April 9, 2025 • 33 mins
Your life moves in the strongest direction of your thoughts – a powerful truth that forms the foundation of this eye-opening conclusion to our Positive Intelligence series. What if all your distress was self-generated? What if you could transform every challenge into an opportunity simply by shifting your perspective?
In this enlightening conversation with mental performance coach Brenna, we explore how to activate your "sage" mindset – that wiser, calmer part of your brain – through practical, science-backed techniques that anyone can implement. Far from passive positivity, the sage perspective requires active mental training and deliberate choice.
We break down the game-changing "three gifts technique" that helps athletes reframe failures as learning opportunities, and dive deep into the five sage powers: empathize, explore, innovate, navigate, and activate. You'll discover why visualizing yourself as a child can instantly shift your self-talk, and how identifying your "true north" values creates an unshakable foundation for decision-making when challenges arise.
The most exciting revelation? You can literally train your brain through simple 10-second "PQ reps" that focus on your five senses. These micro-moments of mindfulness – feeling the breeze on your face during practice, truly tasting your food, or noticing the heartbeat of a loved one during a hug – create new neural pathways that enhance performance and overall wellbeing.
Science confirms that negative self-talk decreases performance in every sport studied, while positive expectation demonstrably improves outcomes. The goal: 100 daily PQ reps to rewire your brain for optimal performance when it matters most. With practical examples and real-world applications, this episode provides a roadmap for taking control of your thoughts – and therefore, your life.
Ready to transform your mental game? Begin with just one PQ rep today. Remember, your performance, happiness, and fulfillment all depend on mastering the inside game.
Are you an ATHLETE looking to take your training to the next level? Check out our website to learn more about 1-on-1 training opportunities:
mentaltrainingplan.com/athletes
Are you a COACH looking for an affordable year-round mental performance training program? Check out the MTP Academy available through our website:
mentaltrainingplan.com/academy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, welcome to the Coaching Minds podcast, the
official podcast of MentalTraining Club.
We help coaches and athletesperform at their best when it
matters the most.
Today, Brenna, welcome back fora third episode, our final dive
into positive intelligence.
Appreciate you being back onthe show.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, thank you so much, so excited to be here
again and wrap up the seriestoday.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, thank you so much, so excited to be here
again and wrap up the seriestoday.
So quick recap.
You know, obviously we've gotthe sage and the saboteur.
Give us a quick refresh of howthose show up in daily life.
And before you answer that, ifyou have no idea what those two
things are, I would encourageyou pause this episode, go back
two and listen to episode numberone about this book, positive
(00:49):
Intelligence.
So, brenna, take us back,ground us a little bit, remind
us about the sage and saboteur.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, so positive intelligence is based on this
idea that we have these twoopposing forces in our mind.
So our sage is that wiser,calmer part, the more grounding
thoughts that we have, practicesof gratitude.
And then we have thesesaboteurs, the ones that are
telling us that we can't dothings.
Things are hard, other peoplesuck, our circumstances suck,
(01:18):
and so positive intelligence isthat constant war back and forth
and taking control of ourthoughts and making them work
for us.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
And why remind us again to why was this idea of
controlling your thoughts such agame changer for you, and I
guess you know why.
Why is the idea of a saboteurand a sage different than just
let's speak positive toourselves, which I think
sometimes gets a bad rap?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, so this idea of positive intelligence was huge
for me as a college athlete.
It really helped me takecontrol of my own performances
instead of falling victim tothem.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Moving into part three and the sage perspective.
I absolutely love that phrase.
All your distress isself-generated.
That is so huge.
What's that really mean?
Why is that so empowering?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It's so empowering because, as humans, we all
experience the same life, butit's our interpretation of it
that gives it that emotionalmeaning, and so we have the
control to apply meaning to whatwe're encountering and make it
work for us, or just add to ourown stress, anger, guilt, shame,
which results in just anegative quality of life when it
comes to athletics and negativeperformance.
(02:39):
Negative quality of life whenit comes to athletics and
negative performance.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, if I was to go through every single athlete
that I've ever worked withindividually, I can probably
think of two who were reallydistressed by things that were
not kind of self-generated youknow, and both of them there
were some terrible, horriblelife altering events that had
(03:08):
occurred that you know that wasa little bit outside of their
control.
One of them I actually ended up, you know, saying hey, why
don't you go meet with more oflike a therapist?
Counselor type of person that'sa little bit more what you're
looking for.
Counselor type of person,that's a little bit more what
you're looking for.
Every other athlete, everysingle one the big stressors or
(03:36):
the biggest source of distressin their life, is usually
worrying about things that arenot within their control.
Can you think of a shift, maybein your own life when you
started looking at challengesthrough the SAGE perspective?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah.
So a shift really came for mewhen I learned what the SAGE
perspective was, which, again,that SAGE perspective is the
wiser part, that believes thatevery challenge is a gift and an
opportunity and you have tofocus on accepting what is, as
opposed to rejecting or denyingor resenting it.
So it's the idea of activatingthe sage, because sometimes I
(04:14):
feel like positivity andhappiness get this like bad rep
of just like, oh, just let it go, like just be happy.
Well, that's not it at all.
It's a conscious choice toactivate this sage perspective
of your brain and you actuallyhave to shift your mindset.
So you have to consciouslychoose to look at a situation
and then the best way toactivate your sage is what we
(04:37):
call this three gifts technique.
So you look at your challengeand then you apply three
positives to that challenge,your challenge and then you
apply three positives to thatchallenge.
For an example, as an athletesay, I fell on my major release,
move on bars at a meet.
Immediate response is anger,resentment, judgment, all
(05:01):
negative feelings.
But if I were to apply thisthree gifts technique and
activate my sage, what I mightbe able to understand is that I
got a better understanding ofhow my adrenaline affects my
timing on my release point.
I get an opportunity to modelcomposure after a fall for my
teammates maybe younger siblingsor anybody else that might be
watching me.
And then a third gift could beI get the opportunity to rely on
(05:24):
my teammates to support methrough that, building more
meaningful connections.
So it really helps me look atthese at the time what seems
like life ending mistakes and belike.
you know what it's okay Like yes, things can come through in a
positive way.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think just the idea that all
of these things are potentiallyan opportunity for you to learn
from this, grow from this,absolutely.
What would you say to someonewho's listening to this?
That's like okay, but sometimesthings are just bad.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I would challenge them.
I ask why Like?
Why do you feel it's always bad?
And I would really really honein on the opportunity.
