Positive Self-Talk Strategy

What’s your internal dialogue when you are going through your day, supportive or critical?  How you talk to yourself or the thoughts going on inside your head directly affect how you feel about yourself and how your day goes.  Part of being successful is to get your mind focused and confident to help support your goals and how you perform in life.

I work with a lot of athletes and one key to successful performance is what you say to yourself and when you say it. Negative thoughts and statements are a liability to your performance.  They distract you and keep you unfocused and reinforce insecurity and uncertainty. If you are thinking “I can’t do it” or “I’m too scared to try” there is a pretty good chance you are right.

Constructive self-talk is supportive and powerful as it helps enhance and focus you on what you want to achieve.  It can help you improve your skills and change bad habits. If you are working on new skills or behaviours, you can reinforce them with your thoughts i.e. “Keep focused” “I can do it” “I have what it takes” “I’m calm and in-control”.

Follow these simple steps and create a self-talk strategy to improve your day.

ü  Be aware of your self-talk

ü  Make a list of the negative and positive thoughts you say during the day

ü  Review the list and circle the statements that are critical and unsupportive

ü  Reframe critical and unsupportive statements into positive i.e. “I can’t do it” becomes “Relax. One step at a time. I get better and better each and every day in every way”.

ü  Practice, practice, practice

ü  Stay focused on what you want

Think and say what and who you want to be. Believe and you shall succeed!

By Corey McCusker

 

Get your Tickets!

A Lesson in Trust

Where am I going? I can’t see!

Your vision will become clearer when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”   ~ Carl Jung 

I had a dream the other night  I was driving with a friend and it was night time. As I was driving, I realized I could not see anything, it was pitch black. Headlights weren’t working, street lights no where to be seen. I was driving and saw absolutely nothing just complete darkness.  I said to my friend “Oh my goodness I can’t see anything.” She said to me one word “TRUST“. I repeated the word and I suddenly knew everything was okay. The word I focused on was “TRUST“.  I felt relaxed, supported and started to enjoy the journey unsure of where it was leading us.When I awoke I felt enlighten and I had a smile on my face. I knew everything was fine. I had made some changes recently in my life and I was unsure of the impact.  My dream gave me clarity and reinforced the need for me to trust my journey.

In life you may be unsure of where your path will lead or when changes are made you may be fearful and/or unsure. This is normal. Confusion brings learning and when making decisions sometimes you are confused and say “Do I go this way or that way? What if I make a mistake?” What if you do? Your decision may bring you joy, happiness and success or greater learning. Trusting your journey and learning along the way is what life is all about. Making choices and decisions and yes, they may seem at times like mistakes but they help bring clarity and guide you to your answers. The answers are within you so make sure you stop to listen along the way. 

Learning to trust may take time but when you do you’ll feel lighter, see clearly and allow things to unfold as they should. You can’t see the future so focusing on the present, enjoying the ride clears the path for your travels through life. You’ll get to your destination when you should.

- Corey McCusker

Lessons from the Rink

Being an athlete and a coach makes me understand the importance of goals and focus.

Anything can happen during a game right up until the last second. I recall watching the World Junior Hockey game and it was exciting.  Some of the games tied it up in the last few seconds then it’s into overtime then possible a shoot out. The focus and control these players have is amazing.  Remaining focused on a goal and staying in the play is the key to success in hockey and in life.  We all have goals and sometimes we can lose focus as things throw us off our game-illness, lack of resources or time, money. Realizing that no goal is unrealistic but the timeline of your goal may be as things get in the way.

Set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely), stay focused and take steps to play your best game to achieve.   If you get off your game revisit your goals and refocus-shoot and score!  

- Corey McCusker

www.yourmindmatters.ca