Best of CoBiz: Success secrets of world-class athletes and business leaders

Olympic athletes and world-class business leaders have many of the same success secrets. Here is one:

They know how to control their fear, anger and frustration as part of creating a mindset of greatness.

Fear, anger and frustration wreak havoc on your success! These negative emotions, like all emotions, are created primarily by your thoughts, and thoughts trigger your emotions. If you control your thoughts, you can control your emotions and create the optimal mental/emotional state to maximize success.

Below are two ways to control your fear, anger and frustration. These help when used repeatedly.

1. Give yourself a reality check. What’s the worst-case scenario, and what’s the probability of it happening? When you can accept the worst case, you no longer need to fear it, which keeps your mind in reality. Olympic downhill skiers accept that paralysis or death is their worst case, but they never allow themselves to focus on it. Accept the worst case, but don’t empower it by focusing on it!

2. Control negative thoughts. An Olympic boxer once said, “I don’t have the luxury of having a negative thought.” One negative thought creates a moment of hesitation, leaving an opening for his opponent to throw a punch that could kill him. You have the luxury of some negative thoughts, but if you want to be great, you don’t have the luxury of many.

Here’s a negative-thought control technique that has been successful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, sales professionals and athletes from high school to pro:

1. Recognize that you’re having a negative thought. There are three ways:
a. Hear the thought in your mind. We chatter in our head up to 500 words a minute, so you won’t notice most of the negative thoughts that go through your mind unless you train yourself to do so.
b. Notice how you feel. If you feel tense, have a knot in your stomach or your pits are sweating, what thoughts are you having that are creating your anxiety?
c. See yourself procrastinate. Procrastination is usually the result of fearful thoughts.

2. Stop the negative thought. Negative thoughts are the most treacherous of thieves; they steal your confidence, self-esteem and happiness! A negative thought that I’ve heard from sales professionals is, “I’ll never make another sale!”

3. Replace the negative thought with a positive thought that is true (you can’t lie to your own brain) and in your control. For example, a replacement thought for the negative thought above could be, “I have a great product/service that people want and I have an excellent sales process.” Just stick to the process and relax. Notice the replacement is positive, true for the person saying it and 100% in that person’s control.

4. Acknowledge yourself for taking control of your thoughts – behaviors that get rewarded increase.

This negative-thought control technique gives you more control of your negative thoughts, thereby giving you more control of your negative emotions (fear, anger, frustration, etc.). Unfortunately, negative thoughts come from a belief and thought pattern you’ve probably had for a long time (possibly since childhood). So you must continually stop, replace and acknowledge them until you can build a new thought pattern. It takes a lot of repetition!

In a recent workshop, one of the company’s leaders said, “I didn’t know you could control your thoughts.” She was stunned by the awareness, but obviously excited. Most people don’t know they can gain control of their thoughts. Now you do.

Will you do it? It’s easy to do … and easy not to do.