That word opportunity is thekey for this three gifts
technique and the sageperspective, because it's a
choice whether or not we chooseto learn, accept and move past
(06:26):
our mistakes.
So you can sit in your misery,but that's your choice.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, I love that.
All right, so there were fivesage powers and obviously we're
not going to do a deep dive intoall of them.
If people want that, they canread the book for themselves,
but take us through kind of justmaybe a quick overview what.
What are we talking about whenwe say there's these five sage
(06:51):
powers?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah.
So, um, to activate our sage.
I mentioned that three giftstechnique, but there's also five
powers that our sage is really,really helpful, um, in
supporting us throughchallenging situations.
So not all circumstancesrequire all powers and each of
them have a time and place.
So the five are empathize,explore, innovate, navigate and
(07:17):
activate.
So just to briefly run throughthem, empathizing so empathizing
with yourself and others reallyallows you to take a different
perspective on circumstances ingeneral.
What I really love about thisactivation strategy is the game
involved with it, which iscalled visualize the child.
(07:37):
So if you're ever reallyfrustrated with yourself or with
another person, visualizeyourself as a child and how you
might feel, or that person as achild.
Going back to that bar example,if I fell in this major release
move, I'm like Brenna, I can'tbelieve you did that.
I like to think of littlefour-year-old Brenna who's like
oh my gosh, you made it tocollege.
That's so cool, really shiftingthat mindset for yourself and
(08:02):
then moving on to explore, whichis that.
Second power is all aboutcuriosity, and it's really
important when we talk aboutcuriosity that it's objective
and not subjective.
We have to remove the emotionfrom how we judge circumstances
and I don't mean to use the wordjudge, because the judge is our
(08:23):
negative character in thisstory, but really just being
open and wondering about howthings came to be in your
current challenge or how theymight be in the future, and that
kind of leads into that thirdstrategy, which is innovate.
So you looked at your situation, you kind of gather data on it
(08:45):
and now it's the time togenerate strategies, because as
athletes, it's not like you fallon a routine and then you're
like, oh, that's okay, we'lljust get over it, like you need
to be an active member in thatyou know what's your game plan
going forward.
And I feel a lot of thatrelates back to MTP and how we
(09:05):
we do like that top down, bottomup processing of how is my body
feeling?
What key words and phrases do Ineed to use next time?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Um, I think this one from the from the coach
perspective.
This one is huge.
Like if our athletes don'tscrew up, I'm just.
I'm just thinking about, likefootball practice, if our
quarterback never throws aninterception all summer, if our
quarterback never makes a badpass, what, what in the world am
I, am I supposed to be helpinghim with?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
like if we're not.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
If we're not trying to push that envelope and be
aggressive and make plays andget after it a little bit and
then realize, okay, I've nowfound a limit for myself, I
probably I can't get.
You know, I can't get thatgreedy trying to, trying to dart
that pass in there or whatever.
Whatever that looks like inyour sport, it's like then.
(09:58):
Then we don't have a chance tothink outside the box a little
bit, to really question am Ipreparing my athletes for
everything they're going to face?
Are there any situations Iwasn't ready for?
How are other teams, you know,how are other teams maybe going
to make adjustments that they'venever shown on film?
(10:19):
And so now I'm going to need tothink outside the box a little.
I just I think that athletesget so stuck on this need to be
perfect that it's like guys,this is a, this is a great
opportunity.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, and that's like a huge skill in so many sports.
It's you train the routineright, you run the play, but
does it ever look like that whenit comes time to do it?
No, you have to be able to beflexible and willing to to
navigate that situation, whichbrings us into the fourth power
navigate I see what you didthere yeah, I love, love, love
(10:57):
this strategy, um, and a greatexercise to practice this,
especially with the, is thepoint to your true north
activity.
So you have your whole teamclose their eyes.
You say, point north.
And then you're going to havepeople point in all over the
place, up down sideways, and youtell them to open their eyes
and when they open their eyes,they're all looking in different
directions.
(11:17):
And the metaphor here is youneed to be able to identify your
true north so when faced withchallenging situations or when
you feel like you get off track,you know where you're going to
get back on track.
For me in my life, my valuesare faith, family, fitness,
(11:38):
future Anything I do needs toalign with those values in that
order.
Future Anything I do needs toalign with those values in that
order.
And so that has been my truenorth is always being able to
fall back on my values.
And then our last strategy isactivate, which again debunks
this idea that sage is passive.
It takes pure action, with theremoval of any judgment and
(12:00):
emotion, to move into action, toput your innovative plan, your
curiosities, your values intopractice.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Love that.
And I think this is again where, when I've run into maybe some
parents who don't realize it,but the parent is the source for
a lot of this anxiety, thisneed to be perfect, this
inability to deal with failurein the life of their child, and
(12:32):
we have, you know, some sort ofconversation about that.
It's like, well, if I don't,you know, if I don't help them
see that this is a big deal andapply a little bit of pressure,
then you know they're just goingto settle for being mediocre
and I love that they do a goodjob.
I think in the book of talkingabout how the sage is not
(12:58):
passive, we are not just, it isnot just.
Let's feel positive and let'sbe okay with the failure.
Instead, instead of beatingourselves up, we're going to
empathize a little bit with thefact that you know what we
failed.
We certainly didn't mean to.
We're going to need to do alittle bit better job, but we
(13:19):
also don't need to crushourselves or the people we're
coaching job, but we also don'tneed to crush ourselves or the
people we're coaching.
We're going to.
You know, there was some, therewas some failure, so now we're
going to explore, we're going tohave a little bit of openness,
maybe some more discover, likeare there ways that I'm not
preparing my athletes wellenough?
The, the innovation, what am I?
What am I going to do?
(13:40):
You know, maybe the existingideas just aren't cutting it and
so we need a new way to trainin these areas that we're coming
up short.
And you know the navigate,finding alignment.
I love that you brought up yourvalues.
I think, as an athletic team,if we don't have those, that's a
(14:01):
problem, because then, justlike you said, with the example
of True North, where theathletes close their eyes, if we
did that same thing with thecoaches and said, point north,
and we look around andeverybody's pointing different
directions, I think that's aproblem.
So how are we getting inalignment?
(14:22):
And then man that activate likelet's go, get to work, let's
preempt the saboteurs, let's I?
Just I don't.
I don't know where themisconception of inactivity
comes from.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I think a lot of it comes from you can't see your
brain muscles.
As athletes, we like to see ourperformance.
You lift weights and you seeyour muscles grow.
