“The body achieves what the mind believes” and as a former team GB and England’s number one women’s singles badminton player, I lived this for over 10 years as a professional athlete. When we look at strengthening ourselves physically, we often forget that our self-determination and resilience is what enables us to increase our mental strength and in turn, achieve our goals.
It doesn’t matter what our physical goals are or where we start from, the way to strengthening our bodies has to start with strengthening our minds. As a PT and fitness instructor clients come to me with goals and ask what training they should do to achieve it.
My question to them is often, how badly do you want it?
Because whether we want to run 5K or a marathon, head into the free weights area for the first time or enter our first CrossFit competition; we have to want it badly enough, so we can convince our minds to do whatever it takes to get there.
How many times do we have to give ourselves that little pep talk before taking on a challenge or something new; the I can do it, the please body, get me through this and the you’ve done this before, you’re not going to die!
Of course, there’s the flip side where we talk ourselves out of it no matter how badly we want it. It’s ok, we’ve all had days where we have the; I don’t feel well, or the classic I just don’t have time today and the forever destructive, I’ll never be able to do it, so what’s the point?!
These conversations that we have with ourselves happen constantly, no matter what we are doing and it’s only when we become aware of our thoughts that we can begin to change them or call ourselves out on them. As an athlete it was crucial to know what my weaknesses were, both physically and mentally. Whilst physically I had to work on my speed endurance and agility, mentally I had to work on self-belief and confidence. Due to experiencing a number of career threatening injuries when I was in my late teens, my mindset became something I had to constantly work on. Physically my body had let me down so mentally during these times of darkness, I had to ensure I saw the light and develop an inner strength that no one could beat. Achieving my goals meant taking control of my thoughts, letting my determination be the driving force on days that my mind gave excuses and taking action even when my self-belief wavered.
None of us succeed 100% of the time in any area of life and this is where we either let it break us, or make us. The inner strength I have came from the setbacks and the losses, and these 4 tips will help you in building a stronger mind and body.
Challenge yourself every day physically, mentally or both. What can you do that’ll take you one step closer to your goal?
Step outside your comfort zone, do something once a week that makes you give yourself a pep talk like no other.
Visualise achieving your goal. It doesn’t matter if you’ve already failed at it, learn from it and see yourself doing it anyway.
Consistency is key. Building a stronger mind doesn’t happen overnight just like one week of squats won’t give you buns of steel!
To build resilience and confidence we must be brave enough to fail.
“Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t do.”
ABOUT FONTAINE
A former Team GB and England badminton player, Fontaine wright was number 1 in England for Women's Singles and reached the top of her sport competing at 3 World Championships and winning National and international titles. Fontaine is now an elite trainer and mentor, helping people change their mindset, overcome set backs and build a stronger mind and body.
