Positive thinking |
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What's
positive thinking? |
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A long time ago, I was shooting in a (wet) competition between
two quite well-known English universities, when one of their mob
shot a 48 end at the longest distance. We were scoring English style
(9,7,5,3,1), so 48 is pretty good, even in decent weather. Very
good, by the University standards of the time (the ratfink beat
any end I'd shot that day, for sure!). But that end had a 3 in it.
Nice, solid Black at twelve o'clock, if I recall.
My word, we talked about that 3. Who wouldn't? What a mess-up! If
he hadn't shot that, he could have had a perfect 54 end.... hang
on a minute. Are we saying he shot FIVE GOLDS at the longest distance
and everybody talked about the 3??
This is negative thinking. We do that, don't we? Nearly
all the emotion you see on the shooting line is about the naff shots.
Emotion enhances recall, so people recall trying as well as they
could, and getting bad results. Bad enough in retrospect; but it's
worse in the future. How much time do we spend on what can go wrong?
And how often does it stop us trying?
Positive thinking, on the other hand, is just the converse
of negative thinking. If we'd looked at the five golds and talked
about them, that woud be positive. If, instead of looking at obstacles
as barriers, we looked at them as problems to solve, we'd be thinking
positively. If we thought, "I shot 127 good arrows today"
as well as "I shot 17 bad arrows", we might have a better
balanced view of our shooting. This page, then, is about changing
the way you look at things, and in turn, the way you act on your
perception.
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Why
it matters |
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Your view of yourself changes your performance, according to at
least one sports psych (S J Bull) who sees it like this:
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I'm not sure exactly how you measure these things, or whether they
are necessarily linked so simply. But the relevance to this topic
is easy; a positive self-image is beneficial.
Now I don't actually think you can generate a fake positive image,
or at least I don't believe it would be useful in the long term
to do so. So I don't think "positive thinking" is about
fooling yourself. But I do believe that sports people often spend
too much time running down their own performance, which generates
a misleadingly poor self-image. And the result is not good
- especially in direct competition. "Positive thinking"
is, in part, a way of restoring the balanced view you should have,
and in part, to do with choosing behaviour that gets you improving,
instead of giving up.
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Realistic
goals set a track record of success |
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Realistic goals mean achievable goals. Achievable goals mean frequent
achievement.
What you get out of this is a track record of achieved goals. You
may not be confident of winning against the current world champion,
but you will be confident of your own ability. That means
that you can go to a competition and say, quite honestly, "I
usually achieve the goals I set". Of course, when you've trained
to the point where you're in a position to set a realistic goal
that goes "I will beat the world champion", you can go
along there and believe in it.
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Turning
negatives to positives |
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There are nearly always at least two ways to look at a situation;
positive and negative. Too often, we focus on the negative. To get
an accurate view, it is important to be able to switch views - to
turn negative assessments into positive assessments.
The easiest way to explain this is to give some examples of positive/negative
pairs, so here they are.
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... and so on. Some consistent things:
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Replace an "If..."
with a "When..." |
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Replace "Last time..."
with "Next time..." |
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Replace negative "what if"
with positive "what if", or (better) positive action |
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Replace possible outcomes with definite
actions |
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Replace worries about weakness with
positive effort to overcome it |
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After a while trying this, it becomes second nature to look at both
sides of the coin, to seek solutions to problems and not just barriers.
If you act on those solutions, more positives turn up. |
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Positive
behaviour |
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Positive thinking
is only useful if it generates positive behaviour. Look
at how many of those 'negative to positive' things above
concern a 'next time', or an action to resolve a problem.
This second bit is the key to long term improvement. Some
simple rules: |
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Don't complain
- ACT! |
If you have a problem,
complaining about it won't make it go away. Doing something
constructive will.
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Action is better
than inaction |
If you act on a problem, you can break
even or improve. If you don't, you can only break even
or lose. The balance is with action.
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Behave
like a champion |
It isn't the person
inside that counts; it's what they do.
OK, philosophically we could debate that a while. But
in practice, it doesn't matter if you feel like a wimp;
it doesn't matter how afraid you are of looking silly;
and it doesn't matter if you feel ordinary and not particularly
deserving. What DOES matter to your shooting is what
you actually DO. Maybe not everybody can BE a champion,
or feel like a champion, but everybody can behave
like one.
Champions - the ones who stay - have a few behaviour
patterns in common. They don't stop because of setbacks;
they try to find ways round them. They stick - like
glue - to their training schedules. They always look
to improve (very often by setting higher goals and planning
to hit them). They seek information, and make it part
of their training. They act like people obsessed with
their sport.
Now, in the time you have available for your archery,
what's to stop you doing the same?
That can come out in simple things. The difference between
"it might rain - I won't practice today" and
"it might dry up - I'll go anyway and shoot what
I can". "Can I be bothered with the weights
this evening" or "Every two days or else!".
Or it can be more subtle: "They're ahead - I might
as well give up" or "Now's the time to try
hardest". Or even more usefully, "He's shooting
perfect form - how can I beat that?" against "OK,
I'll shoot perfect form just like him" (rumour
has it that this is one of McKinney's ways of beating
Pace in the '80s.
None of it means you have to change
your personality. All you change is what you do. It's
easier, and it gets results.
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