You can watch your performance,but our brain is such an inside
game that it takes internaleffort and work as an athlete.
Though the great thing aboutthe stage perspective is that
(15:03):
there's a training plan, whichis our third strategy, building
your PQ muscles.
So, again, it's not passive.
We have this strategy foractually training.
So to move into that strategy,we first need to understand the
two aspects of our brain, whichis the survivor brain versus our
PQ brain.
So survivor brain, just to bebrief, is that left side of our
brain which is the survivorbrain versus our PQ brain.
(15:23):
So survivor brain, just to bebrief, is that left side of the
brain that declares everythingis bad and, as a result, is a
cycle of negative reinforcement.
It's the one that's heavilyjudging circumstances.
Then we have our PQ brain,which is on the right side of
our brain Most typically.
It also involves the empathycircuit and our middle prefront.
Typically it also involves theempathy circuit and our middle
(15:44):
prefrontal cortex, just reallyemphasizing curiosity and wonder
and empathy, those sagefeelings, and so the left brain
handles the details ofday-to-day lives, whereas the
right brain enables us to thrivein a life rich with
relationships, curiosity, anddiscover joy and meaning.
(16:04):
And so to strengthen these PQmuscles, you need to train them
as you would any other musclewhich we call a PQ rep, which,
ben, makes me think a lot aboutthat FMR that you talk about in
the focus cycle of like bringingthis conscious effort to your
body and then allowing thatrelaxation piece yeah, and
(16:28):
that's, you know, trying totrying to take all that we know
about the human brain and thensimplify into left, right, but
it's.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
But I.
But I love, I love the abilityto, to simplify and make it a
little bit easier to understand.
Like you know, in in my book Italk about the, the lower, the
lower part of the brain, themiddle part of the brain and the
top part of the brain.
You know, obviously, again,that's a super
oversimplification, but you know, the lower part of the brain is
(17:04):
just going to do some thingsautomatically and then we're
going to, as a result of thatreaction to oh, I don't like
this, this is an uncomfortablesituation.
That middle part of the brain,that amygdala, is now where
fight or flight gets kicked off.
And so, you know, heart rateincreases, breathing increases,
(17:25):
butterflies in the stomach, allthe major organs that are
connected on that vagus nerveare basically now saying, oh no,
what do we do?
And you can use that top partand that front part of your
brain to take back control ofyour breathing.
You don't have to let thatlower part do it automatically.
And it's the.
(17:45):
It's the same thing again withthe, the muscle tension or
muscle shakiness, even if you'regoing to let the lower part of
your brain dictate that, thenyou're kind of at the mercy of
your reactions.
And so you know, using the FMR,like you said, to sort of take
back control is certainly apositive thing to do and can be
(18:11):
helpful.
And so you know, then again,I've said all along, I feel like
this book kind of does a deeperdive into some of the parts of
what we teach.
So, for example, he now breaksup that top part and that front
part of the brain into the rightand to the left.
(18:33):
Talk to us a little bit aboutyou know, why does this matter
to just the everyday athletewho's trying to set some goals,
is trying to accomplish dreams,is trying to improve their
performance and ultimately, youknow, get their performance to
(18:54):
this, to this level of successin their mind.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah.
So this matters becausehappiness and joy and
contentment is an inside game,literally and neurochemically.
It is an inside game that youneed to take control of and
performance is the byproduct ofthe mental game that goes into
that performance.
So your body is ready.
(19:21):
As athletes, we traineffortlessly, doing our
repetitions, running our plays,doing our routines, but that can
all be sabotaged in an instantif our mind's not right and it's
not ready.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, so let's move into kind of the components of
the PQ brain, you know, themiddle prefrontal cortex, the
empathy circuit, the right brain.
I love this.
I love this idea that happinessis an inside game.
How do you tap into thatpractically on a stressful day?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah, so what we need to do is we call it a PQ rep.
So, just like I mentioned, weneed to train our brains, just
like we train our muscles.
And so we do what's called a PQrep, which involves bringing
awareness to one of your fivesenses, 10 seconds at a time,
which is about three breaths,and so one of our five senses.
(20:16):
You could choose to listen forthe different birds chirping
outside.
You could wiggle your toes inyour shoes, you could see how
your stomach feels when youreally breathe out all the way
to expansion.
But what you need to do is getout of your brain and into your
body, which sounds silly whenwe're talking about building
(20:36):
mental resilience, but by doingthis, you are releasing the
judgment of those thoughts andthen really tuning in to how
you're feeling, to offer bettercontrol and activating those
different regions of your brain.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Which, neurologically I mean science backs up.
We can only focus on one thingat a time.
So if I'm having a panic attackand instead I start paying
attention to my breathing, Istart paying attention to
(21:15):
something else.
You know that's that's going toshift that focus away from that
we talk about with golfers allthe time.
Look, if you're headed up to a,to a tee box, let's say it's the
first tee box, it's thesectional or the regional or a
state championship or whatevertournament.
And you've got this voice inthe back of your mind going I
just I don't know if I'm goodenough to do this.
I don't know if I'm going to beable to compete with these
girls that I'm paired up withtoday.
And you've got all thisnegative self-talk and you've
(21:37):
got all this junk going oninside of your head and you
don't feel like you have what ittakes and you're not expecting
to be successful.
The science says yourperformance goes down in
literally every sport thatthey've ever studied, including
weightlifting and runningdistances and things like that.
So if, instead of that, youwere to just think about
(22:02):
unicorns and cupcakes, yourperformance would be better,
because it's at least not goingdown.
You're at least not detractingfrom your ability to perform,
with negative expectations,assuming negative outcomes,
decreasing your ability toaccess muscle memory, like
you're at least not making itworse, but then, on the other
(22:26):
hand, like if you and this iswhere you know I I like to, I
like to use the the go-tostatement and have athletes like
remind themselves of the timethey put in and the work that
they've put in and why they'veearned the right to be confident
.
And now, instead of just notdetracting, now we're changing
(22:48):
our expectations.
Now we're feeling a little bitmore confident.
Now we're moving things in apositive direction, which the
research shows in darts,shooting free throws, running
distances, lifting certainamounts of weights is going to
increase your performance.
And so what I think thebrilliance of this book is is,
(23:13):
every time you start to feel,those negative thoughts come in,
whether you're at practice ornot at practice, you're
essentially training your brainand rewiring those neural
pathways to, instead of freakingout and having a panic attack
and thinking about worst casescenarios Like let's improve our
(23:38):
PQ.
