Examining Peak Performance: So, What Should My Self-Talk Be?

Many mental conditioning coaches and sports psychologists have begun to emphasize positive self-talk.  It is considered an important tool in the attainment of peak performance and a key component in the mindset necessary for peak performance.  However, most experts are pretty simplistic in their use of positive self-talk:  just say positive things to yourself and don't say negative things. Unfortunately, most coaches have few specifics about exactly what to say to yourself and when.  

In my Peak Performance blogpost on June 12, 2015, I discussed the peak performance mindset. In that post, I mentioned 5 modes:

1. Experimental Mode (previously called practice mode)
2. Deliberate Rehearsal Mode
2. Preparation Mode
3. Performance Mode
4. Evaluation Mode

I also alluded to the importance of self-talk in each of the modes. I now want to introduce the idea that each mode requires a different set of specific self-talk statements.  The statements themselves are related what needs to be accomplished in each mode.

In experimental mode, the focus in on experimentation and trying new skills.  Here, you are gathering data on what works best and what is most effective.  What else can you do?  This mode is typically used in individual, solitary, informal workouts or warm-up drills. This is the mode where it is most important to challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone.  This mode is for creativity, experimentation, but is not the point at which you commit to making a change in technique or mechanics.  You are being open to the change process, but have not committed to make a specific change.  You are trying new things. For some athletes, this is the mode that is most fun.  By definition, in this mode your self-talk requires the use of such internal self-statements as:

OK, I am in experimental mode.  I am experimenting.  I am being creative.  

Time to throw things at the wall and see what sticks.  

Let's see what happens when I try to do this.

Let me see if I can do this.

How about if I try this?

What if I adjust this skill just a little?

I am going to alter this for now and see how it feels.

I don't care how this looks.

I am just trying this on for size.

Mistakes and failures are to be expected right now. 

I enjoy the challenge of learning.

It is important for me to get out of my comfort zone.  

That's basically it for self-talk in experimental mode.

In deliberate rehearsal mode, the focus is learning.  It is about the application of successful experimentation. In this mode you are trying to apply new skills and incorporate what you have learned into your skill set. In this mode, as a result of experiments, you have committed yourself to making a specific change or changes in your skill or routine activity.  You want to change or improve your technique or mechanics and get comfortable with it.  Most importantly, you also want to commit the new or changed skill to muscle memory. The goal is mastery.  In rehearsal mode, your self-talk should sound like this:

It's time to rehearse.  It's time to sharpen my sword.

I like this new technique.

This new technique will improve my overall game.

I am committed to mastering this new skill.

As I practice, this new skill will get comfortable over time.

I will practice this new skill until I master it.

I enjoy implementing a new technique into my arsenal.

I am getting comfortable right now.

It is time to practice until I can't get it wrong.

Apply, lather, rinse, repeat (In other words).

Ok, now, in preparation mode, the focus is increasingly mental.  You are instilling and maintaining confidence, getting mentally ready. You have exited experimental and rehearsal modes and you are transitioning mentally.  You are reminding yourself of all the hard work you have done.  You get yourself ready to perform at the highest level possible. This mode includes time to mental visualize your success through the process of imagery. You should spend considerable time visualizing the successful execution of what you have rehearsed. In preparation mode (otherwise called pre-performance mode), your self-talk should include such statements as:

It is time to get mentally ready.  

I have physically prepared to the best of my ability.

I am committed to what I have rehearsed.

It is time to execute what I have practiced/learned.

I am ready.

I can see myself successfully executing my plan.

I have done this over and over again.

I know what to do.

My body is prepared to perform.

My mind is calm and relaxed.

It is time to slow my breathing down with full, deep breaths.

Time to make the donuts.

In performance mode, the focus is on execution. Your opportunity to perform is at hand.  In this mode, the mind should be at its most quiet. Muscle memory has taken over and the brain "chatter" is minimal. In performance mode, your self-statements should be very basic.

When you make a good play, you should be saying;

Good play.   Good job.  

I like that.

Just like I practiced it.

Yes, I can do this. 

That is why I worked so hard.  

Practice sure paid off.

More of the same to follow. 

I can do this again and again.
  
