Mind Over Sports » Hockey

WHEN PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES ARE LIVING A LIE, IT WILL NEGATIVELY AFFECT THEIR PERFORMANCE IN THEIR SPORT. SAME FOR COACHES.

mindoversports — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:44:33 +0000

When Tiger Woods was going through his difficulty regarding his extra-marital affairs, former NFL running back Eddie George, when asked what percentage of NFL players, in his opinion, we’re having extra-marital affairs, he replied: Ninety Per Cent. If this is true, that means 90% of all NFL players are living a lie and are not performing anywhere near their skill levels. And this lie will show up in the form of fumbles, dropped passes, and missed blocks, not to mention excessive penalties. And I feel confident the percentage of NBA players is probably similar. When athletes and coaches “withhold” about having extra-marital affairs, it’s definitely lying, and it’s this lying that demeans them and lowers their feelings of self-worth creating psychological baggage that affects their ability to focus and process information. When coaches are having extra-marital affairs, it will show up in how they interact with their team members. They are generally short tempered because they have anger that is often “misdirected,” they take fewer risks when making coaching decisions, and if they make an error in judgment, they will make excuses and not accept responsibility because they fear the consequences of their being honest, such as: being fired. These coaches will often experience stress which they’ve created for themselves, and in many instances it will show up in the form of a life-threatening illness.

“AS YOU THINK, SO YOU BECOME”

mindoversports — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:30:03 +0000

Dr. Dean Ornish, one of the country’s leading authorities on the treatment of heart disease, wrote: “The mystics say what happens in your mind creates what happens around you. ‘As You Think, So You Become.’ What you think about intensely is what you begin to manifest in your life. What you meditate on or visualize tends to become actualized.” Dr. Ornish is correct. However, it’s possible to actualize negative events in your life if you have a low sense inner-self. For example, if you are an athlete with unresolved issues and are keeping your feelings bottled-up, you are lowering your self-esteem. Unless course corrections are made you will begin to develop a negative belief system, generating negative thoughts and negative events will begin to happen in your life. And you can be sure this will affect your performance in your sport. Some sport psychologists (and also Nike) would have you believe that you can “just do it” – replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts. My experience is that negative thoughts cannot be eliminated unless you attack their source. Even the late Earl Nightingale, in his book Earl Nightingale’s Greatest Discovery wrote: “We become what we think about.” But unfortunately, he – like so many others before him – believed that by simply changing your thoughts you could easily change your life. But there is no such thing as a “quick fix.” That’s why so many professional athletes who have been through months of therapy and counseling eventually find their game elevated to a new level.

EASY WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM FOR ATHLETES: EAT ONLY TWO MEALS PER DAY.

mindoversports — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 23:44:00 +0000

If your coach tells you you’re overweight and need to drop a few pounds, here’s an easy way to do it without really dieting. As almost all weight loss “experts” will tell you, the secret to losing weight is to reduce the number of calories you consume daily. And if you exercise, so much the better. Here’s all you have to do: CHANGE YOUR EATING HABITS SO THAT YOU EAT ONLY TWO MEALS PER DAY. Your first meal, breakfast, should be around 9 or 9:30am. Your second meal, lunch/dinner, should be around 3 or 3:30pm. No later. And that’s it. It helps if you cut down on your starch and sugar intake but not essential unless you’re consuming massive amounts of them. Most physicians or weight loss experts will tell you that it’s that last meal you eat around 6 or 7 or 8pm that does the damage. It will stay with you all night long and will sit in your stomach like a log. And with this program if you get a bit hungry later in the evening, just have a piece of fruit (maybe an apple or a pear) or a carrot or celery stick. And it also helps to consume a substantial amount of water. In order for this program to work for you, it’s important that you change your mindset so that after a while it will only seem natural to have two meals a day. Try it. You’ll be amazed at the results. If you’re under a doctor’s care, be sure to run this by him or her before you begin.

YOU HAVE TO MEET THE UNIVERSE HALF WAY.

mindoversports — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:21:28 +0000

A few years ago Oprah Winfrey visited Springfield, Missouri, where I live. Now, I am a big fan of hers and admire how she picked herself up by her bootstraps and was able to change her life. But while in Springfield, she told a crowd of mostly women who attended her public seminar they were created with a calling. She said: “The universe has a dream for you. And it’s always working to move you in the right direction.”

Oprah was right when she made this observation, but not completely right. Though the universe may have a dream for us, and is always working to move us in the right direction, we human beings keep messing it up. Some of us often follow paths that are self-destructive, such as doing drugs, lying, or being dishonest with our feelings. You can see this very clearly when individuals get into trouble for having used drugs, or violently abusing a spouse, or driving while drunk and killing an innocent bystander.

The universe is not always working to move people in the right direction, but rather, only those who have a positive sense of inner self as a result of either being reared in a family where they were loved by someone unconditionally, or in instances where they were willing to roll up their sleeves and take a good hard look at themselves (as Oprah did) and then began making course corrections in their lives. This often involves many years of work and even therapy. There is no such thing as a quick fix.

Oprah should make it clear to her fans that the universe is always working to move us in the right direction providing we don’t follow self-destructive paths in our personal lives. If we are, then we need to address those issues and resolve them (or at least begin the process of resolving them) before we can get back on track with the universe and have it work with and for us. Anyone following self-destructive behavior should not expect the universe to work in their favor. Which is the foundation of how I came to develop the Psycho Self-Imagery process.

The Psycho Self-Imagery process involves resolving conflict in your life, not suppressing feelings, having a high sense of self worth (your inner self), bringing personal issues to completion (or at least begin the process of bringing them to completion), being highly spiritual, helping others less fortunate than yourself and having your life in harmony. Then visualizing yourself being successful and actually creating positive events in your life.
But when you have conflict in your life, when you are suppressing your feelings, when you have personal issues that you haven’t brought to completion, when you have a low sense of self-worth (inner self), when you are not helping others less fortunate than yourself and when your life is in disharmony, you will create negative events in your life.

Though “there is no rule without exception,” (Hermann Hesse in Steppenwolf) over the years I’ve found there really is no such thing as good luck or bad luck. We create what happens to us in our lives. Those of us who were loved unconditionally, either as children or by someone special in our lives, grow to love ourselves. And this unconditional love is the foundation for success and happiness.

MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKERS OR INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKERS?

mindoversports — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:35:00 +0000

Contrary to most beliefs, you really can’t motivate another person. Inspire, yes. But true motivation must come from within and over the past 25 years I’ve found that the higher a person’s feelings of self-worth (self-esteem) the more motivated they become. If I were speaking to a group of people in a room and my job was to motivate them, the first thing I would do would be to organize them into a support group so they could talk about their personal issues that they may have been keeping bottled inside themselves and as they talk about their issues and release them, they’ll start to feel better about themselves and will automatically become more motivated. This also applies to coaches who claim to be great motivators. The most successful coaches are those who provide an internal mechanism for players to talk abut their personal and team-related issues. And once they do, their performance level will increase considerably.