Let's improve our ability tostay a little bit more positive
PQ, let's improve our ability tostay a little bit more positive
.
Talk about some of the otherexamples of how you can get PQ
reps that they talk about in thebook, and maybe even were there
some that were more effectivefor you.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah.
So there is tons of opportunitythroughout every single day for
you to get PQ reps in.
The goal is 100 a day day, um,so a hundred different
opportunities of 10 seconds offocus.
You have more than enough timein a day, um.
So some examples are like dailyroutines when you're brushing
your teeth, really feel how thebrush will feel in your teeth.
Or using hot water or coldwater, um.
(24:19):
Physical exercise this is myfavorite.
When I run, I like to choose asong that I can match my right
foot to.
When I run, I hit the beat onmy right foot and by doing that
I'm out of my body or out of mymind into my body, and what I'm
able to find is that I fatigueslower.
It's more enjoyable.
(24:40):
I pace faster.
So using those kinds oftechniques for me during working
out has been really helpful.
Other things eating, like theflavor of it, the again,
temperature Is it crunchy,squishy?
Really being in tune to thatexperience.
Listening to music, like Imentioned, like maybe there's a
(25:02):
backtrack or a harmony in theback that you never noticed
before.
Bring your attention to that.
Sit with that feeling.
Playing sports, being outside,feel the breeze on your face,
allow yourself to separate fromthe game just for 10 seconds
from the game, the practice toreally allow yourself to ground
(25:22):
into that moment you're in andremind yourself and your body
that you are safe and in control.
And then I love this one too,being with loved ones, like next
time you're with a loved oneand you hug them, really hug
them.
See how their body feels, canyou hear their heartbeat?
What perfume or cologne arethey wearing?
Really be into that moment andwhat I find with practicing PQ
(25:45):
is that I have a lot moremeaningful experiences, because
I'm intentionally bringingawareness to the different
details and details that maybewe just gloss over than
previously before.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, I love that.
Everything about that and youknow, also, just practicing
being in the moment and how manyathletes, how many humans have
can relate to.
When something's on our mind,when something's eating away at
us, when something's weighingheavy, whether it's at work,
(26:18):
whether it's at school, whetherit's with spouse, boyfriend,
girlfriend, whether it's with akid, whether, like when, when
there is weight on our shoulders, we a lot of times just
ruminate that, ruminate on thatall day long and it's exhausting
and it eats away at confidence,it eats away at our peace, it
(26:43):
eats away at our contentment andour confidence and all of these
things and all these PQ repsbasically shift your focus off
of that and retrain your brain.
I love the idea when theytalked about anytime you feel
yourself starting to go downthat negative path, then that's
(27:04):
a great reminder.
Hey, let's get some PQ reps.
Hey, let's say my go-tostatement.
Hey, let's do my breathing.
Hey, let's you know somethingwith music or being present in
the moment, or the physicalthings that you were talking
about, the brushing your teeth,the five senses, like I, I just
I love this idea of changing howwe're going to go about our
(27:30):
daily life.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Talk to us about maybe so, so we've got.
We've got this goal, this plan,this whatever to you know,
maybe during he talks about likeduring a bathroom break, or
doing during some time thatyou're going to have every day,
like getting ready in themorning or, you know, brushing
(27:54):
your teeth at night.
What's the what's the hardestpart about maybe, building this
new habit?
Remembering them.
How do you remember to do these?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Yeah, so, like you mentioned in the book he
mentions, like every time you goto the bathroom, try to get a
couple reps in.
Every time you feel a saboteur,come up, try to label it.
And that can be tough.
It takes 21 days for us tobuild a habit.
So the more you do it, theeasier it's going to get.
Something that has worked reallywell for me when getting my PQ
reps in is to do these sort ofchunked training time frames.
(28:32):
So I'll take about 15 minutesduring my drive to work and I
will sit and I will repetitivelyPQ rep it.
So no music, so no music.
Sometimes I try to see adifferent house on the side of
the road that I haven't seenbefore, or really listen to the
sound of my car.
The wind hit my car.
Use those like chunked periodsof time to get a lot of reps in,
(28:54):
especially if you know you'removing into a circumstance or
you're going to work or a placewhere it's hard for you to slow
down which again I wouldchallenge you.
If it's hard for you to slowdown which again I would
challenge you if it's hard foryou to slow down, probably all
the more reason for you to slowdown and get in control of your
thoughts.
But using those blockedopportunities is also really
helpful to make sure that youare building those neural
(29:16):
pathways.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, so I mean this feels like going to the gym for
your brain.
I mean this feels like going tothe gym for your brain.
Someone who wants to start thisjourney maybe feels a little
overwhelmed.
What do you say?
How do we now go do this,starting today?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, I think the first step is to take the first
step and remembering that it'syour responsibility.
None of us are victims to ourlives, but we all must take the
responsibility to control ourhappiness and contentment and
know that life does have ebbsand flows, but those ebbs and
flows don't need to determinethe direction.
(29:57):
We can always look at thethings that happen to us as
things that happen for us andreally being grateful for every
opportunity.
We have to be challenged, as weknow that we're going to be
building our brains and ourbodies and our relationships to
be more meaningful and, you know, just a more positive overall
life.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Love that and you know, if you're, if you're
wanting to do this, maybe someother encouragement be patient,
you know.
Commit to this, commit to thisfor six weeks, um, before you
just pack it in and say, well, Idon't know if this is working,
you know, for for some peopleit's gonna.
It's gonna take a little bitlonger.
You know, forming new neuralpathways takes time.
(30:39):
One of the one of the things Italk about with athletes all the
time is your bad habits thatyou have on the basketball court
have taken you 17 years tobuild.
To think that we're just goingto meet once or we're just going
to read a book once and we'regoing to do an activity a few
times and that's going to rewireeverything inside of our brain
(31:02):
is silly and, to be honest, itwould do more harm than good if
our brains could rewirethemselves that quickly, because
I feel like we would just be ascrambled mess and we would
always be, you know, beingrewired by situations and
environment around us.
You know, maybe find a trainingpartner, maybe find someone
(31:23):
that can hold you accountable,find someone that you can do
this with or go on this journeywith or at least just share
about.
You know what you're goingthrough, what you're learning.
Um, those would be, you know,maybe just some, some
encouragement that I would havefor folks, brenna, as we kind of
as we wrap this up, any lastfinal thoughts about the book,
(31:48):
about the topic or any you knowanything, anything else that's
on your mind you wanted to share.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
The only thing I'd want to leave everybody with is
your life moves in the strongestdirection of your thoughts, so
take control of your thoughtsand take control of your life.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I love that.