If you make a mistake, you should be saying things like:

OK, back to normal.

Reset.

Erase.

Recover.

Move on.

Reboot.

Breathe.

OK, so what about evaluation mode?  This is the mode that most people stay in the most and have the most difficulty exiting.  Most of our self-talk tends to be evaluative in nature.     

You may have noticed that in each of the previous modes, there is little to zero criticism or evaluative statements. That is because there should be little time for evaluation in all the other previously listed modes.   Evaluation mode comes after a practice session, rehearsal or after a game, performance or event.  You needn't clutter the other modes with evaluation.

Evaluation mode is the time to say:

How did I impact the game today?  How did I influence what happened today?  

What did I do well?

What do I need to keep doing?

What do I need to do more often?

What do I need to improve? What can I do to get better?

What do I need to do less often?

What things do I need to stop doing all together?

What did I learn from my performance today? 

Did I have fun?  What was enjoyable about my game today? 

What is the next thing to master?  

Evaluation mode is a good thing, but only at the right time.  The evaluative process in any other mode is distracting and only provides unfocused chatter that is not useful nor conducive to peak performance.  

You may also notice that evaluation mode is not harsh, is not blaming, is not name-calling.  It is not a time to beat yourself up.  It is time to look objectively at your game and take a productive learning approach.  This is how you get better. This is how your learn and this is how to achieve sustainable performance increases.  This is how you succeed.  This is how you build confidence.    

There is more to come in future posts.  

   


  

Mental Conditioning for the Recreational Athlete or Weekend Warrior

Several months ago I wrote in this blog about Your Fitness Identity.  This post is a follow-up to that. In that post, I discussed the importance of identifying, assessing, enhancing, establishing and/or regaining your fitness identity.

When I talk to many people about their recreational sports participation for any length of time, it is clear that in addition to their pursuit of enjoyment and perhaps momentarily reliving past glory, a majority of us experience moderate to considerable angst, frustration, disappointment, a sense of failure, self-criticism, and performance anxiety.  Much of it tends to be very similar to the negative feelings of our youth. Rather that achieving what we want from recreational sports (improved fitness, stress relief, a break from a long day at work, social connection, team camaraderie), we end up having surprisingly familiar patterns of negative feelings.   Where do those feelings come from? Where are those feelings supposed to go? What can we do about it?  Can we enjoy our sports without reliving the past?

Most people think that hiring a mental conditioning coach or a sports psychologist is strictly for elite athletes who aspire to participating in professional sports.  The common perception is also that most of the athletes that reach out to for help with mental conditioning are having difficulty performing in their chosen sport.

Additionally, rarely is mental conditioning considered as something to enhance or improve current performance or for achieving superior performance.  It is typically thought of as a fix for severe problems in performance not necessarily for growth, enjoyment, or development.

The reality is that more and more non-elite athletes are hiring coaches and psychologists to simply get the most enjoyment that they can out of recreational sports that they love.   These athletes realize that regardless of their level of proficiency or activity level, engaging in a  program of mental conditioning can help them to get the most out of the time they spend participating in those activities.

These athletes come to the realization that they could enjoy their sport(s) more and reduce or eliminate the anxiety and frustration they experience before, during, and after they play their sport. Getting some help with mental conditioning is a good idea.

We think nothing of taking music lessons or taking an evening course at the community college. Those of us who love sports, competition, and fitness should consider finding a mental conditioning coach or sports psychologist to help us to get the most out of our recreational sports experience. You don't have to be a professional athlete to get help.

Performance: A Function of Talent, Skills, Preparation, and Mindset

I am a performance video junkie.  In following people on Facebook or perusing YouTube videos, I have watched an abnormally crazy number of great performance videos related to all types of activities. What has been amazing to me about the comments (beside the incredibly inappropriate and/or negative ones) is the frequency of comments about how talented the performer is.  The second most frequent comment is how the viewer wished he/she could do that.

These comments provide great insight into the type of mental conditioning that is so pervasive and so counterproductive to success and excellence. Many people incorrectly assume that performance, success and excellence are primarily a result or function of talent (by definition, a seemingly fixed asset).  Thus, their wish is that they had been annointed somehow with the talent for that activity, sport, etc. Alas, they weren't lucky when talent was handed out.  But, what's luck got to do with it?

