Changing Perspectives

 

This week I was in Calgary preparing for the Ironman 70.3 race and catching up with family and friends. Bob and I spoke early in the week which set me up to have a good “mental week” and as a result I was able to enjoy race week more than I usually do. I was able to feel the excitement of the upcoming race without my usual nerves and fears. 

 

In our meeting, Bob and I talked about perspective. We talked about the importance of being conscious about the perspective from which you see a situation. We also talked about how I can use perspective to my advantage by moving between mental “positions”.

 

Here’s what I mean; there are 3 basic mental positions that we tend to “think from” and usually we move between these unconsciously and often get stuck in one position. The first position is when you are seeing things through your own eyes, you have decided on an outcome for a situation and you will not be swayed by that. For example, you feel that you know the best route to a certain destination and no matter what anyone says, you are going to take that route. Second position is a position of empathy, when you hear someone else’s story or feelings and you feel them too. You start to see the world through their eyes. Third position is when you step back and see the situation from the outside, like a third party observer. This position is underused by most people, but can be very helpful. For example, imagine you are racing and someone passes you, what should you do? Try to keep up with them? Let them go? Overtake them again right away? This will depend on the circumstances. Take a moment to look at the situation from a third party perspective. It will be much easier to make a decision now. And, it takes the anger or frustration of being passed out of the equation and allows you to make the best decision for your race. 

 

The day before my meeting with Bob, something happened with a fellow competitor that got under my skin. It was nothing this person did on purpose, but it rattled my confidence. I felt negative about my ability to race well. I took a moment to think about the situation through my competitor’s eyes (position 2). Did she question my ability to race? The answer was no. Once I put myself in her shoes, I realized that she respected me as her competitor. And then I looked at the situation from 3^rd position. How does someone on the outside see us two girls as we stand beside each other. I realized that to the outsider, we look like two professional triathletes, each with strengths and weaknesses, ready to race. AHA!

 

In essence, by simply stepping out of myself and seeing things from another perspective, I recognized that my 1^st position perspective was quite inaccurate and was driven by fear and insecurity. By consciously guiding myself to see things from another perspective, I could quickly get out of my negative frame of mind and get back to a race-ready way of thinking. Taking control of where my mind was going quickly snapped me out of that dark place. This reminds me of something that happened at our recent training camp in Penticton. One of the girls at the camp saw herself as being under confident on the bike because of a bad crash she had a couple years earlier. Conversely, the rest of us saw her as being a very brave person for getting back on the bike and on the road so quickly after it happened. When we pointed that out to her, she quickly took the information on board and by the end of the evening was radiating confidence! I saw this girl recently in the pool and she was still glowing. It is simply amazing how quickly we can change our minds about things. 

 

Bob has taught me that our minds accept positive thinking very easily, and that steering ourselves in that direction can be simple and rewarding. Being aware of, and making use of various perspectives is just one way we can make this happen!

 

 Calgary 70.3 race report coming soon!