Building Your Mental Tool Box
By Kevin Seaman 


Originally I organized the Winning Mind Set Program for myself and other athletes because I saw a void in the area of utilizing the mind’s involvement in a cognitive, organized, easily applicable method. Initially I applied what I learned to myself. I learned what worked and absorbed it, then built on it. I also learned

what didn’t work and rejected it, tossed it, filed it and learned from it as well.

There has not been a day that has passed since, where I haven’t made some improved adjustments, further researched the subject of personal development and performance enhancement, or asked myself key questions toward my effort to understand on a deeper level. Next, I applied what I learned to the people I have trained. Using these methods, I have helped thousands of people improve themselves athletically and personally, myself not withstanding.

Now, although the Winning Mind Set was initially formatted for athletes, coaches and trainers, the material is known as “Profound Knowledge” and can therefore be applied as a Universal Tool Box for success in any endeavor. Here are a few more TOOLS for your box.

1) Excellence has a structure! Therefore whatever it is you wish to accomplish there is someone who has either done it or done something similar that you can study from and unlock the essential KEYS to accelerate your success. Don’t try to re-invent the wheel. Research the experiences from as many of these people as possible, and replicate the areas applicable to you!

2) Experience also has a structure! When you change the structure of your thoughts, your feelings will also change in relation to those experiences.In other words, just as there is a CODE that opens certain programs in your computer, your brain also has codes which run certain physiological and emotional programs. Change the code, and you change the meaning of the prior experience.

3) You visualize thousands of times per day to control how and what you do! Imagine if you could control your visualization and control your outcome with incredible results, would that be valuable to you? It is as easy as changing channels on your TV set. First, be aware of what you are seeing in your head, is it where you want to go, or is it actually focused on where you fear that you will go? Is your inner dialog congruent with your inner vision? Or is that also focused on what you don’t want, rather what you do want? If you don’t like the channel, choose not to view it and adjust to what you do want. It’s absolutely that simple!

Don’t forget to change the sound. Adjust the dialog with according volume, voice quality and powerful words that stimulate and tap into the emotional power you need and want for success!

4) The quality of your life is relative to the quality of your communication with yourself and others! Your communication transmission is both internal and external. As I have stated in prior TIPS, research has concluded that you talk to yourself nearly 50,000 times a day.Yet, research has also shown most inner communication is negative.

Why is that? What you say and how you say it to yourself is crucial. Your communication is absolutely HABIT driven. In other words, Habits are patterns developed through repetition and they can be changed. Patterns are formed as we grow, they are etched into us from childhood and go something like this…. Don’t do that! Put that down, don’t touch that, Stop that…You’re too small…too young… No! No! No!.. No, you can’t, very rapidly becomes…No, I can’t in most people. How do you talk to yourself?

5) It’s not what happens…It’s how you respond to what happens! You cannot and I cannot control what happens to us in our lives. But, what we do have control of is how we respond to what happens. We actually only have control over three things in our lives: The words we use, the pictures we make in our head, and our actions.

I love this quote by Aldus Huxley
“Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.” 

Once again, the quality of your life is a direct result of the quality of your communication, both internally (with yourself) and externally (with others)? You see, in life it’s not what happens to us, but how we interpret it that gives it meaning. It’s not life, but how you represent life that determines the way you feel. …and actually we don’t experience reality, we experience our representation of reality. Well, just how do we represent our thoughts? We “re-present” our thoughts through the words we use. Remember, one of the most powerful principles of controlling our attitude is by controlling our thoughts through the words we use. For example, is it a catastrophe or a problem? Is it a disaster or a challenge? When you seek to de-amplify your problem, you will find it easier to take control of that problem and work towards a solution.

Although we have little control over the stress we face in our lives, what we can control is how well we respond to these problems. We realize we can limit our risk factors, but we cannot control how or when we may be challenged. We can, however, control how we respond. People who are highly skilled at problem solving possess the ability to respond quickly and effectively when faced with a challenge or a problem. They demonstrate high levels of “response-ability” on a daily basis.

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
-Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)

Have a comment or an experience to share, please post it and tell us about it.

Each Blog Issue I will help you add another facet to your Mental Toolbox and guide you to develop your Mind Game. I look forward to hearing your results and feedback.
Kevin@thewinningmindset.com

© Copyright 2012 all rights reserved, Kevin Seaman

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