When training for my Greenland Half Marathon I knew I had the physical side of the training in hand, it was the mental side that I needed help with.
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
I knew I needed to power up my mindset.
I knew I needed to manage my fear and not let it overwhelm me. Why was I scared:
The course was very remote: literally at the top of the world
I was running on ice with spikes: never done that before and you can’t practice that in Brighton
The temperature can drop to -20: that’s definitely scary, energy sapping and makes it hard to breathe.
The environment was wild: icy, rocky, slippery and totally new to me.
You run most of the course on your own: this scared me the most but actually was what I loved the best!!
Over the last year I have been working with a Performance Coach – Zoe Carroll to work on my mindset and create mental strategies that I tap into when the going gets tough.
Zoe always said fear is big, vague and noisy, so break it down, be specific and you can then address and quieten each worry.
When I set off to Greenland, I had several strategies ready to call upon when I felt I was beginning to wobble. They all needed practicing and tweaking as part of my training.
My two favourite strategies: I will always carry with me, my magic pink circle and my inner Arctic Wonder Woman – these will be my power strategies for life.
Here’s a summary of what Zoe and I worked on:
What’s a mindset anyway?
We honestly believe that you can achieve anything that you set your mind to.
Setting your mind to something, however, is more than vaguely thinking about it. It’s more than wishing, hoping, dreaming and waiting.
When we are talking about setting your mind to something, we are talking about really
setting your mind to it.
Let’s say that you’ve been saying that you’re going to get your book written, that you’re going to finally leave the job you hate and start your own business, or take that round the world trip. It might not be such a big step, you might be setting your mind to improving your health, running a marathon, creating time for yourself to heal from burnout or simply clearing the clutter from your home. Whatever your goal is, you need to set your mind to it properly.
You:
- Need to get really clear about why you want to achieve this target.
- Need to be inspired by it, and know how to fully commit to it.
- Need to believe in the value of it, or want it enough that achieving it holds its own value to you.
- Need to believe in yourself and your ability to be the person who can achieve the goal.
- Might need to let go of the stories and beliefs that hold you back from being the person you need to be, and make you doubt yourself and your worth.
- Need to realistically assess the hurdles you’ll face on the way and know how you’re going to overcome them.
- Need to know how to bounce back from challenges and disappointments.
- Need to know when, how and who to ask for help, and how to find people who genuinely believe in you and support you on your mission.
- Need to know how to love yourself through the process, forgive yourself for not knowing everything or for struggling, and you need to be able to be compassionate to yourself, cheerleading yourself rather than criticising yourself through the process of achieving your dreams.
- Need to know how to enjoy the process, and create a strategy that will get you to your destination, just by persistently taking the right daily actions.
And when you have all of these pieces in place, that’s when you can achieve anything that you set your mind to.
THIS is what we are talking about when we talk about MINDSET.
Once you begin to understand what mindset is, what your clear goals are, you can then learn to improve each element of your mindset, apply tools and techniques that will help you succeed. Once you know the techniques that you can master your mindset, you can apply them to anything, and life feels easier.
Throughout my time working with Zoe, one of the things that I felt helped me the most, was having her believe that I could do it. She become part of my cheerleading team, having others believe in you, creates a powerful nudge to elevate your mindset into a more positive space.
“It is time to power up your Arctic Wonder Woman” – Zoe Carroll
Thank you Zoe for helping me create my inner Arctic Wonder Woman! #pinknicky
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