It has often been said that the first sign of madness is when we start talking to ourselves. If this is truly the case, then we are all crazy! Many of us have a constant mental chatter – we talk to ourselves all day long – and those that don't will experience periods of self-talk every day.
When it comes to sport performance, self-talk plays a significant role in both assisting excellence and inhibiting it. We all have that voice inside our head that talks to us. At times it might be on our side and at other times it might be working against us. That voice then has an impact on how we act or perform.
Sport psychologists have long recognised the importance of self-talk for athletic performance: positive self-talk leads to positive performance. Learning to control the voice in our heads is crucial to improving our performance.
By becoming aware of what our self-talk is we are able to change it from negative to positive. To start this process, take some time during today to pay attention to your self-talk as it happens. Below is a typical cycle of negative self-talk and an example of how this can be changed to a positive cycle.
Changing self-talk requires time and practice, since our ways of thinking are usually habitual. You will need to maintain awareness of the cycles and keep working to change negative to a positive one. Below is a positive cycle of self-talk.
What can I do to change my self-talk in the moment?
Thought stopping
An effective first step can be to tell the negative, unhelpful self-talk to STOP. Issue the conscious command whenever a negative, destructive, self-deprecating thought arises. Envisioning a stop sign in your mind can be helpful.
Reframing
This means changing the negative to positive by identifying the negative self-talk and replacing it with language that is going to serve you in terms of performance and overall mental state. (See cycles above).
Next time: Dealing with Distractions
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