As we’ve discussed many times, I love Darrin Donnelly and his GREAT sports fables.
We’ve covered ALL of them in his “Sports for the Soul” series.
Check out our Notes on: Think Like a Warrior, Old School Grit, Relentless Optimism, Victory Favors the Fearless, Life to the Fullest, and The Turnaround.
So…
When I saw that Darrin had a new book in his series called The Mental Game, I immediately got it, read it, and loved it.
This book features a professional golfer who is struggling to make it on the PGA Tour. He has the opportunity to spend time with one of the greatest golfers of the era who gives him some life-changing wisdom.
It’s FANTASTIC. Super inspiring, quick-reading. Pure gold.
(Check out the Notes. Get a copy here.)
Like all his other books, it’s packed with wisdom wrapped up in a great Heroic sports story.
Today I want to chat about my favorite Idea in the book.
Let’s get to work…
Darrin has the struggling golfer’s wise mentor tell us: “‘What you have to remember is that the point of self-talk isn’t to deceive yourself, the point is to direct yourself. You don’t have to keep describing the negative situation; you already know what it is you’re facing. If you let that negative voice say whatever it wants in tough times, it will keep reminding you of how bad the situation is and all the things that are likely to go wrong because of it. This is when you have to take charge and talk positively to yourself. Tell yourself how you want to feel, not how you already feel. Tell yourself what you want to have happen next instead of ruminating on what already happened. This will shift your focus.’”
Then he says: “What you focus on most tends to come about. Therefore, you want your self-talk directing your focus to the thoughts, actions, and results you want, not what you don’t want.”
And, finally: “You have to take control of your self-talk. Don’t listen to yourself. Talk to yourself. Recognize that there is an ongoing battle taking place in your mind. You must take an active role in this battle.”
That’s a REALLY powerful passage.
Two things I want to emphasize.
First...
The point of self-talk is not to deceive yourself. It’s to DIRECT yourself.
Second...
(And this is GENIUS!)
We don’t want to listen to ourselves. We want to TALK to ourselves.
That’s a *huge* distinction.
I repeat...
The point of self-talk is not to deceive yourself.
It’s to DIRECT yourself.
We don’t want to listen to ourselves.
We want to TALK to ourselves.
When?
All day, every day.
Especially...
TODAY.
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