Saturday, 1 March 2008

Three Key Steps to the Ultimate Professional Attitude

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Three Key Steps to the Ultimate Professional Attitude

Are you going to ‘C the Cs’ in 2008?
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Hi there

The Ultimate Professional is the racer who ‘Controls the Controllables’. I call this ‘C the Cs’.

A constant drive to effectively control evermore factors in their racing is part of what separates the great from the good.

So, how can we do this in three easy steps?

1st Step

Write down all the things in your racing life that you control

Just get a blank sheet of paper and write it all down. Writing it is very important as it helps transfer the ideas into your sub-conscious and your daily actions, whether good or bad, will be a result of what is going on in your sub-conscious. You and I need to program it well!

Make sure the list reflects what you’re currently controlling, not what you want to control but aren’t.

Examples of things I reckon you’ll put here are bike / car setup and choice of line on the track.

2nd Step

Write down all the things in your racing life that you don’t control right now

This step is more important than Step 1. Be honest with yourself. Get things down on paper quickly and turn off your ‘internal editor’ that may well want perfection and will make the task bigger than it really it is. You remember what we think of perfectionists here on Mindset for Racing, don’t you?

No matter who you are, the list of things in this 2nd Step will never be complete. If you’re always learning, which you need to be to go faster more often, then there’s something you’ll put down in Step 2 in a month’s time that you could not have thought of today. This is a reflection of the progression you’ve made during that month. If you’re improving, your awareness is always going up and fast guys have high awareness.

3rd Step

Focus your time, energy and attention on things that came out of Step 2, that should be in Step 1

This is the ‘money-step’. This is where you set yourself up to act and actually do something that will make a difference to your racing. Knowledge is one thing. Taking action is another. And by the way, be mentally prepared to act before you’re ready, just like the top guys!

Get specific. Get measurable. Sign-up to your own strategy that will allow you to control some key things in your racing that you currently leave to chance. Even after you’ve finished this step, I bet you there’s something I could notice you should be controlling that you currently aren’t! Why not give me call and hold me to this?

It is a fundamental law of human beings that the more control we believe we have over our lives the better we perform and the more mentally sound we are. Racing is just a specific example of this. When you get into a massive tank-slapper and your heart jumps into your mouth, you experience this law in reverse!


* The Mindset for Racing Finish Line *

One thing you must learn to control is your performance. Two things you will never fully control are winning and losing. Youngsters often have a problem with understanding this.

You know what the top guys do and what you should be doing, don’t you?

All the very best for the upcoming 2008 season. Sun1400 has clients in many series including F1, Formula BMW, Rotax karting and British Masters MX. May these and all the others achieve their goals this racing year!


Enjoy your racing and never give up.


Mike Garth BSc (Hons) MSc BASES Accredited
07737 655 912
mike.garth@sun1400.com
www.sun1400.com
Sun1400: Sunday 2pm - Ready to race?
Maximising your mental approach in motor sports



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