.”

For when you are tempted by unhealthy food:

“Think about the nutritional value of the food, my future self will thank me”

For when it’s time to do your homework:

“Block out distractions and just get started”

For when you are in an argument:

“Listen to them, reflect, and let them know how I feel.”

For when you are taking a test:

“Breath deeply, and show everything I know”

For getting out of bed in the morning:

“Jump up and go brush my teeth”

Getting to bed on time:

“When I see it’s 8 o’clock, I’ll stop whatever I’m doing and get ready for bed.”

Be as specific as possible, and remember to avoid using the word “don't”.

Create a different statement for the 4 areas in your life you would like to most improve, and write them down somewhere special, like on the inside cover of your gratitude notebook, but not on a sticky note. Then pick the area that is most important to you, and we’ll focus on just this one statement for now.

Now make a solemn promise to practice this performance statement every morning and to use it whenever you catch yourself having negative thoughts.

Make a point to keep practicing it, and in time you will become better and better.

You’ll notice in only a few weeks that your inner monologue will begin to shift to a more positive conservation. If you keep on practicing your performance statements along with the “Be Grateful” Habit, you will start cultivating an optimistic state of mind that will allow you to confront all of life's obstacles.

Your Goal

This week, we are adding a new habit to your morning routine: “Get Inspired”. Try to integrate this within your morning routine as it will take at most 4 minutes.

Tap to accept the goal below:

Get Inspired - The Mental Toughness Visualization
Do it 3 times this week to succeed

Every morning, when you wake up and see the “Get Inspired” habit, repeat your performance statement to yourself. Close your eyes and visualize yourself using that performance statement.

I ACCEPT

Every morning, when you wake up and see the “Get Inspired” Guide, repeat your performance statement to yourself. Close your eyes and visualize yourself using that performance statement.

We have added a new Guide for the habit “Get Inspired” that can guide you during that process. For now just focus on the performance statement, we will delve further into visualization later.

We’re getting to the next level Fabulous Traveler, the inner level where we can explore the mind and build techniques to get the level of self-discipline of a professional athlete!