Ep 159: Taking Control of Your Self Image
I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks lately, and there is one in particular that has made an incredible impact on how I approach my mental game. The book is called With Winning in Mind by Lanny Bassham. In this book, Bassham mentions a few fundamental beliefs about the self image:
1. The self image is the total of your habits and your attitudes.
In other words, the self image is essentially comprised of our thoughts and actions. If you’ve studied personal development much, you know that thoughts are incredibly powerful, and they can either be helpful or harmful to our self development. In this book, Bassham reminds us that we can’t always control the first thought that comes into our minds, but we can control what we do with that thought. We can control if we react positively or negatively to that thought, and we can decide whether or not to change our attitude about the situation.
When it comes to horses, their minds work the same way. When horses become stimulated by an outside force, they can decide whether to react negatively (engaging the reactive side of their brains) or to react positively (using the thinking side of their brains). If your horse responds reactively, there are going to be some responses that are undesirable. So, as trainers, how do we handle that? Now, it’s our turn to make a decision. How our training progresses that day is going to depend 100% on how we handle those situations. Are we going to allow our horse’s reactive responses to make us reactive ourselves? Or are we going to stay patient and decide to help our horses along?
2. Your performance and your self image are always equal.
Bassham believes that “self image and success are directly related.” In other words, it is impossible to outperform your own self image. So, how do we improve the self image? Bassham suggests that “the self image and the conscious mind are always in communication with one another.” The conscious mind has the ability to shape our thoughts, habits and attitudes. When we practice a skill, we are using our conscious minds. If we practice a skill enough times, these skills inherently become automated by our subconscious. When the subconscious is in sync with our conscious mind, that’s where we are at a peak performance level.
Bassham says that “every time we think about something or attempt to do something, it creates an imprint on the self image. The self image generates a view on how you see yourself based on these imprints.” This idea of imprinting the self image struck me as very intriguing.
When it comes to our competitive mindset, we are often tempted to focus on our negative outcomes. We dwell on our mistakes, our bad runs, and our shortcomings more than we should. I, for example, have a tendency to be my own worst critic. Instead of celebrating the runs that went well, I tend to rewatch the bad ones so that I can analyze and figure out what went wrong. According to Bassham, this practice is only reinforcing a negative self image. After listening to his book, I have begun to make a conscious effort to fill my mind with the “wins.” If I have a bad run, I will watch it once to analyze, then I will immediately go watch a good run 4-5 times. By doing this, I am addressing the mistake, but I am not dwelling on it. Instead, I am filling my mind with the ideal picture of what the run is supposed to look like. After watching the good runs time and time again, I begin to believe that that performance is my normal – the “wins” are who I am.
As you go through your day today, whether it is your personal life or professional life, I encourage you to think about these mindset shifts. How can you take control of your thoughts and habits to promote a positive self image?
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