"Pretend I'm an alien..."

One of the coolest things about this past weekend in Oregon was that since the temperatures were so high meet management moved the 5,000 runs from the end of the day Sunday to the morning.  That meant that after racing my race Sunday morning I would get to go in Hayward Field and watch, in person, all the runners I see and root for on TV.  All the big names.  How exciting!   Dave and I sat in the bleachers on the side of the track where they started.  We were basically right across from them as they lined up.  So we got to witness what they looked like right before go time.   It was really interesting to see the looks on people's faces in the minutes before the gun went off.  There was the usual dynamic stretching, double checking of shoe laces, moving around of necklaces, and a few Hail Mary's.  For the men's race Bernard Legat looked cool as a cucumber.  Lopez Lemong looked like he was ready to have fun.  But Dave pointed out Galen Rupp.  Not that either of us know him very well, but he looked nervous. 

This picture doesn't perfectly capture it, but even as he was standing on the line, he just looked to me unsettled and anxious. 

So what?  What does it matter if you're nervous?  You've been training for months or years to get to this point.  There's teams on the line, prize money, keeping sponsors happy, there's lots of reasons to be nervous...

When I was in college and then also after I graduated and was living/gigging in NYC I had a lot of private music students.  We would work for months on a piece that would then be performed.  All that hard work would come down to five minutes of playing.  As the performance drew nearer you could see the students get more and more nervous.   So I would play a game with them.  I would say to them, "Pretend I'm an alien..."  and at this point many of the littler kids would laugh or chuckle, and the older kids would say something smart like "That's not hard to imagine, Erin."  I would say, "pretend I'm an alien visiting Earth for the first time.  On my alien planet we have no emotions.  But I realize that on Earth people have emotions, so I need to learn about them.  Let's start with two emotions, nervousness and excitement."  I would then take them through an exercise where I would have my students tell me the physical manifestations of both those emotions.  I would ask them what things physically happen to your body when you get nervous.  I would get answers like; sweating, butterflies in the stomach, feeling like you want to throw up, loosening of the bowels.  (The kids never phrased it quite that delicately) 

Then I would ask what the physical manifestation of being really, really excited.  Like five-year-old on Christmas morning excited.  I would get answers such as; jittery, sweaty palms, so excited your stomach starts dancing, needing to pee.   

Next came the question:  So in a physical sense, what's the difference between being nervous and being excited?  The answer is:  not much.  Physically the body seems to handle nervousness and excitement pretty much the same.  That means the difference is all in your mind.  And the great thing about that is you can choose what your mind thinks!  You can say to yourself before the race or before the concert or before the speech at school or before the interview at work, "Oh, man, I'm so nervous, what if I mess up?"  Or you can say to yourself, "Oh, man, I am so excited!  I have worked so hard for this!  I have prepared to the best of my abilities, I've worked hard, and I am ready!"  Which mindset do you think has the better chance of success? 

Now obviously I don't know what was going on in Galen Rupp's mind before the race.  He could've been totally calm and cool and collected.  But I do know that as a competitor, if I was down there on that starting line ready to race and I saw him looking like that it would've given me a surge of adrenaline.  I would've been saying to myself, "Wow, look at him, look at how nervous he looks.  I'm not nervous, I'm ready.  Today could be the day I do something great!" 

Always give yourself every opportunity to succeed.  Don't hold yourself back.  Who knows, today could be the day you do something amazing.  And if your mind is telling you yes, yes, yes, then you've got a way better chance of doing it than if your mind is telling you no, no, no.  

So here's a homework assignment for all you who read my blog (I can't help it, it's the teacher in me...).  I'll link to the quotes page from the final day of the USATF championships.  Read through them and see who has what kind of mindset.  Who has an example of a mindset you'd want?  Who's mindset would you not want?   Who's definition of success is one you would agree with? 

http://www.usatf.org/News/Sunday-quotes-from-the-USATF-Outdoor-Championships.aspx

Happy training everyone!