Affirmations About Running Your Process

Do you have any affirmations that you tell yourself and others that you’re going to do at the next tournament you go to?

For instance: “I’ve been working on my process, and I want you to know that when we get to the tournament, all I’m going to do is read the targets, get in the cage, I’m gonna run my process. Regardless of result. I’m going to stick with running my process. I don’t care about the results.”

You have to say that on a Wednesday before the tournament on Saturday. And you have to be able to say that to your steering wheel over and over again. Your brain hears you saying that over and over and over again: regardless of result, you are going to stick with your process plan. You’re going to read the target, run your process, shoot the target. If you hit it, you’re going to repeat it. If you miss it, you’re going to fix it on the next one. But you’re going to run your process, because you need to do that to see how good your process is.

Then you say that to your squad mates when you get there: “Guys, I’ve been training. I’ve got a process. I’m going to run my process today, and regardless of result, I’m sticking to my process. Just so you know, I’m doing it, I want to see how good my process is.” 

When you say that to yourself through your steering wheel, and you say that to your squad mates when you get there, and you say that to your wife or girlfriend before you leave for the tournament, and you say that to your steering wheel over and over again, eventually, your brain says, “Oh, he wants to just run his process and see what happens. Let’s roll.”

That makes being positive about results so much easier. But the danger in worrying about being positive or negative about results is that includes evaluation. When you start evaluating while you’re performing, everything goes south. Just being able to be determined – regardless of outcome – to run your process, is the first step.