5 Steps How To Find The Champion In You

Feel like one, be like one

From a young age, I had the privilege to engage in a lot of sports. I was very competitive and a big ateam player. As a kid I admired many athletes, I would close my eyes and imagine how it would feel to be a champion; being in the zone, feeling the adrenaline and the power in your own body. Your coach pushing you to your limits and the energy of the cheering crowd.

Is that not what we all want? Being a champion, feeling powerful like a winner and confident. I wanted to get those feelings back again, be that champion. Not just once, but every day.  In 2014, I decided to leave my comfortable well paid job in online advertising, and transformed myself into a Boxing Coach and a BoxingYoga instructor.

Anyone can be a Champion I am not telling you to quit your job and go into sport to feel like a one. You can be a champion anywhere at work, home or social gatherings. It is the transferable skills that athletes have that you can adopt. So, what are the first steps you need to do to think and feel like a champion?

1. FOUNDATION IS KEY

Just like a house, if your foundation is not solid it will collapse. Foundation is defined by your breath, your mind and your body.  How you breathe changes how you think and feel. It helps you to be in the present moment. It helps you to connect with your gut instinct, your intuition.

2. NO ONE CAN BE LIKE YOU AND THAT'S YOUR POWER

What describes you in a few words? What makes you unique, feel natural and right to you? Your presence is the closest thing to your true self. It’s where you show your passion and personal power. Where your speech, facial expressions, gestures, posture and movement start to synchronise and align. Part of building your presence is feeling powerful and this makes us stand up and take action.

3. SEEING GREATNESS IN OTHERS

Who inspires you and why? What do they have that you admire? What passion drives you and make you decide to do something? When you recognise, acknowledge and see greatness in others then you are more likely you have the same qualities, skills and abilities. I’m not suggesting you copy and be them. On the contrary, your authentic self is your power and no one else can be you! So seek your fullest potential, your best characteristics and attributes. Become that champion you admire.

4. VISUALISE YOUR WINNING

Visualising goes beyond daydreaming, you use all your senses which enables you to learn and develop new skills and strategies. It can enhance your performance.

In 1983, Dr Deborah Feltz and Dr Daniel Landers, researchers in sport psychology, completed a thorough review of mental practice and confirmed that imagery is one of the most powerful performance weapons we have in our mental arsenal. (*Source below)

When you create a mental image or a blueprint around your dream, using symbols, objects or keywords that resonate your beliefs, watch and see them come true.

5. BUILDING RESILIENCE

Resilience is the new must have skills that businesses look for in their talent. It’s a great transferable skill that we can learn from champions. It’s the inner confidence and a desire within you to perform and be the best. Resilience is a skill that not everyone is born with, not even all athletes have this.  It’s something you learn, develop and need to practise. A continuous learning curve that you need to master in order to move forward.  

Do you ask yourself, ‘Can I do this?’ or ‘How can I do this?’ There’s a powerful difference between these. When you start the question with ‘How’, you automatically give yourself an opportunity to find any solution to reach your goal with the skills and abilities you have. Whilst within ‘can’, you limited yourself to answer this with a simple “yes or a no”. If you have the confidence within yourself, you will start the questions with HOW, because you already know you CAN.

FAKE IT UNTIL YOU BECOME IT

As a kid I visualised being an athlete, a champion and now, in 2019, I  became one. I don’t have a medal to prove it, but I have mastered the skills that brought me to where I am now. You have to motivate yourself to start thinking and feeling like a champion and have that winning attitude. Fake it until you become it!

So, are you willing to change and take on these first 5 steps to find the champion in you?

Source: visualise your winning

* The champions’ mind: Jim Afremow, PhD