BANISHING negative thoughts won’t just help you feel more comfortable and confident when competing but can also improve your performance. A simple technique is to develop your own mantra. To work well a mantra must be personal to you and your goals. If you need to instruct yourself in a technique or characteristic that helps you perform better, then your mantra may be something like ‘strong’ or ‘powerful’ or ‘lift legs’. If you need to remind yourself of your motivation, you may use something like ‘earn that medal’ or ‘I don’t do DNFs’. If you have a really personal reason for competing that can also give you a brilliant mantra.
Here are another five ways to try stop negative thoughts: