Embrace Life as a Challenge to Pursue, not a Threat to Avoid
The ability to respond to our lives as a challenge separates us from our primitive forbearers because our evolved brain gives us the opportunity to resist our most basic instincts (though not easily). The fundamental goal behind the challenge response is to pause rather than act instinctively, deactivate the amygdala, engage our cerebral cortex, and […]
Read More“Money in the Bank, Baby!”: Make Deposits in Your Triathlon Confidence Account
The off-season is an immensely important time to pursue your triathlon goals. You can get fitter in the pool, on your bike, and out running. You can improve your swim technique. You can rehab injuries. And, with the 2022 race season just around the corner (or already begun for some) you can take all of […]
Read MoreDo You Perceive Life as a Threat or a Challenge?: Part I
How you act on and react to your life starts with how you look at it. I have found that a simple distinction lies at the heart of whether you adopt a mentality of negativity, fear, scarcity, and avoidance or a mindset of optimism, courage, abundance, and opportunity: Do you perceive your life as a […]
Read MoreInside the Tri-Mind: Change Your Perceptions, Go Faster
As the 2022 triathlon season gets underway, I’ve been working with a number of triathletes, from juniors up to pros. Additionally, I’m practicing what I preach as I prepare myself for a full schedule of racing locally, nationally (USAT Multisport Festival in Texas in April and USAT National Age-group Championships in Milwaukee in August), and […]
Read MoreNeither Fight nor Flight (nor Freeze) Helps Us “Survive” in Modern Times
In my last post, I described how we often view situations in our lives as life or death despite the fact that our physical lives aren’t in any danger. The evolutionary-based instinctive response to this perception is the triggering of the survival instinct followed by the fight-or-flight reaction (freeze should also be in there, but […]
Read MoreLife Shouldn’t Feel Like Life or Death
Imagine you’re about to present to your bosses and colleagues at work, take an exam in school, play in the finals of a tennis tournament, or ask someone to marry you. A man comes up to you, shows you a gun, and tells you that if you don’t succeed, he will shoot you dead. How […]
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