Issue 169
August 2018
Hannah Potter, business and motivational consultant and owner of Clinic Creators [cliniccreators.com] provides a truly unique insight into how the Law of Attraction can bring your fighting fitness to fruition.
Success in any part of our lives - whether this is in business, personal relationships, health and fitness – is generally down to two main factors: determination and dedication. It really boils down to what motivates, excites and interests you that determines what you become successful in. Many business people are very unhealthy due to spending too much time behind their desk and leading a sedentary lifestyle. There is little point in focusing purely on becoming successful in business if you neglect your health in pursuit of financial wealth, because no matter how successful you become, if you don’t have your health then it’s really all been for nothing – the success will be short-lived. Here’s how to raise your mental game for greater success.
How the law of attraction works
If you have the intention to accept a fight, ask yourself why you are doing it. Is it for financial reasons or are you genuinely a fighter with a desire to compete at the highest level? Once you are clear on your intention, start to visualize yourself at your target weight and optimal physical condition. Not knowing why you want to fight will make you far more likely to procrastinate and fail. Ask yourself what your long term goal is? Will you commit to training more and being part of a camp? Will you feel happier and more confident knowing that your are in the best of shape? Find some images that mirror your ambition and pin them onto your vision/dream board and be sure to look at them several times a day. Visualize that you have already had your hand raised and revel in the victory. According to research using brain imagery, visualization works because the neurons in our brains that transmit information, interpret imagery as equivalent to real-life action. Once we start understanding and working with the law of attraction, life suddenly starts to feel very different and things that used to feel hard, begin to feel much easier and life flows! No one does this better than Conor McGregor; he takes his visualiazation to the extreme where he even predicts how the fight will be won. More often than not, he achieves his predictions.
The commitment problem
Short-term desires and lack of commitment create an environment destined for failure. Life becomes pressurized and frustrating, full of procrastination and disappointment when you don’t stick to the commitments you have made, ultimately resulting in someone suffering as a result (namely the fight promoter or the opponent). The issue with loving the thought of being a fighter and not making it an everyday part of your life is that it can set you up for failure and excuse-making because it takes a minimum of 8-12 weeks to form new habits and routines, particularly where sparring and exercise is concerned. Resolutions that become part of your daily thinking, rituals and routines are essential and typical of the mental commitment every fighter must make. You need to have the right mindset and love the sport and competition enough to make fighting and fitness an everyday part of your life, before you can commit to everyone who relies on you to perform and ultimately turn up to compete. Without these elements, it will be a short-lived interest that will cause you personal regrets and problems for others who invest time, money and effort into your desires.
A smarter goal play
Why not commit to making your fighting fitness all year round? If this means being happy in your professional career or amateur desires, being your ideal shape and weight, being in healthy relationships and so on, focus and work on these elements every day, however hard they initially feel, not just once camp starts. Since you are aware and making daily commitments, you will attract and achieve the things you would normally only dream about. Because these actions become part of your daily routine, you become them and they no longer feel like unachievable, short-lived aspirations you’ve always failed at. You often hear about professional fighters ‘always being ready to go’. It’s this mentality that creates growth and and ultimately helps achieve success.
Baby steps
Mini-goals work brilliantly with human psychology, as they feel more achievable and tangible. It is also very satisfying when you reach them and go on to work on the next goal. Everyone likes instant gratification and with mini goals, the gratification comes sooner than with the larger, more mid-term goals.
Advanced action returns success
We all hear people talking about things they would love to do or to happen to them. How many times have you heard someone say that they will be able to do that ‘something’ when they win the lottery? Chances are, if you asked them if they regularly buy a lottery ticket, the answer would be, No. So many of us have the dreams but don’t take the action needed to make them happen. Getting fit, saving for a house, running a successful business – these things don’t happen by simply dreaming about them, it takes a dedicated plan of action that involves daily thought processes and action that builds up over time. Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer just because it starts to get hot. This sums up so many of us in life, fitness and business, relationships included. Life was never supposed to be easy and if you want the harvest in the autumn, you’ve got to see the summer through – even if it doesn’t bring you exactly what you were hoping for; take stock, review what didn’t work and keep striving. If you want to get strong and fit for your fight, you need to take action well in advance of the event.