Well, Brenna, thank you so much.
This has been really greatdoing kind of a deeper dive into
this topic.
I appreciate your time andalways great getting to chat
with you.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, thank you so much.
It's been great.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
If you have questions and want to reach out, head
over to mentaltrainingplancom.
We've got a contact us box downat the bottom.
Feel free to send that over tous.
If you've got questions thatyou would like answered on the
podcast, feel free to send thoseour way.
And remember we've got the MTP.
Academy is live and ready to go.
If you are a coach or you are atrainer or you are a parent and
(32:44):
you are looking for tools and aprogram to help your athlete
improve the mental side of theirgame, head on over to mental
training plan dot com, click onthe Academy button up at the top
and if you've got questions,please don't hesitate to reach
out.
Until next time, make your planand put it to work.
Hey, welcome to the Coaching Minds podcast, the
official podcast of MentalTraining Club.
We help coaches and athletesperform at their best when it
matters the most.
Today, Brenna, welcome back fora third episode, our final dive
into positive intelligence.
Appreciate you being back onthe show.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, thank you so much, so excited to be here
again and wrap up the seriestoday.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, thank you so much, so excited to be here
again and wrap up the seriestoday.
So quick recap.
You know, obviously we've gotthe sage and the saboteur.
Give us a quick refresh of howthose show up in daily life.
And before you answer that, ifyou have no idea what those two
things are, I would encourageyou pause this episode, go back
two and listen to episode numberone about this book, positive
(00:49):
Intelligence.
So, brenna, take us back,ground us a little bit, remind
us about the sage and saboteur.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, so positive intelligence is based on this
idea that we have these twoopposing forces in our mind.
So our sage is that wiser,calmer part, the more grounding
thoughts that we have, practicesof gratitude.
And then we have thesesaboteurs, the ones that are
telling us that we can't dothings.
Things are hard, other peoplesuck, our circumstances suck,
(01:18):
and so positive intelligence isthat constant war back and forth
and taking control of ourthoughts and making them work
for us.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
And why remind us again to why was this idea of
controlling your thoughts such agame changer for you, and I
guess you know why.
Why is the idea of a saboteurand a sage different than just
let's speak positive toourselves, which I think
sometimes gets a bad rap?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, so this idea of positive intelligence was huge
for me as a college athlete.
It really helped me takecontrol of my own performances
instead of falling victim tothem.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Moving into part three and the sage perspective.
I absolutely love that phrase.
All your distress isself-generated.
That is so huge.
What's that really mean?
Why is that so empowering?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It's so empowering because, as humans, we all
experience the same life, butit's our interpretation of it
that gives it that emotionalmeaning, and so we have the
control to apply meaning to whatwe're encountering and make it
work for us, or just add to ourown stress, anger, guilt, shame,
which results in just anegative quality of life when it
comes to athletics and negativeperformance.
(02:39):
Negative quality of life whenit comes to athletics and
negative performance.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, if I was to go through every single athlete
that I've ever worked withindividually, I can probably
think of two who were reallydistressed by things that were
not kind of self-generated youknow, and both of them there
were some terrible, horriblelife altering events that had
(03:08):
occurred that you know that wasa little bit outside of their
control.
One of them I actually ended up, you know, saying hey, why
don't you go meet with more oflike a therapist?
Counselor type of person that'sa little bit more what you're
looking for.
Counselor type of person,that's a little bit more what
you're looking for.
Every other athlete, everysingle one the big stressors or
(03:36):
the biggest source of distressin their life, is usually
worrying about things that arenot within their control.
Can you think of a shift, maybein your own life when you
started looking at challengesthrough the SAGE perspective?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah.
So a shift really came for mewhen I learned what the SAGE
perspective was, which, again,that SAGE perspective is the
wiser part, that believes thatevery challenge is a gift and an
opportunity and you have tofocus on accepting what is, as
opposed to rejecting or denyingor resenting it.
So it's the idea of activatingthe sage, because sometimes I
(04:14):
feel like positivity andhappiness get this like bad rep
of just like, oh, just let it go, like just be happy.
Well, that's not it at all.
It's a conscious choice toactivate this sage perspective
of your brain and you actuallyhave to shift your mindset.
So you have to consciouslychoose to look at a situation
and then the best way toactivate your sage is what we
(04:37):
call this three gifts technique.
So you look at your challengeand then you apply three
positives to that challenge,your challenge and then you
apply three positives to thatchallenge.
For an example, as an athletesay, I fell on my major release,
move on bars at a meet.
Immediate response is anger,resentment, judgment, all
(05:01):
negative feelings.
But if I were to apply thisthree gifts technique and
activate my sage, what I mightbe able to understand is that I
got a better understanding ofhow my adrenaline affects my
timing on my release point.
I get an opportunity to modelcomposure after a fall for my
teammates maybe younger siblingsor anybody else that might be
watching me.
And then a third gift could beI get the opportunity to rely on
(05:24):
my teammates to support methrough that, building more
meaningful connections.
So it really helps me look atthese at the time what seems
like life ending mistakes and belike.
you know what it's okay Like yes, things can come through in a
positive way.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think just the idea that all
of these things are potentiallyan opportunity for you to learn
from this, grow from this,absolutely.
What would you say to someonewho's listening to this?
That's like okay, but sometimesthings are just bad.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I would challenge them.
I ask why Like?
Why do you feel it's always bad?
And I would really really honein on the opportunity.
That word opportunity is thekey for this three gifts
technique and the sageperspective, because it's a
choice whether or not we chooseto learn, accept and move past
(06:26):
our mistakes.
So you can sit in your misery,but that's your choice.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, I love that.
All right, so there were fivesage powers and obviously we're
not going to do a deep dive intoall of them.
If people want that, they canread the book for themselves,
but take us through kind of justmaybe a quick overview what.
What are we talking about whenwe say there's these five sage
(06:51):
powers?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah.
So, um, to activate our sage.
I mentioned that three giftstechnique, but there's also five
powers that our sage is really,really helpful, um, in
supporting us throughchallenging situations.
So not all circumstancesrequire all powers and each of
them have a time and place.
So the five are empathize,explore, innovate, navigate and
(07:17):
activate.
So just to briefly run throughthem, empathizing so empathizing
with yourself and others reallyallows you to take a different
perspective on circumstances ingeneral.
What I really love about thisactivation strategy is the game
involved with it, which iscalled visualize the child.
(07:37):
So if you're ever reallyfrustrated with yourself or with
another person, visualizeyourself as a child and how you
might feel, or that person as achild.
Going back to that bar example,if I fell in this major release
move, I'm like Brenna, I can'tbelieve you did that.
I like to think of littlefour-year-old Brenna who's like
oh my gosh, you made it tocollege.
That's so cool, really shiftingthat mindset for yourself and
(08:02):
then moving on to explore, whichis that.
Second power is all aboutcuriosity, and it's really
important when we talk aboutcuriosity that it's objective
and not subjective.
We have to remove the emotionfrom how we judge circumstances
and I don't mean to use the wordjudge, because the judge is our
(08:23):
negative character in thisstory, but really just being
open and wondering about howthings came to be in your
current challenge or how theymight be in the future, and that
kind of leads into that thirdstrategy, which is innovate.
So you looked at your situation, you kind of gather data on it
(08:45):
and now it's the time togenerate strategies, because as
athletes, it's not like you fallon a routine and then you're
like, oh, that's okay, we'lljust get over it, like you need
to be an active member in thatyou know what's your game plan
going forward.
And I feel a lot of thatrelates back to MTP and how we
(09:05):
we do like that top down, bottomup processing of how is my body
feeling?
What key words and phrases do Ineed to use next time?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Um, I think this one from the from the coach
perspective.
This one is huge.
Like if our athletes don'tscrew up, I'm just.
I'm just thinking about, likefootball practice, if our
quarterback never throws aninterception all summer, if our
quarterback never makes a badpass, what, what in the world am
I, am I supposed to be helpinghim with?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
like if we're not.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
If we're not trying to push that envelope and be
aggressive and make plays andget after it a little bit and
then realize, okay, I've nowfound a limit for myself, I
probably I can't get.
You know, I can't get thatgreedy trying to, trying to dart
that pass in there or whatever.
Whatever that looks like inyour sport, it's like then.
(09:58):
Then we don't have a chance tothink outside the box a little
bit, to really question am Ipreparing my athletes for
everything they're going to face?
Are there any situations Iwasn't ready for?
How are other teams, you know,how are other teams maybe going
to make adjustments that they'venever shown on film?
(10:19):
And so now I'm going to need tothink outside the box a little.
I just I think that athletesget so stuck on this need to be
perfect that it's like guys,this is a, this is a great
opportunity.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, and that's like a huge skill in so many sports.
It's you train the routineright, you run the play, but
does it ever look like that whenit comes time to do it?
No, you have to be able to beflexible and willing to to
navigate that situation, whichbrings us into the fourth power
navigate I see what you didthere yeah, I love, love, love
(10:57):
this strategy, um, and a greatexercise to practice this,
especially with the, is thepoint to your true north
activity.
So you have your whole teamclose their eyes.
You say, point north.
And then you're going to havepeople point in all over the
place, up down sideways, and youtell them to open their eyes
and when they open their eyes,they're all looking in different
directions.
(11:17):
And the metaphor here is youneed to be able to identify your
true north so when faced withchallenging situations or when
you feel like you get off track,you know where you're going to
get back on track.
For me in my life, my valuesare faith, family, fitness,
(11:38):
future Anything I do needs toalign with those values in that
order.
Future Anything I do needs toalign with those values in that
order.
And so that has been my truenorth is always being able to
fall back on my values.
And then our last strategy isactivate, which again debunks
this idea that sage is passive.
It takes pure action, with theremoval of any judgment and
(12:00):
emotion, to move into action, toput your innovative plan, your
curiosities, your values intopractice.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Love that.
And I think this is again where, when I've run into maybe some
parents who don't realize it,but the parent is the source for
a lot of this anxiety, thisneed to be perfect, this
inability to deal with failurein the life of their child, and
(12:32):
we have, you know, some sort ofconversation about that.
It's like, well, if I don't,you know, if I don't help them
see that this is a big deal andapply a little bit of pressure,
then you know they're just goingto settle for being mediocre
and I love that they do a goodjob.
I think in the book of talkingabout how the sage is not
(12:58):
passive, we are not just, it isnot just.
Let's feel positive and let'sbe okay with the failure.
Instead, instead of beatingourselves up, we're going to
empathize a little bit with thefact that you know what we
failed.
We certainly didn't mean to.
We're going to need to do alittle bit better job, but we
(13:19):
also don't need to crushourselves or the people we're
coaching job, but we also don'tneed to crush ourselves or the
people we're coaching.
We're going to.
You know, there was some, therewas some failure, so now we're
going to explore, we're going tohave a little bit of openness,
maybe some more discover, likeare there ways that I'm not
preparing my athletes wellenough?
The, the innovation, what am I?
What am I going to do?
(13:40):
You know, maybe the existingideas just aren't cutting it and
so we need a new way to trainin these areas that we're coming
up short.
And you know the navigate,finding alignment.
I love that you brought up yourvalues.
I think, as an athletic team,if we don't have those, that's a
(14:01):
problem, because then, justlike you said, with the example
of True North, where theathletes close their eyes, if we
did that same thing with thecoaches and said, point north,
and we look around andeverybody's pointing different
directions, I think that's aproblem.
So how are we getting inalignment?
(14:22):
And then man that activate likelet's go, get to work, let's
preempt the saboteurs, let's I?
Just I don't.
I don't know where themisconception of inactivity
comes from.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I think a lot of it comes from you can't see your
brain muscles.
As athletes, we like to see ourperformance.
You lift weights and you seeyour muscles grow.
You can watch your performance,but our brain is such an inside
game that it takes internaleffort and work as an athlete.
Though the great thing aboutthe stage perspective is that
(15:03):
there's a training plan, whichis our third strategy, building
your PQ muscles.
So, again, it's not passive.
We have this strategy foractually training.
So to move into that strategy,we first need to understand the
two aspects of our brain, whichis the survivor brain versus our
PQ brain.
So survivor brain, just to bebrief, is that left side of our
brain which is the survivorbrain versus our PQ brain.
(15:23):
So survivor brain, just to bebrief, is that left side of the
brain that declares everythingis bad and, as a result, is a
cycle of negative reinforcement.
It's the one that's heavilyjudging circumstances.
Then we have our PQ brain,which is on the right side of
our brain Most typically.
It also involves the empathycircuit and our middle prefront.
Typically it also involves theempathy circuit and our middle
(15:44):
prefrontal cortex, just reallyemphasizing curiosity and wonder
and empathy, those sagefeelings, and so the left brain
handles the details ofday-to-day lives, whereas the
right brain enables us to thrivein a life rich with
relationships, curiosity, anddiscover joy and meaning.
(16:04):
And so to strengthen these PQmuscles, you need to train them
as you would any other musclewhich we call a PQ rep, which,
ben, makes me think a lot aboutthat FMR that you talk about in
the focus cycle of like bringingthis conscious effort to your
body and then allowing thatrelaxation piece yeah, and
(16:28):
that's, you know, trying totrying to take all that we know
about the human brain and thensimplify into left, right, but
it's.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
But I.
But I love, I love the abilityto, to simplify and make it a
little bit easier to understand.
Like you know, in in my book Italk about the, the lower, the
lower part of the brain, themiddle part of the brain and the
top part of the brain.
You know, obviously, again,that's a super
oversimplification, but you know, the lower part of the brain is
(17:04):
just going to do some thingsautomatically and then we're
going to, as a result of thatreaction to oh, I don't like
this, this is an uncomfortablesituation.
That middle part of the brain,that amygdala, is now where
fight or flight gets kicked off.
And so, you know, heart rateincreases, breathing increases,
(17:25):
butterflies in the stomach, allthe major organs that are
connected on that vagus nerveare basically now saying, oh no,
what do we do?
And you can use that top partand that front part of your
brain to take back control ofyour breathing.
You don't have to let thatlower part do it automatically.
And it's the.
(17:45):
It's the same thing again withthe, the muscle tension or
muscle shakiness, even if you'regoing to let the lower part of
your brain dictate that, thenyou're kind of at the mercy of
your reactions.
And so you know, using the FMR,like you said, to sort of take
back control is certainly apositive thing to do and can be
(18:11):
helpful.
And so you know, then again,I've said all along, I feel like
this book kind of does a deeperdive into some of the parts of
what we teach.
So, for example, he now breaksup that top part and that front
part of the brain into the rightand to the left.
(18:33):
Talk to us a little bit aboutyou know, why does this matter
to just the everyday athletewho's trying to set some goals,
is trying to accomplish dreams,is trying to improve their
performance and ultimately, youknow, get their performance to
(18:54):
this, to this level of successin their mind.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah.
So this matters becausehappiness and joy and
contentment is an inside game,literally and neurochemically.
It is an inside game that youneed to take control of and
performance is the byproduct ofthe mental game that goes into
that performance.
So your body is ready.
(19:21):
As athletes, we traineffortlessly, doing our
repetitions, running our plays,doing our routines, but that can
all be sabotaged in an instantif our mind's not right and it's
not ready.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, so let's move into kind of the components of
the PQ brain, you know, themiddle prefrontal cortex, the
empathy circuit, the right brain.
I love this.
I love this idea that happinessis an inside game.
How do you tap into thatpractically on a stressful day?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah, so what we need to do is we call it a PQ rep.
So, just like I mentioned, weneed to train our brains, just
like we train our muscles.
And so we do what's called a PQrep, which involves bringing
awareness to one of your fivesenses, 10 seconds at a time,
which is about three breaths,and so one of our five senses.
(20:16):
You could choose to listen forthe different birds chirping
outside.
You could wiggle your toes inyour shoes, you could see how
your stomach feels when youreally breathe out all the way
to expansion.
But what you need to do is getout of your brain and into your
body, which sounds silly whenwe're talking about building
(20:36):
mental resilience, but by doingthis, you are releasing the
judgment of those thoughts andthen really tuning in to how
you're feeling, to offer bettercontrol and activating those
different regions of your brain.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Which, neurologically I mean science backs up.
We can only focus on one thingat a time.
So if I'm having a panic attackand instead I start paying
attention to my breathing, Istart paying attention to
(21:15):
something else.
You know that's that's going toshift that focus away from that
we talk about with golfers allthe time.
Look, if you're headed up to a,to a tee box, let's say it's the
first tee box, it's thesectional or the regional or a
state championship or whatevertournament.
And you've got this voice inthe back of your mind going I
just I don't know if I'm goodenough to do this.
I don't know if I'm going to beable to compete with these
girls that I'm paired up withtoday.
And you've got all thisnegative self-talk and you've
(21:37):
got all this junk going oninside of your head and you
don't feel like you have what ittakes and you're not expecting
to be successful.
The science says yourperformance goes down in
literally every sport thatthey've ever studied, including
weightlifting and runningdistances and things like that.
So if, instead of that, youwere to just think about
(22:02):
unicorns and cupcakes, yourperformance would be better,
because it's at least not goingdown.
You're at least not detractingfrom your ability to perform,
with negative expectations,assuming negative outcomes,
decreasing your ability toaccess muscle memory, like
you're at least not making itworse, but then, on the other
(22:26):
hand, like if you and this iswhere you know I I like to, I
like to use the the go-tostatement and have athletes like
remind themselves of the timethey put in and the work that
they've put in and why they'veearned the right to be confident
.
And now, instead of just notdetracting, now we're changing
(22:48):
our expectations.
Now we're feeling a little bitmore confident.
Now we're moving things in apositive direction, which the
research shows in darts,shooting free throws, running
distances, lifting certainamounts of weights is going to
increase your performance.
And so what I think thebrilliance of this book is is,
(23:13):
every time you start to feel,those negative thoughts come in,
whether you're at practice ornot at practice, you're
essentially training your brainand rewiring those neural
pathways to, instead of freakingout and having a panic attack
and thinking about worst casescenarios Like let's improve our
(23:38):
PQ.
Let's improve our ability tostay a little bit more positive
PQ, let's improve our ability tostay a little bit more positive
.
Talk about some of the otherexamples of how you can get PQ
reps that they talk about in thebook, and maybe even were there
some that were more effectivefor you.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah.
So there is tons of opportunitythroughout every single day for
you to get PQ reps in.
The goal is 100 a day day, um,so a hundred different
opportunities of 10 seconds offocus.
You have more than enough timein a day, um.
So some examples are like dailyroutines when you're brushing
your teeth, really feel how thebrush will feel in your teeth.
Or using hot water or coldwater, um.
(24:19):
Physical exercise this is myfavorite.
When I run, I like to choose asong that I can match my right
foot to.
When I run, I hit the beat onmy right foot and by doing that
I'm out of my body or out of mymind into my body, and what I'm
able to find is that I fatigueslower.
It's more enjoyable.
(24:40):
I pace faster.