What they do not realize is that those so-called talented people were also simply highly invested in learning to do the activity.  Ultimately, each of those individuals spent an incredible amount of time mastering the steps involved in the achieving the result that you see:  the performance.

As Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford, points out, successful people approach problems as a learning process. While invested in the result, they see it as an opportunity to learn and grow and, therefore, are not paralyzingly afraid of an imperfect result. They view their skills as capable of change, growth and improvement. Dweck identifies this as a growth mind-set.

Individuals with a fixed mind-set, on the other hand, see their talent or ability as finite (and, typically pre-determined). You're creative and artistic, or you're not. You're good in math, or you're not. You're a great player, or you're not. If you see yourself this way, Dweck says, any mistake or failure is dreadful.  But also, any attempt to learn and grow is also to be avoided.

So, if you possess a fixed mind-set, you think your future success is determined by the hardware and software package (i.e., talent or potential) that was given to you at birth.  

Dweck's work has had major implications for coaching and peak performance.  The way we talk about performance to others and ourselves, she says, tends to foster one mind-set or the other. "You're so talented," is praise from someone with a fixed mind-set and might make developing athletes, performers, and students begin to fear their performances.  This type of "feedback" is such that any failure, setback, or less than optimal performances that could suggest they aren't so good. not so talented.  This dynamic sets up the development of anxiety and aversion of the activity itself.   

"You must have worked very hard to do that well," is an example of a more effective communication of praise.  This statement is more rewarding, reinforcing and encouraging of more hard work.  It leaves room for more risk-taking and discovery.

People with a fixed mind-set are constantly judging their underlying talent, Dweck says, and think others are judging them, too. "The growth mind-set is not about universal judgment," Dweck says.

If too focused, people get caught up in their self-concept and identity.  I am good or I am bad.  I am talented or I am not.  Learning and growth takes a back seat to the protection of the self.

What Facebook and YouTube video posts don't typically provide are the images of the long hours of grueling and monotonous practice that goes into the performances that we see posted.  Of course you don't see those posted.  That would be too boring.  Nobody would sit in front of their computer, tablet, or smartphone watching that.  But that is what you need to understand, acknowledge, and praise when you comment on those videos.

If I could, I would create coaching software that allows you to see a great performance video once and then the video would become unavailable to the viewer until they had watched a follow-up video that showed them all the necessary steps to achieve the results.  After a specified number of hours of viewing the practice video, the performance video could then be viewed again.  That would be great coaching software.   

Until then, I challenge you to consider that the next time you are on Facebook or YouTube and see a video of a great performance, you comment:  "I bet that took hours and hours of practice." Now, that would be a useful comment.      

Peyton Manning's Rehabilitation Mindset

“To me, it’s like he hasn’t missed a beat. Not his attitude or his drive or his will. That’s why he’s been able to play so well for so long. It’s always full speed ahead when it comes to football. I’ve never seen him not do that. That’s workouts, off-season, on the football field, in practice.

“In that aspect, I knew that would always be there. I knew from throwing with him early in the off-season. It seemed like every time we threw, he got better.”

--Brandon Stokley, discussing Petyon Manning's comeback attempt this year following neck surgery. Stokley played four seasons with Manning in Indianapolis and worked out with him at Duke before joining the Broncos.

Excerpt from nytimes.com (9/1/2012). "Forward Progress For Peyton Manning, One Pass, Then Many Steps," Judy Battista.

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Razor Thin: The Difference Between Winning and Losing

My book, Razor Thin:  The Difference Between Winning and Losing, is finished.

This book is about excellence. Winners and champions are fascinating. Whether you are an athlete, a performance artist, or an ambitious businessman, this book is written for you. It is about the hard work and tenacity involved in winning and achieving greatness. Attaining success is difficult, few are able to achieve it, and fewer still are able to sustain it. This book looks at the greatest athletes and teams of our time and identifies the critical factors in their success. Many books discuss the personality factors involved in success, this book identifies the specific behaviors that make a champion.

Read it and enjoy. I think you will find it useful as well as entertaining.

