Controlling what you can control…

When things don’t go to plan do you panic? Get stressed out? Sleepless nights? Loss or appetite?. This is not just for training but in normal life with many issues that can contribute to this. But a lot of these issues that may cause stress are actually out of our control so why do we worry about them?

In training/races it’s important you control what you can control but not just for your training, for life as well. This is a valuable life skill that you should try to master so that it can help you in life and of course in your training and races. If your able to learn this skill you will go a long way in your training and races.

My mindset coach Gobinder told me how to deal with things I can’t control and we have been working together since 2016 which has made me mentally a better athlete and this has helped me in day-to-day life as well.

What do I mean control what you can control?  Well in simple terms you control what you can control and what you can’t control don’t worry about it as you can’t do anything about it. Just like COVID-19 – stressing about races getting cancelled – you can’t control this. Stressing what others are doing in their training – you are your own person so don’t copy others just because they are doing a certain training session doesn’t mean you have to do it.

What I have learnt over the years is to control the controllable which has allow me to be the best I can be. Gobinder taught me this valuable skill. In 2016 It was the day before the World Aquathlon Championships in Cozumel in Mexico. I was staying on the mainland and was told we could get a boat across to the island early morning in time for the race. Well this was not the case and I found this out the day before the race. I panicked big time and stressed so much, I ended up packing my bags with my wife and jumping on a boat to the island to look for an available room; this seemed like an impossible job with over 3000 athletes on a tiny island.  We went looking for a room walking into hotels and asking around and I was getting tired being on my feet for long hours, not eating and drinking enough. I was stressing more and more as the time went on. We found a hotel in the end. But the damage was done as the following day at the race I struggled and was just shattered. I could have controlled diet and hydration. The only thing I needed to worry about was finding a hotel which we found but again I could of relaxed a bit, so learnt the hard way.

Staying calm and relaxed is key and yes you will have bad days in training but learn from your mistakes. Learning from your mistakes is very important because if you learn from them you will improve and these bad days won’t happen again. I find that if you take positives out of anything such as a bad runs, you can turn it into a positive next time.

More on this subject on my video on my YouTube channel HERE Please subscribe.