So using those kinds oftechniques for me during working
out has been really helpful.
Other things eating, like theflavor of it, the again,
temperature Is it crunchy,squishy?
Really being in tune to thatexperience.
Listening to music, like Imentioned, like maybe there's a
(25:02):
backtrack or a harmony in theback that you never noticed
before.
Bring your attention to that.
Sit with that feeling.
Playing sports, being outside,feel the breeze on your face,
allow yourself to separate fromthe game just for 10 seconds
from the game, the practice toreally allow yourself to ground
(25:22):
into that moment you're in andremind yourself and your body
that you are safe and in control.
And then I love this one too,being with loved ones, like next
time you're with a loved oneand you hug them, really hug
them.
See how their body feels, canyou hear their heartbeat?
What perfume or cologne arethey wearing?
Really be into that moment andwhat I find with practicing PQ
(25:45):
is that I have a lot moremeaningful experiences, because
I'm intentionally bringingawareness to the different
details and details that maybewe just gloss over than
previously before.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, I love that.
Everything about that and youknow, also, just practicing
being in the moment and how manyathletes, how many humans have
can relate to.
When something's on our mind,when something's eating away at
us, when something's weighingheavy, whether it's at work,
(26:18):
whether it's at school, whetherit's with spouse, boyfriend,
girlfriend, whether it's with akid, whether, like when, when
there is weight on our shoulders, we a lot of times just
ruminate that, ruminate on thatall day long and it's exhausting
and it eats away at confidence,it eats away at our peace, it
(26:43):
eats away at our contentment andour confidence and all of these
things and all these PQ repsbasically shift your focus off
of that and retrain your brain.
I love the idea when theytalked about anytime you feel
yourself starting to go downthat negative path, then that's
(27:04):
a great reminder.
Hey, let's get some PQ reps.
Hey, let's say my go-tostatement.
Hey, let's do my breathing.
Hey, let's you know somethingwith music or being present in
the moment, or the physicalthings that you were talking
about, the brushing your teeth,the five senses, like I, I just
I love this idea of changing howwe're going to go about our
(27:30):
daily life.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Talk to us about maybe so, so we've got.
We've got this goal, this plan,this whatever to you know,
maybe during he talks about likeduring a bathroom break, or
doing during some time thatyou're going to have every day,
like getting ready in themorning or, you know, brushing
(27:54):
your teeth at night.
What's the what's the hardestpart about maybe, building this
new habit?
Remembering them.
How do you remember to do these?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Yeah, so, like you mentioned in the book he
mentions, like every time you goto the bathroom, try to get a
couple reps in.
Every time you feel a saboteur,come up, try to label it.
And that can be tough.
It takes 21 days for us tobuild a habit.
So the more you do it, theeasier it's going to get.
Something that has worked reallywell for me when getting my PQ
reps in is to do these sort ofchunked training time frames.
(28:32):
So I'll take about 15 minutesduring my drive to work and I
will sit and I will repetitivelyPQ rep it.
So no music, so no music.
Sometimes I try to see adifferent house on the side of
the road that I haven't seenbefore, or really listen to the
sound of my car.
The wind hit my car.
Use those like chunked periodsof time to get a lot of reps in,
(28:54):
especially if you know you'removing into a circumstance or
you're going to work or a placewhere it's hard for you to slow
down which again I wouldchallenge you.
If it's hard for you to slowdown which again I would
challenge you if it's hard foryou to slow down, probably all
the more reason for you to slowdown and get in control of your
thoughts.
But using those blockedopportunities is also really
helpful to make sure that youare building those neural
(29:16):
pathways.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, so I mean this feels like going to the gym for
your brain.
I mean this feels like going tothe gym for your brain.
Someone who wants to start thisjourney maybe feels a little
overwhelmed.
What do you say?
How do we now go do this,starting today?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, I think the first step is to take the first
step and remembering that it'syour responsibility.
None of us are victims to ourlives, but we all must take the
responsibility to control ourhappiness and contentment and
know that life does have ebbsand flows, but those ebbs and
flows don't need to determinethe direction.
(29:57):
We can always look at thethings that happen to us as
things that happen for us andreally being grateful for every
opportunity.
We have to be challenged, as weknow that we're going to be
building our brains and ourbodies and our relationships to
be more meaningful and, you know, just a more positive overall
life.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Love that and you know, if you're, if you're
wanting to do this, maybe someother encouragement be patient,
you know.
Commit to this, commit to thisfor six weeks, um, before you
just pack it in and say, well, Idon't know if this is working,
you know, for for some peopleit's gonna.
It's gonna take a little bitlonger.
You know, forming new neuralpathways takes time.
(30:39):
One of the one of the things Italk about with athletes all the
time is your bad habits thatyou have on the basketball court
have taken you 17 years tobuild.
To think that we're just goingto meet once or we're just going
to read a book once and we'regoing to do an activity a few
times and that's going to rewireeverything inside of our brain
(31:02):
is silly and, to be honest, itwould do more harm than good if
our brains could rewirethemselves that quickly, because
I feel like we would just be ascrambled mess and we would
always be, you know, beingrewired by situations and
environment around us.
You know, maybe find a trainingpartner, maybe find someone
(31:23):
that can hold you accountable,find someone that you can do
this with or go on this journeywith or at least just share
about.
You know what you're goingthrough, what you're learning.
Um, those would be, you know,maybe just some, some
encouragement that I would havefor folks, brenna, as we kind of
as we wrap this up, any lastfinal thoughts about the book,
(31:48):
about the topic or any you knowanything, anything else that's
on your mind you wanted to share.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
The only thing I'd want to leave everybody with is
your life moves in the strongestdirection of your thoughts, so
take control of your thoughtsand take control of your life.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
I love that.
Well, Brenna, thank you so much.
This has been really greatdoing kind of a deeper dive into
this topic.
I appreciate your time andalways great getting to chat
with you.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, thank you so much.
It's been great.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
If you have questions and want to reach out, head
over to mentaltrainingplancom.
We've got a contact us box downat the bottom.
Feel free to send that over tous.
If you've got questions thatyou would like answered on the
podcast, feel free to send thoseour way.
And remember we've got the MTP.
Academy is live and ready to go.
If you are a coach or you are atrainer or you are a parent and
(32:44):
you are looking for tools and aprogram to help your athlete
improve the mental side of theirgame, head on over to mental
training plan dot com, click onthe Academy button up at the top
and if you've got questions,please don't hesitate to reach
out.
Until next time, make your planand put it to work.
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