No more excuses?

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The best part about my job as a coach and motivator is that I get to meet thousands of people every year. Everyone has their story, and I find that if I listen carefully, or just make my ears available, I find incredible wisdom all around me.

So my ears immediately perked when Craig approached me after a stress management seminar I conducted for the pharmaceutical company at which he was employed as a senior manager. He told me that 8 months earlier he was a “lump of lard” spending all his time keeping his sofa from being occupied by anyone other than himself. This was hard to believe as Craig appeared to be the picture of health, enthusiasm and motivation. Naturally I asked him how he did it.

Amazingly he did not relate stories of diets, exercise routines, pain and suffering. Central to his lifestyle change and weight-loss (OK, I know you’re wondering jut how much fat he lost – 54kg) was discipline. Not the type we got at school or from strict parents, but the discipline associated with creating sustainable habits. Doing what needs to be done on a consistent basis. The primary challenge for any person who has been inactive is creating the inertia to exercise. So I wanted to know how he convinced himself that he should drag himself off the couch to train irrespective of the day he’s had, the weather, work deadlines, family commitments (add in any other frequent excuses you use when you don’t “feel like” training).

Like an alcoholic at AA, I was talking to someone who took it one day at a time. Every day, he focused on what he needed to do today. Before every workout, Craig would remind himself of something. It wasn’t the sweat he’d break into during his workout, nor was it the pain he’ll experience during his workout, nor was it about how good he’d look after months of this punishing routine. It was much more powerful – and it’s based on a very simple mind management strategy.

When he suffered from “excusitis”, the disease that causes athletes to look for every reason not to train today, his anchor was to remind himself how good he would feel after his workout session. I’ve written before about delayed gratification – but now there is a way to experience instant gratification for something that will happen in the future. Your mind cannot distinguish between what is real and what is imaginary. Hence, when you visualize, or “feel” the way you would after your workout, your body will release the same endorphins that it would were you actually to exercise. These endorphins that create your post-workout high, can now be used to create a pre-workout high that drives your performance during the training session.

Craig had inadvertently used a mental technique called seeding. You regularly need to seed the feelings of success you crave into your mind. By focusing on the feeling while visualizing, you “trick” your body into believing that what you are imagining while seeding is actually happening. As a result, your body will respond to the stimulus as it does to any other stimulus. Next time you’re half-way through an event and feel that are about to hit the wall, seed the feelings you’re going to experience when crossing the finishing line.

So how can you make seeding work for you?

• Seeding is a deliberate, feelings oriented process
• It should be characterized by repetition and consistency
• Use it to help you get back in “the zone”
• Always seed with the thought that you have already achieved your goal.
• Seed with the feeling you want to have when you have completed your task
• Seed often and regularly
• Start your day with a seeding process – particularly if you’re feeling down. Choose one or two pinnacle events in your life and use them as seeds. Visualise yourself at that event, and while doing so pick out as much detail as possible. In this way you’re reminding yourself that you can be immensely successful.
  

About the author: Erik Vermeulen is a multi-sport fanatic who used to take the weather option every time his training mates suggest it. He can be found on the roads and dams of Johannesburg from where he consults with athletes and corporations on personal and team performance.

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