how important is positive thinking when it comes to race day? have you ever wondered about this question? surely almost everybody would have thought about this main topic! even professional athletes and other sportsmen who sweat for a living would have thought about it. to break that target, or personal best, or national record, you gotto think positive, believe in yourself and keep pushing ourselves through practice and commitment.

but what about you and me? the not so professional athlete? the so called naive runners. the newbies. the rookies. how about us thinking positive about running? let’s still be more specific on this .. shall we?

let’s say you are obese. you have lost faith in yourself. you got no hope. but yet you choose to commit for a totally new life. and you start your workouts. obviously its commonsensical to suggest that you gotto take “positive thinking” to the core of your new life. you can loose those kilos. you can get up 5 in the morning. you can resist eating those ice creams. all this can be whispered to your mind. you can start writing down statements that your mind slowly starts to believe in. and soon enough you will be actually experiencing the good of exercising.

it is positive thinking that shows us the real path to those dreams. somehow luck joins us in the journey. but was that a coincidence?

that little object in you brain called “raticulating articulating system (RAS)” does a noble function. its objective is to scan through millions of data and show you exactly what you are talking about. if you are a negative person, who talks negative, chances are the RAS will show you event after event that aligns with your mindset (ie negative events).

so on this race day, if you keep reminding yourself, through conversations with yourself or with your friends/colleagues/family that you are nervous about the race, that you are scared something might happen to you, that you are unsure whether you can handle the hours of running, etc etc, then obviously you are already giving instructions to RAS to eliminate all the good things about your trainings or about yourself and just simply focus on the negatives.

“fake it till you make it” is a common statement. we act positive, and our mind would start releasing those positive hormones (for instance testosterone) and our cortisol levels would start going down (meaning less of stress).

the “can do” attitude can spill to many parts of your life. so why not we start from today to “believe” in our selves. why not we start today to associating ourselves with the “can do” attitude.