Negativity is like Wearing a Weight Vest in a Triathlon-#8

In the seventh in my nine-part series exploring obstacles that are blocking your path to your triathlon goals, I showed you how expectations, despite its positive appearance, can actually interfere with your performing your best and achieving your race goals. In this article, I will describe how the obstacles that I’ve just described previously in this series culminate in an attitude of negativity that permeates every aspect of your triathlon life. With the weight of these obstacles on your shoulders, you will approach everything about our sport, from training to races, from a position of weakness that sets you up for failure. Your thinking is filled with negativity, doubt, worry, uncertainty, and a lack of confidence. Your emotions are unpleasant and unhelpful including fear, anxiety, frustration, anger, and despair. In training, you hold yourself back by sabotaging yourself with shortened or skipped efforts, not giving your best, and giving up quickly. And in races, you perform tentatively or give up easily because the cloud of negativity won’t let you give your best effort or take the risks to perform well. The almost-certain result of this shroud of negativity is disappointing performances and results.

Enemy or Ally

Imagine you’re competing in a triathlon in which there are 30 other triathletes in your age group, you and 29 others. How many in the field want to beat you? Twenty-nine, of course. The odds are one against 29. Not good odds, to be sure, but the same odds as everyone else. Now imagine you are your own worst enemy in the upcoming race. You are unmotivated, negative, anxious, unfocused, and uncertain. Now how many want to beat you? Thirty do, those 29 competitors and now you because you have turned against yourself. And what are your chances of being successful now? Zero against 30, in other words, no chance. This scenario is what happens when the obstacle of negativity gets in your way.

Your goal as you explore negativity is to remove this obstacle and become your own best ally. As your best ally, you are on your own side psychologically, emotionally, and physically. You are determined, confidence, fired up, focused, and ready to give your best effort. This state of positivity, in sharp contrast to negativity, provides you with the opportunity and foundation to perform your best and achieve your triathlon goals. Quite simply, you are giving yourself the chance to succeed.

You can make this transition from enemy to ally, from negativity to positivity, by taking several steps. First, it’s not uncommon for triathletes who struggle with negativity and the other obstacles to feel that they deserve to be their own worst enemy because they aren’t worthy of being their best ally. But you can’t justify treating yourself the way you do with these obstacles. You need to recognize that you deserve to be your best ally who is always on your side. You deserve to feel good about your involvement in our sport and to perform your best.

Second, remove the obstacles that impact you most. This is a simple, but not easy, task. It’s simple because why would you be your own worst enemy when you can be your best ally. It’s not easy because you may have become really good at being your own worst enemy to the point that it is a deeply ingrained habit. It is difficult, but it is also possible if you follow my many suggestions in this series of articles.

Third, make a conscious commitment to being your own best ally and resisting your dark side that turns you into your own worst enemy. This deliberate choice makes being your best ally easier because you make it your first option when faced with a situation in which you may normally go to the dark side.

Finally, the more you become your best ally the easier it gets for several reasons. One, it feels good being your best ally. Two, you perform better when you are your best ally. As you spend more time as your best ally, you retrain your mind to the point at which your dark side and being your worst enemy fades into memory.

Weight Vest

Imagine that you are about to begin a race, and someone forces you to put on a 50 lb. weight vest. How will you feel and perform? Heavy, sluggish, slow, poorly (and you would sink in the swim!). You wear a metaphorical weight vest that weighs you down when you allow negativity and the other obstacles to influence how you think, feel, and perform in our sport. Overinvestment, perfectionism, fear of failure, expectations, and negativity all weigh you down and make you feel bad and perform poorly.

The great thing is that whoever forced you to don that weight vest, you have the power to take it off because it is all in your mind, all in the way you look at yourself as a triathlete Your goal is to take the weight vest off, so you will feel unburdened when you compete. You will be able to throw yourself in race with no doubt, worry, or hesitation and with commitment, confidence, and courage. How will you feel and perform? Light, free, strong, and fast.

Do you want to take the next step in training your mind to perform your best in training and on race day? Here are four options for you: