The Power of the Mind
I’m not the fastest or the strongest in the heat but I know that I will win. The competitors step behind the block looking very serious and focused. I look to my left to see, standing behind the block, the person I look up to the most in my entire life. Right now he is my opponent and I intend to defeat him. Adrenalin is coursing through my entire body as I watch my race in my mind. The whistle blows that signals for us to step up on the block. I take my mark and wait those few agonizing seconds before they let us take off. The buzzer goes off and I throw myself off the block as high and as far as I can.
I slide through the water and pull myself forward as hard as I can. I kick and break the surface of the water and sprint as fast as I could to the wall. I touch, turn, and push off. I repeat this twice more and find myself neck to neck with my opponent with only twenty-five yards till the finish. The pain in my muscles is so great that I feel like death would be a better fate than this, but I keep fighting. Out of nowhere my mind goes blank and I cannot feel a thing. Everything I am doing is pure instinct and when I reach the wall I look over just in time to see my opponent finishing. I can’t believe that I had just beaten my hero.
I have been swimming for the better part of four years. Throughout these years I have learned a copious amount of knowledge. The knowledge I live by and always remember is that if you believe that you can achieve your goal, you can. It doesn’t matter what you hope to achieve, if you believe you can, then it is possible. When you believe you can’t then your mind believes it and works to make that true, but if you think that you can acquire your goal then your mind will force your body to its physical limits to make it to that goal. The saying “it’s all in your head” is true. If you visualize yourself winning your race, match, game, or whatever it is you are doing, your mind will think you have already done it and you will do it again.
Do not underestimate the capabilities of the mind. The human brain controls everything in your life your thinking, your movements, your thoughts, and your entire subconscious being as well. The truly amazing thing is that we can do all of this by only using ten percent of our brains. So don’t doubt what your mind can do when it’s put to the test. Even if you don’t achieve what you wanted, you will have done better than if you had quit and given up before you even started. Because of my experiences, and those of people I know, I believe that if you think you will succeed than you will. This I believe
“Whether you think you can or can’t, your right.” – Henry Ford