Morning all. It’s good to sit down and find some time to write before the rest of the day starts. This week has seemed longer than usual but I’m pleased it’s one step closer to Friday. Training last week and this week so far hasn’t been too bad at all and it’s good to have adopted my “be there like it or not” mentality that I’ve been lacking for what seems like forever and a day. Getting to training can sometimes be the hardest part. Usually if you want to do something you’ll find the time.

Of late I’ve found myself getting lost in a few mental negatives that have been kicking around the back of my head (or more like they’ve been kicking me around. Kicking sand in my face like Geoff Thompson would say.) It’s not just related to Thai boxing it’s related to a few things because like most people in life, I’ve usually got a lot going on.

I had a moment of clarity yesterday when I realized that giving myself a hard time over: not writing as much as I was, not training as much as I’d like to, being too boozy and generally feeling pretty slack and counter productive was in effect making mountains out of proverbial mole hills. To tackle each one of the above (and more ) I decided to do what I’ve been doing now for a while. I wrote what I wanted to achieve and what I wanted down.

Seeing the goals of improvement in front of me has helped, and last week and this week has seen training (as an example) head the right way and no doubt there’s going to be a few other things to follow. Rather than giving myself a hard time over not being able to, not being good at or imaging what could happen if.. I’ve decided to just get stuck in and do it. I’ve found when I’ve put my mind to what I’ve wanted to achieve I’ve attracted what I need (borrowing a little Geoff again, thanks by the way 🙂 ) the right situations and the right people seem to appear. It’s not magic. It’s just intent.

When I find myself under a lot of stress whether it comes to competing or otherwise I’ve found that I often internalize and more often than not that can lead to negative thinking. No matter what you do in life, thinking badly about something is never going to do you any favours and just like focusing on a goal, I’ve found it can sometimes make what you don’t want to happen very real. In fact it will often manifest itself.  It’s always amused me how easy it is for people to accept that if you think negative you attract negative things, and yet struggle with the fact that doing the reverse can do quite the opposite.

This  doesn’t mean (contrary to popular belief) floating around in a happy bubble pretending everything is fine, but in my experience is more about staying resolute and determined to achieve what you want. Seeing it happen can often make things happen. When it comes to competing I’ve found that this has always helped in training (fight training especially).

At one point, I used to imagine what it felt like to win to help me overcome nerves and then it got to a point where  I’d even see myself as having won. Effectively I was trying to see just past the point of the fight in itself to the end result. Everything you want is in that ring and all that PMA linfold Christie type stuff.

Which brings me back to the here and now (Thursday morning is rapidly rolling by)and  my moment of clarity. As well as realizing I give myself a hard time over practically everything when under stress, a little voice suddenly reminded me that one of the best way to deal with internal dialogue is to quite simply switch off from it. Let the thoughts pass and don’t engage with them. If they haven’t got substance they can  do me no harm and this is also something that works and I’ve found is pretty useful for dealing with fight nerves.

As soon as the penny dropped (again) I felt a lot better in myself than I had done previously. In fact, it’s fair to say I felt clear headed and focused. It’s a feeling that I’ve carried over into Thursday morning and I know I can keep the negative stuff in check at the drop of a hat when I need to.

It got me thinking about switching off but staying on  a little more in training and is something I think I’m going to keep working on  this week and next. (it’s very easy to over think techniques just like it is situations.) It’s something at points that has served me well fighting and is something that I can apply to the rest of my life too.Staying present and in the now is the key.

Like with everything else it’s a work in a progress. So looking at the remainder of the week, I’m back at the gym tonight and possibly Friday or Saturday all being well. Slowly but surely I’m getting better and things are improving. The negatives I run into from time to time can always be overcome and beaten and the positives just keep getting better and better. And that’s with everything. Have a good week, and just like the last time I’ll see you on that road.