Becoming Your Best – Tip #6

BECOMING YOUR BEST – Tip #6

1. Hire an expert
2. Research
3. Sports-specific training
4. Cross training
5. Envision success
6. REALISTIC AND KIND SELF-APPRAISAL

People often go two different ways when evaluating themselves. They either judge themselves too harshly which turns into deflating internal criticism, or they gloss over their defects which leads to a false reality of themselves.

Judging Too Harshly

The critical inner voice is degrading and punishing. These are ideas such as “You’re just not good enough”, “You let everyone down”, “You are fat”, “You are too old”, and so on. These negative comments tend to increase our feelings of self-hatred without motivating us to change in a constructive manner.

First, become conscious of what your inner voice is telling you so that you can stop it. To do this, it is helpful to pay attention to when you suddenly slip into a bad mood or become upset, often these shifts in emotion are a result of negative internal criticism.

Once you identify the thoughts and pinpoint the negative actions it is advocating, consciously decide not to listen or to take a step back and look at how true these statements are. Instead, use positive actions that help propel you forward.

Glossing Over Defects

We once had a new client who was very motivated and excited by the idea of running their first 5k. They trained on the treadmill, consistently pushing themselves. One day they exclaimed that they were going to win their very first 5k. While it was great that they were “envisioning success,” the problems were that they had never done a 5k and they weren’t training outside but indoors on a machine. It wasn’t realistic.

Of course, they realized at their first 5k that it didn’t work out quite as they had expected. We helped them to understand they had just set a baseline for themselves by doing the 5k and to develop small goals from there that were attainable, with the large overarching goal of winning a 5k.

Tips

We all have areas we can work on. Here are some tips to help you realistically and kindly evaluate yourself:

1. Think about your past performance.

2. Write down both your successes and struggles.

3. Identify how to continue the successes and how to overcome the struggles.

4. Be specific and make an action plan.

5. Start the action plan! Now! Today!