Choose your words carefully

I was standing quietly, just waiting for my girl to drop by for some words of encouragement like she always does at the end. 

That’s when I heard it. 

“Don’t focus on the centre” 

“There’s too much attacking play” 

“We need to stop handing over the ball to them” 

“No more weak passes” 

“Stop jumping in too quick” 

Something struck me. 

But I couldn’t quite put my finger on it in the moment. 

Something was off. 

I chatted with my girl, some of her team, sharing how well they had played against a tough opponent. 

And then it hit me. 

All the negatives.  

Everything the coach didn’t want her team to do. 

It was all she had mentioned. 

But I knew. 

The power of speaking what you want. 

Rather than what you don’t want. 

Our minds are powerful. Too powerful at times. 

Their biggest weakness, subconsciously our mind doesn’t recognise negatives. 

It hears a command and follows it. 

Accidentally, unintentionally, that coach had filled the heads of her players with everything she didn’t want them to keep doing, instead of focusing and speaking into what she did want them to do. 

That was what had stuck out to me. 

The language.  

(Of course! I’ve been obsessed with speaking and language since I was around 1 year old if you ask my parents.) 

I walked back over to my girl and her team. 

I took some time to share everything they had done well. 

I kept the language positive so their minds would focus and fixate on what they needed to do more of. 

So let me ask you this. 

Are you focusing on the positive or the negative? 

Are you giving yourself positive directions? 

If I asked you the question, “what do you want?”, would you answer it with a list of what you don’t want? 

Your subconscious is taking your literal commands. 

In every single moment. 

What command are you giving it next?