Thanks to all my readers, past, current and future.

Click on the title above or here to get the book: Razor Thin: The Difference Between Winning and Losing.

Eli Manning: Maturity, Preparation and Focus Equals Success

“He’s tough, he’s hard-nosed, he hangs in there. He believes in himself and his teammates. This is something that we’ve worked on and directed an awful lot of attention towards from the neck up with our team, and the last two weeks it’s paid off.” --Tom Coughlin, the New York Giants’ head coach, discussing quarterback Eli Manning mindset and maturity.

Eli Manning has been on fire during the past two weeks. In a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, the Giants trailed, 16-14, but won, 29-16, after Manning threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes. Last Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, Manning threw two more touchdown passes — this time only 58 seconds apart — as the Giants came back from a 10-point deficit late to win, 31-27. Manning is 29 of 38 for 353 yards in the fourth quarter this season, with four touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 139.5 — best in the N.F.L. and nearly 34 points higher than his 105.6 rating over all.

Manning Inspires Others to Prepare

“You study so you can react without hesitating. The only way we’ll all be on the same page is if we have seen it before.”
--Kareem McKenzie, Giants’ lineman, who understands the importance of preparation and practice.

An Appreciation of a Team Approach

Manning was quick to deflect the attention when asked about the Giants’ successes in the fourth quarter, saying, “It is not just one person, it is everybody doing their job.” The team understand Manning’s importance to their success.

“We follow his lead.” --Giants’ tight end, Jake Ballard.

Excerpts from NewYorkTimes.com (October 6, 2011)

The "Dream Team" Has Yet To Wake Up

Atlanta Braves' Collapse Due to Poor Mental Conditioning

Mental Conditioning Is the Secret Sauce

Whichever companies gets this mental conditioning thing right will be in the proverbial catbird seat.  Did you hear that right?  Yes, that is correct, whichever companies get this mental conditioning thing right will be in the catbird seat.

Why?  There are only so many new business strategies out there.  There are only so many that can work.  There are only so many re-engineering and process improvements that can be made.  There are only some many people that can be laid off.  There are only so many cost-cutting measures that can be done.  There are only so many "work smarter with less" speeches that can be made.   There are only so many fire drills that can be performed.  There are only so many acquisitions and mergers that can be integrated.  There are only so many people you can hire.   

At the end of the day, we have to realize that the only frontier left to be conquered is the human mind and its capacity for innovation, creativity, problem solving and decision making.  Yet, we have only begun to accept the current state of organizations or be open in the expanses of human potential through mental conditioning.

Boards, executives, managers, and employees alike are fighting like cats and dogs to find the silver bullet in management.  They blame each other and look for anything they can find to keep themselves afloat.  Everyone continues to look externally to find the right process--the right formula for increased productivity.

What we fail to look at is the immediate loss in productivity that starts the day you hire each and every employee or the day you put them in a new role.  Like a new car that we drive off the lot, in most organizations the new employee begins to lose his full value the first day he arrives on your doorstep.  If it is like most, your company starts to set up its employees for frustration and failure on day one.  How does that happen?

First of all, if we do not design training to help people to learn from our mistakes and if we do not talk realistically to them immediately about the challenges facing our organization right now, we are training them for failure.  If we don't begin the process of developing our employees before they are deployed, they will not be successful.  We don't put them in a position to be successful, much less talk about the psychology of performance.

Instead, we prepare our employees to incorporate our dysfunctional organizational behavior from the very beginning.  We fail to take into account how our culture and how our method for orientation and training begin to demotivate our new recruit on day one.  Instead of giving him or her all the tools and resources that they need to be successful, we begin to tie their hands by telling them how we do business (even through how we do business is exactly how we got to this place to begin with).  We indoctrinate them into our system of mediocrity and status quo.  We don't teach new people how to learn in our organization or the future.  We train them about the past.

Because most companies are much less than what they could be and have considerable lengths to go before they could be considered functional (particularly in this challenging economy), we begin to teach our new people how to ineffectively attack problems with the tools that have been designed poorly or have only been designed to tackle old problems, not the problems of the future.

