Mind Power

 

 

                                                                                       Edition 371 Monday 20/03/17

 

 

Hi,back in the day I had a pre game footy ritual I followed religously. It involved stuff like not drinking alcohol the night before,eating the same thing for breakfast match day, sitting in the same place in the dressing room and wearing the obligatory ‘lucky’ pair of underpants every game!I dared not change this routine for fear it would impact both mine and the teams future success! I was certainly part of teams that always won more games than they lost however often wonder how much the ritual had to do with that other than in my head. Undaunted I have adopted the same ritual for recent Toastmasters contests and it seems to be working NB; new underpants not the same ones as my footy days J!!!!

Fletcher reckons regularly reminding his Father to keep two hands on the steering wheel and asking about speed limits is his way of influencing the drivers mind and actions!

We love our new Colarado Ute thanks Alan Wilson from Schofield Holden crikey I never noticed how many utes there are on the road until we got one…good blokey trucks!!

Glad, I didn’t waste time watching the Blues and the Warriors this weekend.

Mad, I didn’t join the ute revolution earlier!!

I hope your rituals include involving regular time with family and friends cheers Jonesey.

The Hendersons are glad they don’t have to remember to wear lucky underpants!

 

 

“The power of thought,the magic of mind”.Lord Byron

 

I try not to mention Toastmasters because I have been told that maybe I do that too often at times so….I thought I would talk about Richie McCaw first (because everyone loves him) and use that as a lead in to my Toastmasters piece………Ok…..good.

We watched the Richie McCaw movie “Chasing Great’ last week.

For Rugby/Sports fans it’s a must as it contains a lot of original footage from 2011 and 2015 World Rugby cups and other internationals played by the All Blacks during his career.

The parts I took the most from were the ones where the All Blacks used psyche professionals to change traditional thinking by addressing the ‘top two inches’(the mind).

Post 1987 and prior to 2011 five All Black teams had failed at the World Cup after being installed as favourites because they were more worried about the outcome not the journey.

By focusing them on their individual and collective performance quality per game ‘under fire’ they were able to change the thinking and improve the overall outcome.

They did a lot of work in particular with McCaw and this transformation was fascinating to watch as the movie built to its World Cup back to back 2011 and 2015 wins climax.

I was intriqued to learn that McCaw kept a notebook that he used to write lists of things in prior to games he was committed to achieve including enjoyment and fun from each game.

So to Toastmasters we come….well as noted above I have been competing again this season complete with ‘lucky underpants’ and have decided to apply the AB/McCaw principles.

Instead of worrying about the outcome I have only focused on the quality of each performance.

The result has been a calmer approach which has produced a better perfomance and result.

The message here is the importance of getting the top two inches sorted if you are going to be successful at anything sport,business or personal.Dont ever underestimate the power of the mind and the importance of controlling it rather than having it control you. Good luck!!

 

“Your mind is your greatest power,use it well”. Aneta Cruz