The Power of the Mind

I was pleasantly surprised. It was almost noon on a Saturday morning and I was working out in the basement. I turned on the television to keep my mind off the boring repetitions of a weight lifting routine and the pain in my muscles. I happened to stumble on a program called Positive Living. The show is about the power of positive thinking and the attitude of gratitude.

I thought: "How odd it is that this show made it to production and is actually on the air. I wonder how host Aida Memisevic, who is also the producer of the show, made the pitch to the network executives to convince them to invest in this new approach to television. There must be a market for this type of "touchy-feely" show out there (I know that I am their target audience, even though we are in the minority...). Is this a sign that hard wired capitalists and materialists are changing? The age of Aquarius?

I wish I was the one who launched this television show on positive living. It would have brought my two loves together: personal growth and development and entertainment education. Maybe this is a growing market and there is a need for this type of television. I better get started right away on a business plan!

In this episode (#103), Memisevic interviews Debbie Muir, a sports coach best known for her work in synchronized swimming. She coached Olympic medalist Mark Tewksbury, a Canadian from Calgary. Tewksbury burst out of the water at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 following the come-from-behind victory in the 100 meter backstroke. Going into Barcelona, Tewksbury was ranked fourth in the world and most pundits picked one of the powerful American swimmers to win gold.

Debbie Muir tells us how she helped Tewksbury achieve this goal by using special techniques to help his brain perform better. Physically, Tewksbury was on tract for a win but something was missing in his performance. Muir asked him "what is preventing you from excelling?" Tewksbury admitted that he did not feel he had what it took to beat the American Jeff Rouse, his closest contender. He had never managed to beat him. The coach asked Tewksbury to make a list of the reasons why he thought he could not beat Rouse at the Olympics. He came up with a list of over 60 reasons. Muir and Tewksbury systematically identified ways to surmount each and every one of the items on that list. They also worked on visualization techniques. Tewksbury imagined himself in the water beating Rouse for the gold medal and then standing on the podium, hearing the Canadian anthem playing and the applause of the crowd. And it worked! Debbie Muir's belief is that you get more of what you focus on. Tewksbury was creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by believing that Jeff Rouse was better than him. It was Tewksbury's brain that was a handicap to winning, not his physical ability.

Change your thinking and change your life.

You may not be an Olympic athlete but I bet you have your own personal Olympic feat you would love to accomplish, whether it is in sports or in your professional life or personal life.

• What do you believe about yourself that will help you succeed?
• Are there any beliefs, conscious or unconscious, that may prevent you from trying?
• And if you don't even try how will you succeed?

Imagine you are a coach like Debbie Muir.

• What would you tell yourself?
• What do you need to acknowledge in order to surmount your mental obstacles and unleash your full potential to succeed?