When you take control of your mind and stop your negative thoughts, you are freeing yourself of the weight of your mind. Do not let your negative thoughts hold you back. Let go of these negative thoughts to unlock your mind and give yourself limitless potential to succeed in your workouts, goals, and life.
“I do not have the ability to do it,” before even trying.
You do not know the limits of your body until you give something a try. Most will not even succeed in trying something new on the first try, but with persistence and dedication, you can accomplish anything. You may even surprise yourself and do something that you thought you could not do on the first try.
“I failed before, so I will fail again.”
While most of us try to avoid failure, we should be doing the opposite. Failure is a vital component of the learning process. Without failure, we would not learn, grow, or improve. If you failed once, you may fail again, but with repeated attempts, you will eventually succeed!
“I am not as good as everyone else.”
Stop comparing yourself to others. Most of the people that you would be tempted to compare yourself to have likely not always been as successful as they are now, taking years of hard work and sacrifices to achieve their goals. Every individual is different, so focus on your own challenges and triumphs and work towards how you can be better as an individual.
“I do not have enough time and willpower to achieve my goals.”
Instead of only focusing on the end goal, focus on progress. If you are making progress towards your goal, you are succeeding, even if it takes you more time than anticipated to reach your goal. Take the time that you have and do what you can each day.
“I cannot reach my [impossibly challenging] goals.”
If you are struggling to reach your goals, first make sure that the goals you set are attainable. You cannot beat yourself up for not achieving something that is not possible to achieve. Focus on small, attainable goals and progress towards bigger, more challenging goals with time.
When these negative thoughts creep into your mind, there are a few things you can do to help stop them. The first thing is acknowledging the thoughts, but not validating them. For example, if you are feeling like you cannot reach your goal, acknowledge how you are feeling, but know that it is simply not true. You can achieve your goal, it just may not be as fast or smooth of a process as you had originally imagined.
Another strategy for tackling negative thoughts is by trying to understand the feeling behind the thought, embracing the feeling you are experiencing, and taking action accordingly. An example of how to do this is when thinking, “I failed before, so I will fail again.” The feeling behind this thought may be defeat or frustration. The action you can take is perhaps asking for suggestions from others on how you can avoid failure in this goal, taking a new approach to reaching it, or working on smaller goals to build up to your larger goal. Tackle these negative thoughts to be on your way to successful, productive WODs.