How to Convince Yourself to Keep Walking
Any physically difficult sport is also difficult mentally. Seven miles after running 10 miles, a part of your brain will try to talk you into quitting. The only way to complete this run is to have a good answer as to why and how to continue. It’s the same when you need to add weight to the bar for the last set of heavy deadlifts or keep pushing yourself to do the rest of the burpees in your Crossfit WOD. What we tell ourselves matters.
But … what do you say? Some runners like to repeat a word or phrase as a mantra: something like “Run fast, run relaxed” in time with your steps or breathing. But when things go wrong, you find that your thoughts go with the flow. You need a parting conversation.
Years ago, I realized that I was better off instilling trust in others than feeling confident. I remember one time I wrestled in training in a roller derby – I was an intermediate player trying to hold on to an advanced team – and I remembered that right then I spoke to a new skater just when I needed it. this week. It was like this: now no one expects you to be the best player on the floor, we just need you to show that you are not going to give up trying to become better.
From then on, I started to put myself in the role of a coach when I talked to myself. “You have to do this,” I said, or “It’s okay that X goes wrong, that’s okay. Here’s how you handle it. ” If I got good advice from someone else, I would replay the scene in my head where I was told.
There is even research to support the idea that it helps. As Alex Hutchinson writes in Outside , second-person self-talk (“you”, not “me”) seems to help athletes in several studies. In one, researchers asked cyclists to exercise and then write down the thoughts that crossed their minds. They then rephrased those thoughts to make them positive and used second-person pronouns whenever possible. The results, which are preliminary but promising, have shown that cyclists tend to do better at second-person self-talk.
So the next time you wrestle, talk to yourself as if you were talking to the imaginary athlete you are training. And try some of the research phrases, “You can do it.” You are tuned in. You can continue. You can handle the pain. You will be successful.