Do you know the secret that all top sports stars and Olympic athletes have in common? They use the power of their mind, their thoughts, the power of their imagination to visualize themselves at their end goal.
Olympic athletes see themselves crossing that finish line first, executing that dive perfectly, doing the perfect landing off of the vault, or being the first one to touch that touch pad on the wall of the pool. If you’ve been watching the Summer Olympics you can see this in action before the top athletes start their events – they pep themselves up with positive self-talk, they tell themselves they can do it, they look towards the finish line and they see themselves at their goal before the race even starts.
They see themselves reaching their goal with perfect execution and they put just as much work into their mental focus and visualizations as they do into their physical trainings. Why? Because that’s what highly successful people do – because it works!
How To Lose Weight Like an Olympic Athlete
So how do you lose weight like an Olympic athlete? Or maybe you’re asking, “why would an Olympic athlete need to lose weight”? You’re right, they certainly don’t need to lose weight, they’re already in the best physical condition that a human being could be in!
Instead what I’m talking about is applying the same techniques that they use to win gold to your own weight loss and fitness goals. Why, you ask? Why not I say! This is a powerhouse technique that you have at your disposal but it’s one that many people do not use. Instead they “wish” they could lose weight or “hope” that something will change. Well I’m telling ya, you’ve got to get in gear and begin taking action – not only physical action but mental action, the hardest action of all.
Visualize Your End Goal
So here’s what you need to do to lose weight and get in training as if you are an Olympic athlete: visualize yourself at your end goal. See yourself how you expect to look once you’ve shed the excess weight and firmed and toned your body. Feel how you expect to feel, feel those feelings now, those feelings of accomplishment, pride, joy, and health.
Get specific and visualize:
- How you will look in that new outfit you’ve been eyeing.
- How you will look on the beach.
- Yourself exercising without getting winded.
- Easily doing all of the little things you have a hard time doing right now.
- Yourself eating all of those whole, healthy foods that you love and enjoy, those foods that help your body function at its optimum level.
Get specific in your visualization and feel:
- Your increased self-confidence.
- Your sense of personal power.
- The feeling of accomplishment and achievement of reaching your healthy goal.
- Your connection to spirit, to life, and how much more connected you feel when you’re treating yourself with love, kindness, and respect.
It Doesn’t Have to be Perfect
When you take the step to visualize your goals daily if you take just 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes before you go to bed at night this will help you more than you might think is even possible right now. Taking those 5 minutes to get focused and clear on exactly what you are going for in regards to your health and fitness goals will do more to spur you on than you can even imagine. But hey, that’s exactly what I’m talking about here – using your imagination!
Start Now
You can start visualizing today because there are no special tools that are required. All you need to do is get clear on what you want and begin imagining yourself already there, already at your personal finish line and feeling those feelings of being there. Getting out a piece of paper first and writing down exactly what your end goal is will help you even more in your visualization and I strongly suggest doing that first.
The more you put your mind to work just like an Olympic athlete or a top sports star does the more power and motivation you will have behind you. This is something that they begin practicing years before their event, it’s not a one time thing and the same applies to you. The more you put into it the more you’ll get out of it.
When you not only know where you’re going but you can also feel what crossing the finish feels like you will automatically work to achieve that end result. Your focus will be clearer and you’ll already know what it feels like to reach your goal, just like an Olympic athlete knows what it feels like before he or she crosses their own finish line in first place.
Excellent post!
So much of losing weight or getting in shape is mental. I think that is an easily forgotten component of it. We tend to focus on the food and the exercise and forget about our “thinking”. Thanks for the reminder about visualization. Once that component is in place, the exercise and the food becomes a little easier to get under control.
Visualization is used for so many different things. They’ve done clinical trials where visualizing little pacmans eating your warts is as effective as the best wart-remover medicine.
Jane @ What About Moms last blog post..Because Tiananmen Square isn’t the best place to protest
I also think weight loss is a mostly mental commitment. Too many people ignore that and just try fad diets or exercise programs without thinking why they should do it and how it benefits them, and unfortunately leads to failure a lot of times.
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The power of the mind is huge. I always visualize myself crossing the finish line before a triathlon and during every training session…i even find myself thinking/visualizing my race/training at nights.
Another thing that Olympic athletes do is make sure that they are focussing on the right things at the right time.
Your body can only take heavy and hard workouts for so long so most athletes will have an “in season” and an “off season” type of workout schedule so that their body and mind is in perfect peak condition just in time for the Olympics or world championships for their particular sport.
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Great post!
I know we can even take it one step further.
Above and beyond ‘seeing the thinner you’.
Why not tap in to the very power of your own subconscious…to increase your fat burning metabolism.
Change your physiological via your psychological.
It can be done.
With a precise visualization technique, along with self-talk…you can get your own body to ‘shift’ into a fat burning metabolism.
Taking excess, unwanted body fat…and burning it up for fuel…energy.