Every top performer has internalized the mindset that you will learn today. A single focus on what you can control.
When Germain Grangier closed the gap on the second male at UTMB 2023, Jim Walmsley, a decisive moment happened. Jim had a tough time and was losing time on the leader, Zach Miller. Seeing Germain he had two options:
Continue as he had, letting Germain pass, or
sticking with Germain and feeding from his energy to close the gap on the leader.
Jim won. He needed to be reminded to focus on what he can control. Putting one foot in front of the other. Driven by his goal to win UTMB after a few failed attempts. He obviously found the last gear he needed.
It sounds easy but focusing on the controllable isn't easy. You often find yourself impacted by events that are outside of your control.
“100% of the time, you have the capacity to control you. Everything else is noise.” – Michael Gervais, Compete to Create
Learning what you can control comes with several advantages.
Here are a few:
Find more enjoyment in our sport
Increase your mental resilience
Better race day adaptability
Hope you are excited. I’m excited. Let's jump right in.
This is part of the “Mental Toolbox Series”. A series where you learn about mental training, mindsets and skills to prepare yourself for any challenge. It’s focused on the sport of trail and ultra running. If you enjoy what you read I would love to have you following along. This is part two. Last week's intro can be found here:
The Controllable's
Building an understanding of the matter at hand by working it out yourself is in my opinion the most important aspect of learning. I could tell you everything you can control but your brain wouldn’t internalize it well. Think about it yourself.
To begin the journey towards full control, let’s do a little exercise. It’s super simple.
Think of 10 things you have no full control over. No need to memorize. Just go over some that come to mind.
No really, do it.
Ok, I think you found ten things. Now, how often do you see yourself worried, anxious, annoyed or irritated from some of them?
Last year during the early spring I was checking the weather every morning. I run during my lunch break, so I wanted to see what I could expect. Sun? Rain? Snow? It had an impact on my mood.
Some days the forecast looked grim. The moment I stepped out of the door the weather was unexpectedly pleasant.
Some days the forecast promised sunshine. The moment I stepped out of the door it started snowing.
The weather was controlling my mood. (Yeah… running in bad weather is never as bad as it first seems once you are out, but I do love a nice sunny run to be honest).
I needed to change my attitude.
That is already one hint at what you can control. Your attitude. (There is also one in the intro).
So, what is fully under your control?
In essence, it’s for core elements:
Action: I can control to not check the weather every morning and check before I leave if I would need a rain jacket.
Thoughts: I can control what I think. I can see the different weather as a great preparation for race day, where I obviously also have no control over it.
Words: I can control what to say. “I get to run in every weather”. “I’m looking forward to working on my mental resilience”. Words do matter.
Attitude: I can control how I show up. I can go out with an optimistic mindset instead of indulging in annoyance.
Now that we defined what you can control you need to understand if you are great at the skill of focusing on the controllable.
The status quo
A note on this series: I thought a lot about how I want to structure the series but in the end, I decided that I treat it similar to a course that you could buy. You shouldn’t passively read each week's entry and then go on with your life. If you want to change your current way and improve your mental skills you need to train them similar to how you train your legs to run down a steep hill.
This week you will spend time observing your thoughts. It’s essential to understand where you are starting with this skill. You might find yourself rarely impacted by decisions outside of your control but your thoughts are self-destructive during hard training sessions. Why does this example sound a bit like me?
That’s just one example but at its core, you will find out where in the four areas of control you have room for improvement.
To actually get you going at it, there is one super effective intervention that you can use. You should set yourself an implementation intention. Right here and now.
What’s an implementation intention?
The core structure is simple: “When situation X arises, I will perform response Y”.
Set an intention this week to observe when you are focusing on something outside your control. The best is to write the intention on a piece of paper that you read at least once per day.
Once per day you reflect on the situations that happened during the day and ask yourself some questions:
What emotion did I feel during the situation?
Knowing I can only control my actions, thoughts, words and attitude, what would I like to do differently?
Last year I ran the Lavaredo 50k. I had a pretty bad race. Two hours in my body was feeling incredibly fatigued. I wasn’t expecting this reaction at that point in time and I couldn’t cope with the situation mentally. (This event is the reason I’m so big into mental training and sports psychology now). I dragged myself to the next aid station and contemplated for 15 minutes if I should drop.
I had the expectation to run a great race. It wasn’t going to happen. I realised at that moment what I could do, and that was to be amazed at the place I was at. The dolomites. The mood was also special with thick clouds slowly drifting through the mountain peaks. Hail. Thunderstorms. Rain. Sun. It was a special day.
I decided to enjoy this day to its fullest (even though I suffered). I didn’t know it at the time but I was focusing on what I could control.
The Improvement
There is no mastery. There is only the pursuit of it. The same goes for improvement. When you are aware of your self you will find things this week that you want to improve. This will always be the case. I have things to improve. That being said I see self-improvement as a privilege.
You, as you are, are already enough. You can only be the way you currently are or you wouldn’t be you (as a non-native speaker I have no idea if this sentence makes any sense to you. I hope it does).
What I’m trying to say is that whoever you are right now is the only version that you can be. Improving yourself should always feel like play. Finding out that you lack at something, or that a thought pattern is not productive, or that your attitude towards some things needs some adjustment might feel like an attack on your own identity. This is okay.
You need to feel ready to tackle what comes up.
That being said during the week you might find some patterns that you absolutely want to work on. That is great.
We won't touch on it today as this is just the first step. You get bite-sized pieces on purpose. Working on your mind is a lifelong process.
Shape the direction of this series: I go week by week. That means any feedback that I get from you can shape how next weeks entry might look like. If you identify that your thoughts, in particular your self-talk is negative, I might prioritize the topic over goal setting for example. This is your chance to get free advice! Give me all the feedback you've got.
The Wrap-up
I hope you enjoyed today's perspective. As I mentioned in the intro last week. Adopt what you feel is a great fit and let go of the rest.
I see it as an entry point, though. In my opinion, this is one of the core essentials that you need to foster in your life. Not only for your running but also for your everyday life. An awareness of how you interact with the uncontrollable can lead to a more calming life. A life with autonomy. A life based on drive, passion and focus.
Do this until next week:
Set an intention to keep track of what happens in your life that you can’t control
Reflect on who you are in those situations and what you might want to improve
Try to identify a pattern (I know that negative self-talk is my biggest weakness)
If you read until here: Send it to a friend! You could also wait until next week when you know it was helpful ;)
I wish you a great week learning something new about yourself. I hope I have your eyes on this newsletter again next week!
Thanks for reading. It means a lot.
Brilliant read Max—stoked I’ve landed here.
I work with athletes over here in Aus, particularly in the ultra-endurance space, and it’s a fascinating playground for mental skills.
Looking forward to checking out the rest of this series.
Excellent! So I’ve noticed an issue during intense efforts, like a race. If numbers don’t align with what I think they should be, I get angry and very negative, which is odd because outside of that specific scenario, I’m a very positive person.
I’m experimenting with using a “pattern-breaker” or word that serves as a cue when I’m starting to get negative to refocus on what I’m actually doing.
I wrote about it a few weeks back- https://open.substack.com/pub/triplethreatlife/p/how-to-hack-your-emotions-for-better?r=3v2po1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web