by Tom Nicoli
Answer this: Are you at the top of your game? I’ll bet the teeth I need to chew a delicious steak that you’re not. And how do I know this? Because the greatest asset we all have for improvement and peak performance is ignored and dismissed. But those who know better and rise to the top sit back and watch the rest struggle their way to mediocrity.
This is true because a lot of athletes use under 10% of their ability at any given time because they dismiss the mind of sport? Who doesn’t know by now that “the game begins in the mind?” I’m sure these are the athletes that will never grace the cover of any sports magazine, have their name across the daily headlines or cash in on the lucrative endorsement deals. Let me make this as quick and simple as I can for you to understand. Believe it or not, your greatest asset is not a lightning quick jab or a devastating hook, it’s your mind! Imagine that our mind is like an iceberg. The part we see above the water is only 10%. The other 90% is what we can’t see. Are you using 10% or have you learned how to access the incredible ability below the surface?
Almost all athletes defeat themselves based on their thoughts, beliefs and mental programming, and sometimes it’s at a level beneath conscious thought. Almost all people subconsciously sabotage their success because of old patterns, regardless of what is learned and believed at a conscious level. Those still left in the dark continue to use “will power” and force and struggle their way to change. News alert: if will power worked, we would all be what we want to be, but we’re not!
A common term used when we have moments when everything seems to go just right is, “being in the zone.” Sometimes this can happen by chance, but do you want to base your life, career and success on chance? Of course not. Only someone who has taken way too many blows to the head would answer yes. There is a way to be “in the zone” more often and on purpose, rather than by chance, and it changes lives. Though I haven’t asked him, I’m sure Kevin McBride would agree because he tapped into the 90% below the surface.
Many athletes have used visualization and guided imagery as a regular practice to increase the mind game but quite frankly, the majority is not good at it. There’s another word for this process and it’s highly effective, safe, natural and empowering: hypnosis. This is how we access the 90% below the surface and realize our true potential. Hypnosis is simply accessing the door to the subconscious mind through imagery and relaxation. Once this is done, there is more to it than directing the mind through positive suggestions of how to perform athletically. An experienced professional hypnotist who works with people for personal success knows the necessity to remove old negative programming and beliefs that were established years ago but still block our success.
Just imagine what it would be like to have increased confidence, heightened awareness and reaction while being calmer and more focused and to be at peak performance.
You can’t buy it, train hard enough to attain it or order it off the internet. It’s not bottled, canned or delivered in the mail. This awesome power is within each of us and just lying there waiting to be used… 90% beneath the surface. What about you?
Tom Nicoli is a Board Certified Hypnotist, Certified Instructor of hypnosis, published author and international speaker. He owns and operates A Better You Hypnosis, Inc. in Woburn, MA and the founder and principal instructor of New England Institute of Hypnosis. He has guided thousands of people in 26 countries to their personal success and appears on national television, radio and print media.
