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NLP – 3 Steps For Cycling Success

Is it possible to think yourself into becoming a better rider? Yes, it is because all behavior is the result of neurological patterns. “If a neurological pattern occurs, then the behavior occurs.”


By controlling your neurological patterns you can change your approach to goal setting, training and competition on the bike. NLP is about reframing the way you think to create new pathways for your brain to anchor new beliefs bringing new norms and regaining control of your life.

By standing up to your fears, you can then disassociate yourself and install new positive images and mindsets to replace the disempowering images that imprison you. Here are two practical ways you can use NLP to change how you ride.

Set Your Goal With A Date

Create a massive action plan because planning is key to getting your head in the right place, especially when it comes to goal setting. It can free up time and put, you, the athlete in a stable mindset. One technique I use is the timeline. What is your outcome? Be specific with great detail, describe every detail, what it will sound like? How will it feel, what does it look like, what is going on around you? Engage all of your senses when outlining your goal and write down everything that you are experiencing in the achievement of this victory because once you become passionate in your clear and compelling vision, the brain doesn’t know the difference between fact or fiction and your brain will engage the reticular activating system to become a servo-mechanism leading you to your victory because your brain will not make you a liar whether it is training for an event, beating your personal best time on your commute or getting leaner by a particular date.

When in one-on-one training I stand a few feet in front of you, asking you to ‘chunk out’ your plans, physically allocating chunks of space between you and I to all of the things that have to be done (work, family and social life included) before you reach that goal. Then I will move several steps backwards, immediately opening up the time and making, you, the athlete more psychologically relaxed.

I will then ask you to visualize a second timeline running parallel and then to remove all unnecessary parts of your day and put them on this second timeline, such as checking emails every five minutes or getting trapped on social media sites for hours of otherwise achievement producing time. When these aspects are removed your day opens up even more, so now I will take a few more steps backwards.

I will now ask you to once again describe in great detail with passion every aspect of your goal which we will now refer to as your outcome and describe the sounds that you will make when this becomes real, feel it deep in the core of you, make the sounds as you feel the win and see it bigger and brighter than the most vivid reality you have ever felt at your most victorious moment in life, now bring it even closer and step into it, become one with your vision and keep repeating this frequently until it becomes who you are and watch what happens to your reality, embrace the victory and celebrate each and every time. Now how do you feel about the race on a scale of 1 to 10? You feel strong, positive and excited about the way you control your time and achieve your outcome. This can be achieved on your own by visualizing the timeline getting longer and longer and therefore the chunks getting bigger, you can also ask a friend to hold you accountable by asking them to help you enact it.

Overcoming Phobias – The Cinema

A phobia is a bad experience, it can be real or imagined because once again the brain does not know the difference between fact or fiction and your bio-chemistry will experience what you focus on through physical manifestations of what your psychology believes strong enough such as palpitations, fight-or-flight responses, heavy chest, etc. that has developed over time into a real fear. The three stages of the ‘cinema’ technique can unravel this once you acknowledge that the past does not equal the future:

1 Embrace Your Fears. Get excited because fear is meant to serve us and become our ally, fear is not meant to imprison or paralyze us and only the uninformed allow fear to become their jailor, I know this is not you.

Visualize yourself walking into an empty cinema, take a seat and start watching the black and white film, which is about you and the worst-case scenario of your focused phobia. This might be anything from race day to hill climbing or cycling in heavy traffic, it can be the result of a previous experience or simply the unknown. You aren’t performing well or thinking right and cycling like everything else is 80% mental and 20% mechanics. Watch your “story” with intensity and really ‘feel’ the film, allow yourself to experience the fear, the pain, the anxiety, and all of the physical symptoms that you are all to familiar with. Allow all of the negative energy to consume you on purpose because once you allow this to happen in a self-induced environment you are now in control because you are allowing this to pass through you.

2 Disassociate Yourself. Imagine you’re stepping out of your body. Walk up into the projection room of the cinema and look through the small window. Watch yourself watching the film and see how you react to it, your posture, the shallow breathing, your slumped shoulders and tense muscles. By watching this as a third party much like sitting in a restaurant watching the people interact this should help you gain some perspective on the situation. Now as you continue watching make the movie screen a small old television with static that makes it almost impossible to see or hear what is being shown, make it dimmer with more static and suddenly the channel picks up a station with the funniest episode of your favorite cartoon, you know, the one that still makes you laugh uncontrollably making you feel silly because you can’t stop laughing… Now the cartoon is re-enacting your phobia in the most unrealistic, hysterical way with the silliest voices coming from all of the characters, exaggerating it in a way that makes you say that is so ridiculous it’s just funny as you are in a gut-busting laugh.

3 Install a positive image. Now you are going to watch a new movie that is your favorite movie because YOU are the HERO with SUPER-POWERS. This film shows exactly how and who you really are, you know who you are, strong powerful, confidant, passionate, alive and excited. You are always the one who is calm, controlled, confident and happy with every result because you design your life with intention and always get the results you desire. You are happy, joyous, successful, you are always cultivating every situation through careful calculation waiting for the perfect time to make your move as others believe they are crossing the line you propel in front like a phantom reaping the victory you have strategically planned. Watch yourself watching this film, you in the Tour De France, pace, pace, pace, waiting knowing that those who spin the most win the most, now while leaning forward, keen to be involved, as you are watching yourself cross the finish line with all of the passion and excitement, now become one with the win, feel it and celebrate with unbridled jubilee as you make this movie so big you are larger than life with such vibrant color that you feel such a level of euphoria that you shout with excitement in tears of gratitude that become so strong because it has become such a part of you that you experience it everyday because it is your core belief, it is your blueprint and your norms are created around this passion for life.

Congratulations, you have reframed your thought process, mentally destroying your phobia and replacing it with a new image and feeling.

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