“Get ready video footage”: Mental routine that makes Michael Phelps unbeaten

Hey, Arjun here.

For each elite player, the key to victory is to create the right routine. Michael Phelps has a secret ritual that helps him become the most difficult swimmer in the world and win 23 gold medals. It is called “Prepare video recordings. “

Four years before the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps won 8 gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he followed the same routine every race.

He arrived two hours earlier. He stretched. And he loosen up, according to the right pattern:

• Six hundred kicking with kickboard

• Four hundred pulls a buoy

After heating he will dry out, put into the earphone, and sit down-never lying down on the massage table. Since then he and his coach, Bob Bowman, will not talk to each other until after the race is over. Not one. Bachelor. say.

With forty -five minutes before the race:

• He will wear his racing suit.

In thirty minutes before the race:

• He will enter the warm -up pool and do six hundred to eight hundred meters.

Ten minutes before the race:

• He will walk to the room ready.

• He will find a chair alone, never next to anyone.

• He likes to keep the chairs on both sides he is clear for his items: glasses on the one hand and towels on the other side.

When his rail is called: he will walk to the block. There he will do what he always does …

• Two stretches, first stretching legs straight and then with knee bent.

• First left foot all the time.

• Then the right earbud will come out.

When the name is called:

• He will issue a left earbud.

• He will step into the block-every time.

• Then he will stand up and flap his hands in such a way that his hands hit his back.

Phelps explains:

That’s just a routine. My routine. This is a routine that I experienced throughout my life. I won’t change it. And that’s all.

His coach, Bob Bowman, designed this physical routine with Phelps. But that’s not all. He also gave a routine phelps for what to think about when he went to sleep and the first thing when he woke up. He called him “watching video footage.” But this is the catch …

Of course there is no actual tape. “Tape” is the visualization of the perfect race.

In beautiful details and slow movements, Phelps will visualize at any time from the initial position above the block, through every blow, until it appears from the pool, winning, with water dripping from his face.

Phelps does not do this mental routine occasionally. He does it every day before he goes to sleep and every day when he wakes up … for years. When Bob wants to challenge him in practice, he will shout: “Enter the video recording!” And Phelps will push beyond its limits.

Finally, the mental routine is so ingrained that Bob has hardly whispered the phrase, “prepare a video recording,” before the race. Phelps is always ready to “hit the game.”

When asked about his routine, Bowman said:

If you ask Michael what happened to his head before the competition, he would say he was not really thinking about anything. He only followed the program.

But that is not true. This is more like his habit of taking over.

When the race arrived, he was more than half of his plans and he won in every step. All stretches go as he planned. The heating round was like he was visualized.

His headphones play exactly what he hopes. The actual race is only another step in the pattern that began earlier that day and there was nothing but victory.

Winning is a natural extension. And as we all know, Phelps won the record of eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

We often can’t not think about how Phelps and other Olympics make all this extraordinary athletic achievements look so easy.

Of course, Olympic athletes are arguably training longer and training harder than other athletes in the world- but when they enter the pool, or on the track, or to the arena, they make it look easy.

This is more than just a natural extension of their training. This is proof of the right genius routine.

Hacking 2 minutes: Visualization of Mental Records

Learning Lessons: Are you an athlete or start your own business, we can learn from Phelps. Having the right routine can make the “success” of the natural extension of our training or work. You do not go up to your destination level. You fall to your system level.

And visualization is not a miracle-wry-washy, it can work for anyone.

So what are you waiting for? Close your eyes and imagine what you want to achieve with very beautiful details; Every detail to the last atom. What’s that:

• Starting your dream business with doola?

Whatever that is…

Distribute your Michael Phelps, visualize what success is, and: “Prepare video recordings.” Every. Bachelor. Day.

How will you apply this visualization technique in your business this week? Press the reply and tell me.

See you next week.

Let’s doola ⚡

Arjun

The full awards for this story were given to Gregory Mckeown in his extraordinary book essentialism.