How positivity yields knockouts and submissions!
Here is phrase to remember: stinking thinking. In the context of fighting and fitness, a constant stream of negative thinking using negative language with negative connotations won’t help you win fights. It is far more likely to leave you in the doldrums. Positive daily habits are key.
Adopting a can-do approach, full of positive language is far more likely to lead to success, as you’re reprograming yourself to take action rather than not. It’s about identifying a plan, breaking down the steps you need to take as small, incremental and gradual improvements. This may be as simple as one week identifying which training plan you need, the next which diet is optimal and then recovery strategies you need. What training and winning fights both have in common is that success
depends on an accumulative response of positive habits and positive actions building up over time. Drilling, sparring, clean living, active rest, studying and perfecting technique combine to create a positive mental aspect to life in general as well as achieving your goals. The discipline
of training and the wellbeing achieved by feeling both mentally and physically strong reaps rewards both in and out of the gym.
Gives your brain tangible cues
Practical ways of improving are best for anyone looking to fulfill a goal, and a vision or dream board can work wonders. Each dream board revolves around a particular, specific goal you have in mind. You set out
what you want to achieve on the dream board and begin building and adding to it. Additions should involve images and feelings, and how these represent your goals and show them in a positive light. In a fighting context, this may be as simple as adding pictures of aspirational icon or champion to your dream board. You could also use it as an opportunity to showcase your goals of a Championship belt or material possession, or you can help visualize your opponent and the strategy you have to beat him/her. This is particularly important as most goals fail due to an exclusionary attitude, getting rid of things rather than adding what is needed. Adopting a healthy take on what you want to achieve is more likely to bring success. Saturating your mind with positivity and placing your dream board in a place where you simply cannot un-see it is a super daily step. This allows you to truly ‘visualize’ your success.
Feelings forge the physical
How you feel, and how you perceive yourself, will generally dictate the outcome of what you’re working towards. Considering the positive emotions surrounding finding that knockout blow, will make that outcome more likely to occur. A soccer player imagining celebrating a successful penalty is more likely to be successful due to that association with a positive emotion – the actual ‘act’ itself is not called into question. Harness positive emotions and use them as a tool to work towards your goal.
Actively visualize yourself performing or achieving what you desire. Those who live negative lifestyles, thinking negative thoughts are essentially doomed to a life of no success because their mindset has directly fostered such an outcome. If you want to hit your goals, severing these ties is the correct step.
The science of positive thinking
If you’re a skeptic who only believes in the cold hard facts forged under controlled conditions, this is what the PhDs have to say on the matter.
1. Your heart health improves
In a 15-year study of 2,816 people, those who believed they had a lower-than-average risk for cardiovascular disease had a three-times lower death rates from strokes or heart attacks. The mind is more powerful than your most important organ.
Source: University of Rochester Medical Centre
2. The power of positivity is culture-specific
Americans who have positive thoughts and are generally happy have healthier blood-lipid levels even when accounting for age, gender, socioeconomic status and chronic conditions. The same couldn’t be said for Japanese folk, who experienced the reverse, possibly because being happy was seen as a favorable trait in American culture. Think about how lucky you actually are.
Source: Psychological Science
3. Imagining exercise makes you stronger
People’s wrists were placed in a caste and they were told to imagine doing a powerful training exercise for 11 minutes, five days a week. After four weeks the mental lifters were twice as strong as those who didn’t do the lifting. It’s proof that these mental exercises created stronger neuromuscular pathways. Your muscles are puppets with your brain pulling the strings
Source: Journal of Neurophysiology
Is it OK to worry a little?
Positive thinking doesn’t mean your brain should be living in a happy land of unicorns farting rainbows. A dash of well-placed concern has its place. Worry isn’t completely destructive because it can motivate you to change your actions to create better outcomes, says research in the Social and Personality Psychology Compass. They found worry is good for the following actions:
- If it’s a red flag, then a situation is serious enough to take action.
- Worry about a stressor keeps the stressor at the forefront of your thoughts, prompting you toward action.
- The unpleasantness of worry motivates you to find a way to cut down on your worry.
- As with everything, a little well-placed worry can help you create those fighting and fitness goals, just don’t ruminate over it obsessively or you’ll turn that concern into something far worse.