To change this, what do businesses need to do?  To begin with, we need to understand that we talk about business and we look at organizations in antiquated ways.  We use phrases like "lean and mean" but fail to understand what that actually involves in the most fundamental of ways.   It sounds impressive to be "lean and mean," but it has no practical application.  We only know that it will be hard and uncomfortable (and usually be of undetermined time frame, unattainable and untethered to any success).  Specifics are hard to come by in this "lean and mean" model. 

Secondly, we plan based on what we would like to have happen without realistic planning or taking into account what realities are really out there.  Because, if we did, we fear that the work involved would be too difficult and we couldn't get anyone to do it.  We fool ourselves and our colleagues into believing that "all you have to do is....." and hope that we will magically achieve our goals.  So, our plans do not include all the things that we know are like to intrude on our plans.

Thirdly and most importantly, we rely on the current state of our employees mental conditioning and  personal psychological make-up.  Our companies rarely give our employees the things that they need to navitigate the turbulence that is our organization and our economy.  We don't teach our employees to solve the problems of our future or our customers' futures.

Lastly, we assume that we have hired the right person for now.  So, we do not need to ensure that they have what it takes to be emotionally resilient and to innoculate them from the toxic and stressful internal and external environments that they will encounter (even if we know the realities of those environments) in the future.  Rather, we wonder how and why our latest hire has floundered so quickly.  We wonder how we could be so disappointed so soon.

So, what about this mental conditioning stuff? 

By and large, mental conditioning has only successfully caught hold in two disciplines, the elite so-called Black OPS teams of the military; and world-class athletes and teams.  Even the best in class companies have been found to incorporate only small aspects of what we know about mental conditioning.  Most organizations whether they aspire to greatness and growth or not, have done nothing to solve the riddle of the human mind.  Most organizations simply ebb and flow without regard to the mental aspects of success and achievement.

Imagine what kind of productivity gains and efficiencies (not to mention personal and team satsifaction) could be affected by significant uses of mental conditioning in the work place.  Our ability to improve focus, foster clarity of thinking, reduce frustration and time wasters is critical to success.  Through improvements in how we prepare and plan emotionally and mentally for the stress and pressure of important events and challenges, our companies could be radically changed by quickly altering in how we orient and train our employees with effective mental conditioning techniques.

These mental conditioning techniques focus on the future and focus on how we learn.

Business plans and process improvements, along with new product rollouts could be greatly benefitted by equal time committed to mental conditioning and engaged in emotional preparation activities associated with mental conditioning techniques and stress innoculation programs.      

 



     

Minnesota Lynx Have Leaders To Take Them Far

New York Yankees Play The Right Way

Excerpt from the New York Times, September 25, 2011.

Navy Seals Understand and Use Mental Conditioning and Sports Psychology

Until the 1990s the United States Navy had physically trained the SEALs for mission success and survival, but mental training was only a byproduct of the physical training, an afterthought.  However, since the 1990s the Navy realized that they must be more purposeful in their mental conditioning to ensure greater success. To this end, the SEALs have met with sports psychologists and other experts to determine the most essential elements of mental conditioning and have determined that the following four principles greatly improve the likelihood of mission success and survival:

• Set manageable goals. There is much danger in setting too many goals or setting unrealistic goals that impede progress or success. Navy SEAL candidates are trained to have laser focus on successfully completing each training drill and to avoid focusing on completing the entire program.

• Visualize your success. The SEALs are trained to visualize their success even in their darkest hour. Creating the success in your mind first allows you to convince your other faculties that it is not only possible but probable.

• Focus on positive self-talk. We each have the power to choose the voice to which we listen. He teaches the SEALs that they can talk themselves into victory or defeat by focusing on opportunities and strengths instead of telling themselves how dire a situation is.

• Manage stress. Stress limits our success and threatens our health. The SEAL commanders understand that it is difficult to convince "tough guys" to meditate so they teach their men to manage stress via 4x4x4 breathing. Quite simply they inhale for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, and repeat for four minutes.

Excerpts from MorganHillTimes.com (November 29, 2010).

For more on mental conditioning and performance psychology, click on The Handbook of Peak Performance.   For additional mental conditioning tools and resources, click on and request access to The Peak Performance eCoach.