Hi. It’s good to catch up with you as we agreed last week. I decided to make good on my promise and get this blog of mine back to its usual spot in mine and your life. Here we are again you and me. As always it’s good to be here. In fact, it’s great. Training this week has been a little hit and miss for me due to a nagging injury in my right shoulder but that seems to be a lot better than it was two days ago.

Like a lot of people I have a tendency to work through or around my injuries rather than taking time to rest up and let them sort themselves out, but as I’ve got older and dare I  say it a little wiser I’ve found that slowing down ever so slightly when your body is trying to tell you something is usually a wise move.

In the past, I’ve even found myself back at the gym within less than a week of fighting the weekend previously and only when kicking heavy bags have I noticed that yes ok my shins are officially tenderized.. Sometimes it pays to give yourself a chance to heal. Taking that into consideration, I’ve still managed to train a few times this week so I guess that’s always going to be a good thing.

You know just recently I decided to start playing around with some NLP techniques (it means Neuro-linguistic programming by the way. Last time I told a friend that he said same to you. How’s the family? )  I learnt way back in the mists of 2010. In fact, I was introduced to NLP way before that by an old friend of mine who is a master practitioner as well as a martial arts expert.

On both occasions It came along at the right time in my life and being intrigued, I decided I wanted to learn a little more. At the time I invested in ‘Introducing NLP’ by Joseph O’Connor and John Seymour because I knew that just like with martial arts it was going to be an investment in myself.

I decided to revisit the book just recently and realized I also have another book relating to the application of NLP in sports ‘Sporting Excellence’ by Ted Garratt that I also intend to get my teeth into when I find the time.

Just like before it seems that NLP has sparked an interest in me and has arrived apparently at the right time, and so I’ve found myself practising some of the techniques I haven’t used for a while. One of which is reframing. In terms of that particular technique, it’s worth a google but I’ve been using it to change the way I look at situations relating to training in this instance fighting.

When it comes to winning and losing it’s very easy to live in a negative bubble or state about competing if things don’t always go your way. I’ve found before that despite carrying on as normal when it comes to thinking about my next fight it’s very easy to let negatives outweigh positives. I found this used to happen a couple of weeks before I boxed and when I realized what was happening it seemed that I was setting myself up to fail. This happened until I didn’t want it to happen any more.

So just recently,  I haven’t just started thinking positively I’ve started proactively reframing my beliefs about myself when it comes to competing and training. I’ve started to move away from I don’t want to happen and towards what I do want. I’ve started to see myself as already having won my next fight and I draw from past experience on how that feels to help make it a reality in the making. I make it so real I can step into it. To remember what that feels like. To remember that I can win.

I’ve thought about how winning not just benefits me but those around me. I’ve seen my body kicks getting better and better and I’ve set a date in the diary for what I want to happen. In terms of fighting right now, I’ve pointed myself at next March. I guess for getting everything else up to speed that could be a good date too.  I’ve reinforced my frame with some solid intention to boot.

NLP is a deep subject for one blog and I’m no expert but I hope this gives you a little snippet of where I’m at right about now and I hope it gets you thinking. It’s something I intend to continue to revisit for what’s left of 2018 and into the newness that is 2019 too. Of course, working with yourself can be rewarding but working as a team always produces the best results so next year I intend to get networking. I’m sure as with all things martial this new journey will be a good one. Have a great week, train hard and just like the last time… I’ll see you on that road.