| Thursday, 7 August 2008 |
|
|
Many years ago I was heavily involved in body building. I used to train hard, but also studied hard, reading many books and magazines not only on weight training methods but also on the mental aspect of sport. This sowed the seed of fascination in a science not yet fully understood but is attracting a lot of study.
During my time in the sport I competed in, but also attended many body building competitions. As part of a show, guest bodybuilders would be invited to perform a turn. Impressive as some of the physiques were, it was the mental aspect and self confidence of one star body builder that is firmly embedded in my mind.
Lance Dreher, an American who was competing at the highest level at the time was making the guest appearance at the South-East England Body Building Contest in London. Of course there was tremendous excitement amongst my friends to witness somebody who had attained what we all were working to attain. But we were in for a surprise much earlier than we had expected.
Approaching the theatre, the foyer was visibly crowed, jammed pack with people. Expecting this to be the normal hub-bub of people fighting their way to their seats, we joined the mass. But instead of the crowd filtering through the doors to the arena, they were congregating around one man.
Lance Dreher sat perched on a stall looking every bit the picture of tranquillity. In fact it was like an aura of peace that seemed to surround him. Self confidence oozed from with in without any air of arrogance. Willingly he signed autographs and chatted to people yet amongst all the malaise surrounding him, he still retained with in himself this calmness.
His performance on stage went down a storm but it was the way in which he was able to master control of his emotions that will remain indelibly printed on my mind. His development of personal growth and self confidence was every much as inspiring as the development of his physique.
What does this story tell us?
The point I am trying to make is the need to focus on what we are trying to achieve. Having a cool head, having clear and positive thoughts, eliminating the negative rubbish enables us to visualise an end result and set a path to achieving our goals. There are so many distractions that can make us stray from that path. People with negative thoughts telling us that we cannot possibly succeed, demands from other people and the stresses of every day life, our own doubts and negative thoughts that perhaps hold us back or even stop us from trying. All these factors, and more have a draining effect on our energies.
We have to discover how to de-stress, how to be calm and be focussed. Brush away the negative thoughts and concentrate on the positive to release the energy so that we can follow that path to our dreams, building self confidence and personal growth.
Lance Dreher was obviously able to keep calm, unaffected by his surroundings. Considering he was close to the top of the tree in his chosen sport, he was obviously able to use self confidence techniques, de-stressing techniques (possibly meditation) and visualisation to build the self confidence required of a top sportsman. |
posted by The White Dove Partnership @ 15:19  |
|
|
|
|
|
