Hey legends!
Happy New Year! Yewwww!!!!
I’ve just landed back in Aus after a month away in the US. I’m absolutely frothing to go for a surf, see my mates and spend time with my family. There’s a lot to celebrate and everyone seems to have that ‘new year, new energy’ kind of thing going on. After all, a new year feels like a clean slate.
But, I also know that, in just a few weeks, this positive feeling can wear off.
Work gets busy, kids go back to school, you miss just a few too many training sessions in a row. Next thing you know, some guy cuts in on you when driving to work and you’re a roaring, rude-finger waving maniac.
Or is that just me?! Haha.
So I want to share with you one of my favourite strategies for keeping a strong and positive mindset, even when life gets a bit mad.
Re-framing.
Nope, I’m not suddenly selling myself as an interior designer! I’m not talking about the pictures on your walls, I’m talking about re-framing the way you see the world.
Re-framing is simply looking at your challenges, goals and life in a different way.
I do this all the time.
I’ll give you an example. This year I need to have about 4-5 surgeries. No one looks forward to surgery and, even after having over 200 operations, it’s still no walk in the park for me.
It’s scary, you lose a lot of time in recovery and it can be hard to keep working towards your goals when you’ve got to take a few weeks out.
So, what I do is change the frame through which I look at the situation.
Instead of feeling frustrated, scared or overwhelmed, I choose to look at my surgeries as a good thing. I get to catch up with all the medical staff who have worked with me over the years, it’s forced time out, I get to eat ice cream and watch movies and most importantly, the benefits of having the surgery will far outweigh a few weeks of discomfort.
Change the way you see it, and what you see will change – Tweet it!
Now I’ve talked up the magic of reframing; here’s how to do it:
- Get conscious
Take note of the negative mind games going on in your head. Be conscious of the way you’re really thinking about yourself and the stuff that happens around you.
E.g. During Kona, I noticed all kinds of negative thoughts going on in my head. I thought things like “This hill is too steep, this wind is too strong, I’ll never finish this leg of the race”. - Question that thinking
For each negative thought you have, challenge it. Are the thoughts you’re having logical? Are they even true? Is there another way to interpret the situation you’re in?
E.g. I challenged those thoughts with a little bit of logic: “Every competitor has battled the same wind, the same hill. Now it’s just time to trust my training”. - Make the choice
Now it’s time to actively choose how you’re going to change the way you see your situation. Choose to let go of the negative thoughts and replace them with more positive ones.
E.g. I chose to see the race as an opportunity to give everything I had, to really test what I was made of and to prove that I could keep going.
The important thing is, whenever you face a challenge you have to make a choice.
You can look at things in the worst way or you can look at them in the best way. And I want to be clear, not re-framing a situation is making a choice. You’re choosing to stick with the status quo, even if it’s not doing you any favours.
So, be conscious of your thoughts, question them and make the choice!
Until next time,
Turia xx
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