What do you say to yourself?
Henry Ford once said “if you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right.”
Jean deGribaldy told Sean Kelly “of course it is possible to ride the Tour of Flanders and then go straight to the 5 day Tour de Basque and go back up to ride Paris Roubaix”.
Sean says “I trusted DeGribaldy 100%, so I believed what he told me”
Sean finished 2nd in Flanders, won 3 stages and the overall in Basque and came back and won Roubaix. All because he believed it was possible.
A study was carried out to find out what the difference was between the top 25 tennis players in the world and the top 5.
It wasn’t the training, the diet, the nutrition, the background, the financial situation or even the desire to win.
The study found that the difference was in the thoughts that went through their minds in the 5 seconds after each shot.
Those in the top 25 were likely to take momentary advice after a bad shot.
Those in the top 5 immediately forgot about it and went straight to the next shot, telling themselves that this one was going to be good.
On the bike I sometimes hear people say things like “don’t wait for me at the top of the hill if I get dropped” and sure enough, ten seconds later they are dropped.
The first person to hear the words that come out of your mouth is yourself.
A self-made billionaire who regularly bikes once told me, in a casual tone, “I’ve never met anything I couldn’t do.” He fully believes in it and has proven it time and time again.
No one likes hearing someone talk bad about them, so why would you?
You don’t have to blow your own trumpet, but it can’t hurt to at least speak kindly about yourself.
Why not try?
Barry