Good Morning Friends!!
Just make it to the end of the straight away. Slow down a little. Speed up. You can walk to the next pole. In 45 minutes this will be over. Take one step at a time and don’t look up. You get to walk going down the bleachers. Don’t stop you have to prove to yourself you can do it.
The above were all the thoughts I was having this past weekend as I was doing a 3 mile track and bleacher workout. I would run a lap and then climb bleachers. I repeated this pattern for 3 miles and the entire time I would negotiate with myself.
The thought, that I have mastered the art of mental negotiation, came to me as I was going down a set of bleachers. It dawned on me that I have been doing this for years. From my first training for a ½ marathon almost 12 years ago to now training for yet another ½ marathon obstacle race. I realized that I negotiate with myself each and every time I train for an event and while I am doing the event. Almost without intention mental negotiation is what I use to keep my body moving and my mind busy. My body will do most anything I ask it to but so many times my mind gets in the way. I must have constant negotiation between the two to continue towards my goal for the training session.
Am I alone in the art of mental negotiation? I would feel confident in saying that I am not the only one that has constant mental negotiation.
The alarm is set to get up in the morning to go workout. The alarm goes off and we say I think I can sleep a little longer and get my workout in later this afternoon. The alarm goes off and we say I think I can sleep a little longer and just get ready for the gym really fast.
I ate really bad today but tomorrow I am going to start so today is okay to eat what I want.
I will run to the light pole and walk to the next one.
I don’t really have time to hit the gym today so tomorrow I will stay twice as long.
We all go through mental negotiation weather it is with our exercise, nutrition, relationships, work, and so many other areas of our lives. We need to work at mastering the art of mental negotiation. We need to be able to negotiate so well with ourselves that we can drive ourselves forward to meet our goals in any area of our lives.
We can either positively negotiate or negatively negotiate. Positive mental negotiation is a process and a process we all must learn. We learn by experiencing both positive and negative and how the outcome of each affect us.
My challenge to myself and each of you is to be aware of how we are mentally negotiating with ourselves. Be aware of the outcomes. Can we change the outcomes by the way we negotiate with ourselves?
Your friend,
Aaron