Believing that you can achieve a goal is the single most important aspect of eventually achieving it. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have to learn, prepare, train, study, and work really hard to get there. But if you don’t believe, all of the things you need to do to reach your goal can easily feel too hard, dips in motivation become a spiral away from helping you, or you don’t value or stay focused on doing the right things.
Before I ran my first Boston qualifying marathon time, I said I wanted to qualify for years. But for years, I don’t think I had true belief in my ability to run that fast – especially because it would be such a big jump in speed from my current race pace. I signed up for a marathon with a goal to qualify and I made decisions in training that turned a niggle into an injury that impacted me for over a year. I signed up for another marathon, didn’t prioritize getting in the training volume, and ended up not even starting the race.
Then things changed. I started strength training. I learned about tempo workouts and saw how they impacted my speed in a half marathon. I worked with a running coach. I started to trust myself, and trust my training. I made better decisions that helped me prioritize key workouts. I wrote affirmations: I am a Boston qualifier. And I believed that not only was the qualifying pace achievable – but that I would do the work required to get there. I did it. (And I’ve now run that pace or faster in 30 more marathons.)
So the words – just have belief! – seem simple. But it can be much harder to find, develop, and hang on to. This is why mental performance coaching focuses on building belief through tools and techniques as the foundation. We start by breaking down the reasons (science!) your mind tries to stop you from reaching for a big goal – we learn that feelings are not facts. And we teach you tools to help you manage your thoughts that may impede your ability to find and build your belief, and techniques to hold on to it when things get hard. Training your mind is often overlooked in its importance – but is one thing you can do to make a big difference in reaching your goals.
Explore the embr Mental Performance coaching program.