How To Turn On Your Mind Switch

How To Turn On Your Mind Switch

(Part 2 of a 2)

‘How To Turn On Your Mind Switch’ is part 2 of 2 blogs so make sure you also check out ‘Allow Yourself To Be A Different Person In Different Situations’.

https://thesuccesssensei.blogspot.com/2019/04/allow-yourself-to-be-different-person.html

WHAT IS YOUR MIND SWITCH?

Your mind switch is something you need to be able to switch on when you are entering a nervous, stressful or fearful situation. You need to be able to get your mind focused so that you don't mentally freeze. This can happen when fighting. There are reports of people who are trained martial artists, perhaps even black belts with competitive experience, having frozen when faced with a self-defence situation. They may not have been aware of what was going to happen and were caught by surprise and physically froze. Their mind switch was turned off and they were incapable of turning it on in order to deal with the situation.

PREVENTING FREEZING IN FEARFUL SITUATIONS

This shows a flaw with mind-set and a flaw with training methods. Being able to turn on your mind switch is very important for business, for work, and for any kind of major decision in your life. A lot of people including sports people struggle with switching on performance mode. Some sports psychologists will teach a physical trigger along with an affirmation to attempt to get the athlete’s mind and body to perform at their highest ability. It could be something simple like tapping your chest 3 times and in your mind saying “I am a winner and switched on to perform”. If this works for you then definitely give it a shot. When I was competing I didn’t use the physical trigger as I found it could lead me towards superstitious routines and I also didn’t want my opponents to notice me doing a confidence boosting physical routine. If you watch fighters as they enter the cage or ring you may notice some of their ‘tells’.

IT’S ALL A MIND GAME

My method is to simply decide, in my head, "Now is go time." I then allow myself to switch on. When we’re training, and we bow in at the start and bow out at the end of our training, that can act like a physical trigger. Yes it’s for respect too but all the training that happens in between those bows is acceptable in the Dojo environment only. It wouldn’t be acceptable to use the strikes, throws and submissions in our daily lives unless it was a self-defence situation so don’t forget to bow out and turn off that switch!

TURN ON THE SWITCH IN YOUR HEAD

I literally see a switch in my head and when I turn it on, IT’S ON! This can be used if you're an actor and you're about to do a performance or if you're about to enter a room for a job interview or presentation. Of course you're going to be nervous and fearful. If you weren't, you wouldn't need to turn on your mind switch, you could just handle it with your everyday frame of mind. You need to quieten down your conscious thought and you need to strive forward.

WHEN THE HOMEWORK IS DONE

Once you've done your due diligence, you've done your analytical strategy, you've broken down every eventuality and you’ve over-thought absolutely everything, then you need to make your decision. After that, it’s time to switch on and follow through. If you don't, you'll be stuck in the analysis paralysis which I wrote about in a previous blog: https://thesuccesssensei.blogspot.com/2019/04/your-analysis-paralysis.html

ACTIVATE A HIGHER VERSION OF YOURSELF

You need to have faith in human biology. You are hardwired to work well under pressure. You need to understand and believe that. You have survived everything in your life so far and so did your ancestors. You will continue to survive whatever large goal or whatever it is that's actually making you nervous at this particular moment in time. We’re not talking about life threatening situations, they need to be avoided at all costs. We’re talking about large goals and activities that make you nervous and fearful of failure. You will get through it, you will survive and that alone should give you the confidence to be able to turn on the switch in your mind. Continue forward and go straight through it.

YOU ARE AMAZING

You might amaze yourself at how well you can do as long as you allow yourself to do it. Your goals should be making you nervous. If you're somebody that wants more success in your life, you’ll need to get used to pushing through your nerves. If you don’t want more success in life then this is the wrong blog for you. You need to read the ‘I’m already fully content don't need anything else in my life’ blog :)

STRIVE FOR MORE SUCCESS

If you're someone that strives for more success and wants to have more, to achieve more, to do more and to make life better for yourself or your loved ones, then being able to turn on your mind switch and doing things that make you nervous is imperative. Get used to the butterflies in your stomach. Fall in love with that sensation. Nervousness will never go away but you will have to learn how to manage it. The best way of managing nerves, when all the talking is done and all the planning is done, is to make the decision and move forward. Not half-committed, not half-hearted and not setting yourself up for failure by half-doing it. Some people seem to like half trying so that if they do fail they can say, "Well, I didn't really try anyway." Give it your very best shot. If you fail, you fail but you know you gave it your best shot and you can use what you’ve learnt to give it another crack or to pivot in another direction.

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By Roundhouse Rob, The Success Sensei

Robert Devane is a serial entrepreneur and experienced investor as well as a former martial arts multiple World champion and professional MMA fighter with over 20 years of coaching experience.

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