Mind your Thoughts and Vocabulary

Good performances don't happen by accident, they're a result of good thinking. Instead of leaving them to chance – train them. Establish a “peak performance vocabulary” – a list of key words and powerful images you deliberately chose to think of in specific situations and contexts during your game to take charge of your emotions when it matters most.

Choose how you would like to feel in certain scenarios and come up with a set of key words and phrases (and/or visual icons/images) that generate those feelings. Use them during your practice sessions until they become “anchored” as a habit. You want to develop an automatic and unconscious skill to guide you as an auto-pilot of positive attitude during the “ShowTime”.
What could you say or imagine in each of the following situations to feel more capable and confident?
Your opponent is leading. You're anxious. You have taken the lead. Your concentration is lapsing. You're feeling fatigue. You've lost motivation. There is friction with other team members. You have done better than expected and still being criticized.

Having key words for both positive and negative scenarios is equally important. Key words and visual icons can also be used to focus more effectively on important aspects of performance.
You might have a key word, phrase or image to help with your swing, a particular shot, concentration, will to win or relaxation; think like they are the buttons that activates a desired “state’ when clicked.

Make a list of what emotional states and performance aspects are important to you, and note beside each item a key word, phrase and image that you will use to activate it. Use them in practice and play – make them a habit of success! Some players like to write theirs on small pieces of card and have them in their golf bag, or pocket.

Make it one for you and starting to reap the rewards of mastering your thoughts and feelings today!

Mauricio Galante, Performance Coach.

How Are Your Goals?

When you are taking the time to reflect on what you want to create in the New Year, remember to take the first of 7 steps strategy programs we use and set up meaningful goals for the upcoming year. What do I mean with that?
A lot has been said about SMART goals, an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound when designing goals, in business, sports and life, whichever they are. This is a valuable process but it has its limitations, especially because it refers only to the goals itself, not considering how your mind codes your desired experience and the images associated with it.
It’s all about images in your mind “a Vision”, and the meaning your unconscious mind gives to these images will determine your behavior.
It’s a chain of events; images create thoughts, thoughts create feelings, feelings create actions and actions create behaviors. To be effective and coded in a correct way inside your brain we need to add three conditions to SMART goals.
First, the goals need to be stated in positive terms, for example: “I am going to save 5 thousand dollar for my Caribbean vacations next year” of “I am going to save as much money I can if not I won’t be able to get my Caribbean vacations”; actually, thinking this way you are programming your brain to make you fail, because everything it sees is the image of you not saving enough money to your dream vacations.
This happens because your brain cannot process a negative image, only images, and in the process to form a negative command, guess which image will be displaying there? The undesired one.
Start keeping record of everything you say and how do you state your everyday prophecies, you will be surprised how we’ve been wired in a different way, no wonder why so many financial conscious people can’t save money for their dream projects.
Second, they must have a sensory-based evidence procedure; the key here is to involve as many senses as possible to the point of almost creating the desired reality itself.
Sight, sound, smell, taste and feeling are the “bar codes” of the images in your mind, the way your brain pulls out the tag of any information when it’s needed. When you are picking your next goals, ask yourself these questions: how do I know when I achieved my goal? When I achieve my goal what do I see around me? How does it feels like, when I achieve this goal? Do I feel any particular smell? Do I hear any particular sound or music related to this achievement? And so on.
Expect the answers to be in terms of what you would see, hear, smell, taste and feel. This way all positive images will be tagged in your mind in a rapidly and easily accessible manner to help your unconscious mind with the directions to “steer the bus” of your behavior towards your desired goals.
That’s why spending time imagining you are there in that Caribbean beach already, hearing the waves sound, feeling the warm winds on your skin and tasting your favorite drink is so important to feed this process of giving directions to your brain. Enjoy it, and use at your advantage!
And third, define the first step is the final and important part of the meaningful goals process which leads you to take action. Turning a goal into reality requires action and even the longest journey begins, as an ancient proverb says, with a single and small step. Because small and easy accomplishments will give you the power and leverage to build our confidence as we go. Once again, be specific: how much money will you precisely be saving a month? How will you dry out your expenses to get there every month? And when will you buy your tickets?
Have a great year.
May you find the puzzle piece that you’ve been missing to make your life feel whole and happy.

Sincerely,

Mauricio GalantePerformance Coach